Royal Wulff Hackle Help

[Montanacur 0]

Hey all, wanted to first introduce myself and then ask a question or two. I've been visiting this forum for a while now just reading all the info I can get. I don't have a lot of experience with tying or fly-fishing, but I'm learning as I go, and especially with the help of this forum. I live in Montana, with some of the best fishing country around. I started learning on the Gallatin river in Bozeman, but life got in the way and I quit for a number of years. Getting back into it now on some smaller streams in central MT.

 

My question revolves around the brown hackle on a royal wulff. Every one that I see in the stores, and/or buy, has very thick hackle (not the amount of barbs, but actual barb thickness). I have a bronze quality, brown half cape from Whiting, and the barbs just seem really thin. I've tried more wraps, using two hackle pieces at once, etc, but I've come to the above conclusion that my hackle is just very thin. Can anyone comment on this, and explain where I need to go from here to get a better finished fly?

 

Thanks a million!!

[utyer 0]

In general, saddle hackle stems have always been thinner than the neck hackle stems. Before so many hackle farms started breeding chickens for "dry fly" hackle, you would have to try and find neck hackle for dry flies. One of the first farms to raise top quality hackle chickens was Metz. Their necks contained feathers that were much longer in a given size and made it possible to tie size 20, 22, and smaller dry flies with just one hackle and often you would have some left over. The saddles from Metz were very nice quality, and about 25 to 20 years ago, they were getting birds with feathers small enough for dry flies in the size 10 to 14 range. Many people would tie dry flies with these saddles.

 

At the same time, these Metz saddles were also some of the best hackle ever bred for tying woolly buggers, and other flies requiring a palmer hackle. The stems on these saddles were thinner than the neck hackles, but one could still get saddles with feathers big enough for size 1 or 2 woolly buggers all the way down to size 14.

 

I remember attending a clinic given by Jack Dennis where he was tying Wulff patterns with these saddles. Pretty soon, Hoffman (now Whiting Farms,) and other growers were breeding birds with finer and much longer saddle feathers. These were highly sought after for tying dry flies. Metz too started breeding for smaller longer saddles, and its pretty hard to find the big bugger hackles these days.

 

The down side to using saddles, is the limited size range. Any one saddle may have only 3 or 4 sizes (say a 2, 14, 16,) I have some Whiting saddles with feathers small enough for size 22 and 24. The largest feathers on these necks are for a size 18. On these sizes, the very fine stems is an advantage.

 

If you want the thicker stems for your larger Wulff patterns, buy necks, and save your saddles for smaller flies. Two feathers 4 to 6 turns each is usually enough. for these patterns even in large sizes. Personally, I don't like the hackle on store bought flies. There is too much hackle on most of them. And the tails and bodies are too thick for my taste. Six to 10 moose body or Elk hairs is plenty of tailing for a Wulff (at least for me.)

 

The LAST thing I want is for my flies to look like the stuff in most fly shop bins. Too me they are over dressed, and meant to catch the angler, not the fish. When I first started tying, my mentor, boss, friend and fishing buddy, pointed me in what I consider to be the right direction. He always wanted less tail materials, thinner bodies, and just a little less hackle, and hair in the wings.

[rockworm 0]

If you want the thicker stems for your larger Wulff patterns, buy necks, and save your saddles for smaller flies. Two feathers 4 to 6 turns each is usually enough. for these patterns even in large sizes. Personally, I don't like the hackle on store bought flies. There is too much hackle on most of them. And the tails and bodies are too thick for my taste. Six to 10 moose body or Elk hairs is plenty of tailing for a Wulff (at least for me.)

 

The LAST thing I want is for my flies to look like the stuff in most fly shop bins. Too me they are over dressed, and meant to catch the angler, not the fish. When I first started tying, my mentor, boss, friend and fishing buddy, pointed me in what I consider to be the right direction. He always wanted less tail materials, thinner bodies, and just a little less hackle, and hair in the wings.

While I agree with utyer that most commercial flies are overdressed, (and less is generally best,) Wulff flies were designed for rough water and were meant to be heavily hackled. Lee Wulff used two saddle hackles- one behind and one in front of the wing. Of course, he was not using today's super genetic hackle. I agree that two neck feathers should do the job, but in the spirit of the originals I would use every bit of them.

[Jaydub 0]

I don't know about the individual barb thickness. Maybe they are using dyed hackles and are getting a mascara effect?

 

I ran across the following method somewhere and it results in a very dense hackle.

 

Select a long genetic saddle hackle. Tie it in behind the wing where the hackle will start. Leave the thread hanging at that point. Wrap the hackle forward to the head of the fly. Then wrap it back to the tie in point. Wrap a turn of thread over the free end of hackle, then continue wrapping the thread though the hackle in open turns to the head. Then take the free end of the hackle and wrap it forward and tie it off.

[phg 0]

To answer the original question, Whiting saddle hackles have short, thick barbs. Many commercial tiers are using them for all their dry fly hackles. You can tie 3 to 5 flies with one hackle, if you are careful. The result is a very densely hackled fly with only 5 or 6 turns of hackle (maybe only 3 turns on a size 18).

 

Most of us prefer the finer barbs of cape hackles on our dry flies, but I do have a few Whiting 100's that I use on particular flies.

[Montanacur 0]

To answer the original question, Whiting saddle hackles have short, thick barbs. Many commercial tiers are using them for all their dry fly hackles. You can tie 3 to 5 flies with one hackle, if you are careful. The result is a very densely hackled fly with only 5 or 6 turns of hackle (maybe only 3 turns on a size 18).

 

Most of us prefer the finer barbs of cape hackles on our dry flies, but I do have a few Whiting 100's that I use on particular flies.

Thank you, I think this exactly what I was looking for.