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I'm recently back to fly tying after 10-12 years away from it. I'm not seeing Cree Necks listed in tying supplies on line. Are they scarce now or called something else now days? 

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I call cree the unicorn of fly tying they have always been hard to find I have two that I will never use if you are interested pm me and we can talk

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hi the cree cockcape is rare  you might get an indian cock cape  or you could put your name on the list for a metz or whittings cape check your local fly tying suppliers  in america you seem to have a more of a selection of good tying suppliers the cree cape is useful for adams as you would only need one hackle your alternative is to use a red game hackle and a grizzle cock hackle hope this help's while you try to track down youe cree cape        kind regards Steve 

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I recently picked up a dark barred ginger, it's not cree but it's darn close

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Sandan is correct  -my Dark Barred Ginger works great for me.   A friend has a Cree and it really is a beautiful specimen but he won't tie with it -  while I understand part  of his thinking, to me I would be seeing if  it really makes the Trout crazy. 

A ship is safe in the harbor  -- but that is not what ships are for...............

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Cree catches more fly tiers than fish.  Nice to look at but in my opinion it’s very overrated. 🤔

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I believe the  Conrads were the only genetic breeder specializing in Cree and they sold up years ago (2012) to https://clearwaterhackle.wordpress.com/about/  listed as "Inactive-Dissolved (Administrative)" now but was for sale a couple years ago. 

Might be worth while to contact Collins, he lists cree saddles- http://www.collinshacklefarm.com/Home.asp

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considering there a very few flies that call for cree hackles in their recipes, its better and cheaper to used a barred ginger

beware of feather emporium. bad reputation when it comes to customer service

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For many years I've used ginger variant as a Cree substitute - but I'm a saltwater tyer and we're a bit more flexible (to put it mildly...).  In the years when I was doing a lot of bonefish flies for shops around the country I did have some use for Cree but rarely for any other patterns except maybe one or two tarpon or permit patterns.. 

In those days I bought my Metz saddles and necks ten at a time - and still have all the unused #2 saddle patches in grizzly and similar that I'll ever need... 

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20 hours ago, flytire said:

considering there a very few flies that call for cree hackles in their recipes, its better and cheaper to used a barred ginger

beware of feather emporium. bad reputation when it comes to customer service

I know you've mentioned this before but IMO the reason so few flies call for cree is that it has been and still is a rare bird. If cree had been as easily found and bought as the grizzly and brown combination of hackle often used then I think it would have been mentioned in a lot more recipes. Just my humble opinion but it's mine and I'm sticking to it.

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5 hours ago, vicrider said:

IMO the reason so few flies call for cree is that it has been and still is a rare bird.

Thank you Captain Obvious! 😉  But even if it was easier to get, and more patterns called for it ... would it actually make fish hit more often?  The feathers are pretty, no doubt, but the fish don't get to see whole feathers much.  I just can't believe that the same fly tied with cree would out-fish another tied with something less rare.

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