Termite 0 Report post Posted October 14, 2006 I'm working on a new feather that will work well for spey hackle. What I have so far I think is pretty good but I wanted to post some pics and get some opinions. These feathers are rather small, the hook pictured is a size 8 but I can work on the size after I get what I want from the feather. I think for smaller speys these will work well. I know it is hard to tell from the picture but let me know what you think. This fly is made with one feather stripped on one side. A person could easily tie in two feathers to tie longer hooks. Mark Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ronn Lucas 0 Report post Posted October 15, 2006 Is that all the length of a feather on the fly? Talking shaft length, not barb length. I think you're going to want to go longer feathers and barbs for the big Speys & Dees. Maybe a little more bulk to the barbs. One thing I have against the "Spey) feathers from Whiting is they are too whispy and a bit too fragile. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Termite 0 Report post Posted October 16, 2006 Ronn, Yes, that is the current length of the feather. I think I can improve on that aspect of the feather, the barbs are thicker than they appear but they may still not be as thick as they could be. Thanks for the feedback! :headbang: Mark Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steelie 0 Report post Posted October 16, 2006 Good Day, I certainly agree with Ronn. Although, I do also like the idea of a smaller style of spey hackle feather. Sounds very tempting for developement of smaller speys. Steelie Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
YoungGrasshopper 0 Report post Posted October 20, 2006 Pretty cool man. Another option I can give you is to burn schlappen feather in bleach to make spey hackle, this way you can get feathers short enough for smaller spey flies and still get the same effect but without the hackle over powering the fly. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites