Dry Fly Tying Feathers Explained… eventually.

I constantly get asked questions about dry fly hackle and what feathers people should be looking for. This usually leads me into long conversations or emails that resemble War & Peace, and I continue to do this over and over again. It is not unusual for me to even mention in these emails that I really should just write a blog on the subject so I could share that int he future. Yet, I then go about my day and forget to follow my own suggestions. Usually getting distracted by… ooh, a butterfly… wait, what was I just talking about? Exactly. So, having completed another such email this morning and going through the motions once again. I am putting pen to paper (with a computer keyboard) and finally getting this done. Several hours later. After mowing the lawn. And re-potting one of my bonsai trees. And watching a few episodes of some flyfishing show on YouTube. So… here goes.

The problem that many beginner fly tiers face is that they know they need hackle for their dry flies. But the term ‘hackle’ accounts for such a wide variety of feathers, that there is a good chance they’ll end up buying the wrong product. Several time over. I know. I went through exactly the same process when I started tying flies. After all, I didn’t always own a fly tying store and have access to more materials than any sane man should be allowed. No, I bought plenty of unnecessary hackle to begin with and couldn’t figure out why my flies just didn’t look like the images in the books as I was trying to replicate them. it took a long time and a lot of shopping around to finally know what I need. So let me help you guys jump forward a few steps in the process and get right to the important stuff.

When in comes to dry fly hackles, you can pretty much rule out most of the feather packs, capes and saddles on the market that are slightly unique or different. There are so many options and all have very specific purposes. Sitting a fly nicely above the surface film is not usually that purpose though. There are really two options you should be looking at. These are rooster capes and rooster saddles. And I am not talking about India rooster capes either, unless you are trying to replicate vintage fly patterns with original components. No, if you want that stiff, pointy hackle that you see in all the Instagram photos, you need to look for genetic rooster capes and saddles. Brands like Ewing, Metz and Whiting all have excellent offerings in these products and they all come from genetic lines of birds that have been bred to produce longer, fuller and stiffer dry fly feathers, specifically for fly tiers to use and for hairdressers to abuse.

So, what is the difference between the cape and the saddle? That’s one question that often needs clarification as a lot of people buy rooster capes, since it is the common term, when they really want a saddle. They both offer excellent options for dry fly tying, but also have very different characteristics, and as such, have different uses. Now, without going into the anatomy of a chicken in too great a manner, you can see in the below image where the cape and the saddle are located on the rooster and how the feathers differ on the pelt. Also, it is important to note that the foot is not used in dry fly tying (to the best of my knowledge) but I thought it prudent to point out to reduce further questions at a later stage.

 

The particular makeup of both the cape and the saddle create very different feathers in both, and it is important to understand just what they offer and how they may or may not suit your fly tying needs.

Let’s look at the cape first. As this comes down the back of the head and neck, it fans out to cover more area as it gets towards the shoulder. Because of this, the feathers naturally get larger as you work your way down the cape. You’ll find the feathers at the very top, at the back of the head which are very small and will generally go down to a size #24 hook or even smaller. Once you get down to between the shoulders, the feathers will be much longer, and wider too, so you can expect them to be up around a hook size #8 or larger. Because of this, a cape offers a great range of variety to the fly tier looking for a lot of uses. The top third will see you for a load of dry fly hackle from #24 through to #12, but then beyond that the fibres tend to get a little soft and the feathers too large for must dry fly hackling applications. That said, there are still plenty of uses for these feathers in both dry fly and nymph tailing and for larger streamer wings and tails. What invariably happens with any cape owned by a fly tier who mostly ties dry flies, is that a section in the top third gets plucked clean and the rest sits there waiting on a purpose. This sweet spot in the cape can empty out quite quickly when you tie a lot of flies.

The feathers of the cape themselves are different to that of the saddle. Cape feathers are shorter and tapered ans as such limit their use to one or two flies each. You might be able to tie a smaller fly from the very tip section and a larger fly from the rest, depending on how much hackle you required. Although, when tying with capes, I generally use one feather per fly and leave very little at the end for any use. This can be frustrating when you want a full palmered hackle over a long hook shank and need it all the same diameter. It just doesn’t come easy finding the right feather in a cape to do such. That is when you want to look at a rooster saddle.

The saddle in located down on the hind quarters of the rooster, much where you would imagine a very tiny person might mount a saddle if they were to ride a  chicken around like a horse. If such a person of extremely minute proportions existed and if indeed chicken racing was a viable option to the gambling industry. But, that is another discussion altogether. What you can see from the above picture is that the saddle feathers flow down over each side of the bird, almost creating a feather veil. Because of this, the feathers are longer, slimmer and more uniformed in size. What results is a pelt of feathers that delivers excellent dry fly use, so long as you are not looking for too much variety. As a general rule, you get two or three hooks sizes in a saddle, with the bulk of the feathers made of of just one size. That’s great if you want to tie loads of dry flies in one or two sizes, but if you want a bigger size range you’ll need some different saddles.

The big benefit to saddle feathers is the length and shape of them. While the cape feather is tapers and doesn’t offer a lot of usable hackle area, the feathers from the saddle are very uniformed. They are also much longer, with most decent saddles offering feathers of 12 inch length as a minimum. When you get up into some of the really good stuff, like Gold and Platinum Grade saddles from Whiting Farms, the feathers can run as longer as 20 inches in length. This means you can get a large number of flies from each feather. So, consistency is esily achievable over several flies by using the same feather for all. Depending on how heavily you are hackling your fly, you can get more than a dozen flies from just one feather.

 

It’s easy to see from the above image how the cape feathers (top) differ from the saddle feathers (bottom). This shows both grizzly and furnace feathers so you can see the difference not just in shape but in colour too. The saddle feathers appear slimmer and darker as the fibres are running more in line with the stem, but when wrapped on the hook shank, they fan out. What’s more, both of these saddle feathers actually run off the page, the image isn’t wide enough to show their full length, you are actually only seeing a little over a half of each of these, wheres the cape feathers come to and abrupt end as they taper out.

So, this does not mean that capes are better than saddles or vice versa. Quite the contrary in fact. They both offer the fly tier solutions to different tasks. It is easy to see why commercial fly tiers are drawn to saddles for the consistency and sheer volume of flies they deliver. But for the average fly fisherman who likes to tie flies for personal use, a cape can often be a good solution to cover a range of sizes.

Obviously, it is just not rooster capes and saddles that are available or which can be used in dry flies. The expanding array of genetic feathers on the market sees all sorts of products now available to the modern fly tier. Coq De Leon, American Rooster, Hen Capes, Hen Saddles, Chickabou, Spey Hackle, Schlappen, Neck Hackle and so many more. All have their purposes for the wider range of fly tying applications. But I think each of those deserves a blog of their own. Perhaps on another evening, when my dinner isn’t going cold.