Re: [VFB] Hackle Question

[Ian Mitchell]

Jimi,

as a budget concious tier I have found that careful slection of indian/chinese hackles can give you a small quantity of different size hackles for your dry flies.

If you are looking for flies to fish not to display, then you can trim the hackles to size.

What to look for:

1) Make sure it is a cock hackle (rooster not a hen)
2) Avoid dyed capes.. naturals have much better feathers
3) Feathers should be stiff and shiny, with stiff barbs, not thin floppy dull or weak ones.
4) Examine feathers carefully as it maybee infected with museum beetle or similar.. eats the barbs of the feathers.. feathers will look as something has chewed bits of the barbs.
5) Examine the base of the feathers to make sure that the feathers are fully formed.. some time they kill them too early and the feathers arent all out.


When tying with these feathers , use two back to back and wind in separately..

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