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Hackle gague

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So Im finally getting into dry flies. Just never been something Ive done too much. My question is about hackle Gagues. Do the cheap ones work fine? I saw someone say something to the extent that they can be inaccurate, at the smaller sizes. Where I fish Im primarily fishing sized 18-24 Flies, so Im not sure if the really small ones are accurate enough. I cant find the nice whiting farm gagues anywhere. And I really dont want to spend the $35 for the Umpqua one. What do you guys think?

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Your hook is the only hackle gage you need. My dry fly hackles are equal to my hook gape.

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Most gauges are simple matters and the cheap ones work fine. My dry hackles are about 1.5 the hook gap.

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you cant find whiting hackle gauges? you work in a fly shop. cant you order one?

 

splay the hackle and measure it against the hook shank. hook shank equals 1 1/2 the hook gape. hackle should equal shank length

 

free hackle gauge

 

14Whiting100b.jpg

 

or also free

 

hklsl13b.jpg

 

 

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1455&bih=699&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=aIscW4ajL4WC8AOO5oLwBA&q=whiting+hackle+gauges&oq=whiting+hackle+gauges&gs_l=img.12...107707.111474.0.113655.8.8.0.0.0.0.182.1210.0j8.8.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.0.0....0.twmVz4XPgOk

 

Dry-Fly-Proportions.jpg

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I have been fly tying, and fishing my flies for more than 50 years, and I have never seen a trout with a hackle gauge. Anglers are much more picky than the trout.

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you cant find whiting hackle gauges? you work in a fly shop. cant you order one?

 

splay the hackle and measure it against the hook shank. hook shank equals 1 1/2 the hook gape. hackle should equal shank length

 

free hackle gauge

 

14Whiting100b.jpg

 

or also free

 

hklsl13b.jpg

 

 

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1455&bih=699&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=aIscW4ajL4WC8AOO5oLwBA&q=whiting+hackle+gauges&oq=whiting+hackle+gauges&gs_l=img.12...107707.111474.0.113655.8.8.0.0.0.0.182.1210.0j8.8.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.0.0....0.twmVz4XPgOk

 

Dry-Fly-Proportions.jpg

I dont work there anymore...

and no I cant find the whiting ones. No where online, not in my local shops.

 

Yes Im fully aware of the free way. Just takes a little longer... is like to make sure Ive got it right, none of the guesswork. Again, Im not the best at dry Flies, I never really fished them often until recently, and for the exception of a few simple ones, I always bought instead of tied the dries myself. But I got myself a new little 2wt for the local creeks and there the fish readily take dries.

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I have been fly tying, and fishing my flies for more than 50 years, and I have never seen a trout with a hackle gauge. Anglers are much more picky than the trout.

Yes this is true... just I also have that Fly tying channel on YouTube, and if I ever tie some dries for that, I wanna make sure its right before telling people the wrong way. But yes Im in your boat, trout usually wont care as long as its not too oversized...

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Most gauges are simple matters and the cheap ones work fine. My dry hackles are about 1.5 the hook gap.

Thanks gene. So you think the cheapo ones will be accurate enough? Ill get one than. I found a griffin one for $6 or so...

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Simple process to make your own. I use a small piece of plastic window blind slat, any 1/4" piece of art board would do. Use a compass to draw arcs every mm from 2 or 3 up to 12 to 15. Push a pin into the slat or board where the needle of the compass marks the zero point. Measure your hook gaps, and then find a hackle 1.5 to 2X that.

 

Once you know the gap sizes for your hooks, you can make a gauge that matches up to those by just making your marks at intervals that line up at 1.5 those gaps. If a hackle gets to the next hook size up, on your gauge, its too big,.

post-12074-0-69357000-1528600461_thumb.jpg

post-12074-0-03352900-1528600623_thumb.jpg

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Ok thanks for the help guys! I appreciate it. And hey, you found the whiting one online!? I checked orvis earlier today and it was all sold out. Lol

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I got a free one from JStockard when I ordered a Metz ginger neck ( it was their free gadget that month), it worked fine but I never use it. In fact not sure where it's gotten to. The hook gape works fine too. Once you gauge a neck and find where the size feather are that you need for a given size there isn't much need for the gauge for as long as that section of neck lasts.

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Or, buy the Whiting 100 packs. The hackles are already sized.

 

Of course, before the days of the genetic hackles we have today you used what you had and trimmed them back. Just didn't look as pretty.

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I got a free one from JStockard when I ordered a Metz ginger neck ( it was their free gadget that month), it worked fine but I never use it. In fact not sure where it's gotten to. The hook gape works fine too. Once you gauge a neck and find where the size feather are that you need for a given size there is much need for the gauge for as long as that section of neck lasts.

Yeah, but all my necks are different grades. Hard to remember where the sizes are for each.

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The grade of a neck basically has nothing to do with size, maybe with the quantity of a given size. It's the location you pick them from.

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