Show off your Cape/saddles.

[retrocarp 0]

In Australia you can't get a decent cape unless you want to depart with an arm or a leg

In a shop ......yes I had to travel 2.5 hours to get there first , they were selling a four pack of half capes ( intro pack ) for $179.00 I nearly fell over as I had just spent 165.00 on sundries ....needless to say I passed on that one .

Our local shop ...2.5 hrs away tends to cater more for salties than mountain men lol

[McFlyLures 0]

In Australia you can't get a decent cape unless you want to depart with an arm or a leg

In a shop ......yes I had to travel 2.5 hours to get there first , they were selling a four pack of half capes ( intro pack ) for $179.00 I nearly fell over as I had just spent 165.00 on sundries ....needless to say I passed on that one .

Our local shop ...2.5 hrs away tends to cater more for salties than mountain men lol

Wow, yeah that's rough... Why not buy online? Sure it is hard to check quality, but once you find a trusted source, you will spend much less money.

[trevinski 0]

I buy most my feathers online. Have only been disappointed a few times. Just realize pretty much everyone boosts the contrast of their photos so the feathers rarely look as vivid when in person lol. But I'm usually 90% happy.

[flytyerinpa 0]

I never realized there was much of a need for a Cree neck after seeing the price of them the only fly I could think about was the ( Adams ) where I would use a Cree feather, so far I've passed on buying one.

[flytyerinpa 0]

I never had any luck with Feathers Emporium they said they ordered a bunch of Furnace necks in but they had to much black to be called Furnace so they were selling them for $25.00 each, not exactly cheap in my book, anyway they looked like they could possibly have been Cochy-bondhu necks, I sent them an E-mail and asked about them, but I never got a reply guess they are to busy to make a sale?

[Cold 0]

Similarly, I've heard so much bad press about FE that I'm not willing to roll the dice with them, regardless of pricing or quality.

 

Though people say it about a lot of different materials, hackle (with bucktail being a close second) is one of the few materials where I agree that you either need to be there in person, or really trust whoever you ask to select it for you.

 

I just bought a saddle for tying up caddis and stimulators that I'd have never bought sight unseen. It was not listed as a midge saddle, but all the feathers were concentrated in the #18-20 range (a great bargain, for me). But without seeing it for myself, I'm simply not interested in a saddle of that color in #12-14. Even at that, this one was on the rack beside one that was very similar...I spent an inordinate amount of time comparing the two before finally deciding on the one I took home.

 

For bucktail it's more QC/QA: I'm just looking for long, thin hair with lots of curl/crinkle that isn't too brittle or stiff. Doesn't have to be crazy long. Lots of bucktail meets this standard, but there's also no shortage of turds, which are less than useless to me. Against my better judgement I got a pink bucktail that seemed less than ideal, but "close enough"...I hate the looks of almost every clouser I tie with that tail's hair in it.

[DazWah 0]

Not sure if this is allowed on this forum or not but if anyone wants a cree neck, I will be willing to sell some of my collection.

 

I will sell close to current list prices. I am willing to sell 9 of them, pro grades, bronze, silver, Metz, Whiting.

[trevinski 0]

Can someone post a close picture of a Collins saddle?? I have only seen necks.

[DazWah 0]

Collins saddles vary quite a bit. Collins are more about capes, the saddles aren't graded. For me they are on the larger fly size, used on wet fly and Wooley buggers.

[trevinski 0]

My cree saddle came from beaverkill and it's mostly streamer/bugger sizes except for a small amount of feathers on the edges. I wish it had more dry fly sizes 16-12s or so but we will just have to see how long it lasts I guess lol.

[DazWah 0]

For size 16-12 hebert miner is probs the best. Most of the red label ones i have are 18-14.

[Cold 0]

I agree with DazWah on the Collins saddles...they're nice feathers, but not what I'd call excellent dry fly feathers. Small buggers, wet flies...maybe large stonefly dries that are also using plenty of hair and/or foam...

[trevinski 0]

I'd still like to see one lol

[Cold 0]

I'd still like to see one lol

There's one on the page before this.

[trevinski 0]

I see it now thanks