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Browntown3

Favorite hackle colors

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Hey guys, quick question for ya. What are your favorite hackle colors to tie with? What patterns do you use them for? I have quite the collection but feel I am missing a few necessary colors.

So far I have;

Cree

Grizzly

Dun grizzly

Natural dun

Barred medium ginger

Grizzly dyed dun

Speckled badger

Light ginger

 

What colors do you guys use for mayfly such as sulphurs, hendricksons, blue quills, slate drakes? Also blue winged olives?

 

Thanks for the input,

 

Kev

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The only flies I tie you listed are sulphers and BWO. For sulphers I use ginger and BWOs I use medium blue dunn.

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We have different colours here, some of which are considered "faults" by your hackle breeders. Also we have some old names for some colours. Such as "cuckoo" for grizzle. One which I have managed to find among genetic saddles is coch-y-bondhu (no one has a definitive spelling for the Welsh name for that beetle) Which is what you would call a coachman brown with black centre and tips.

 

There you have an example of two steps from the name we use. What you call Coachman Brown, we call Natural Red Game. Another "faulty" colour I have managed to get a small stock of is Honey Dun. A ginger speckled with blue dun.

 

A good number of years ago Terry Griffiths wrote an article about Dr Baigent's colour chart. Which accompanied his book, A Book of Hackles for Fly Dressing. This defined most if not all the colours of hackle used here. You probably will not find a copy of the book, only 60 were produced. This is the "chart" of hackle colours Terry Griffiths referred to in his article.

post-43582-0-28204300-1538383769_thumb.jpg

 

As for favorites, well my most used are Red Game, Coch-y-bondhu, Grizzle, Badger, Blue dun, and black, for the naturals, I also like a bleached grizzle, the bars go ginger in bleach. Dyed colours I can't manage without a blue, Orange, black and red. I would like a grizzle dyed blue as a kind of sub for blue jay as the original has become so expensive. Then if I start listing colours for salmon flies I'll be here all day.

 

I suspect if you make a list, buy all that is on it and then don't buy anything other than replacements, you'll be the first fly tier to do so.

 

Cheers,
C.

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That's a little like asking, "What's your favorite fly?"

 

From a strictly tying standpoint, though, I have a bared ginger that I got from Charlie Collins that is my favorite to work with. It handles well and gives me a nice, consistent dry fly hackle every time. Good stem flexibility, and good barb count.

 

The flies? Anything that uses ginger, brown or brown and grizzly mixed.

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Yea I was just curious as to what colors you guys have as go-to’s and what color hackle you use for the flies I listed. Some people use different hackle colors for the same fly.

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Barred ginger would be great, I'm envious; but I own several grizzly capes in various sizes and qualities .. there is a nice cream and a long thin dun and ..a fair brown .. some Indian hens .. a couple kinds of pheasant... Maybe I don't have a real favorite. Maybe Partridge, I love to fish soft hackle flies.

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What colors do you guys use for mayfly such as sulphurs, hendricksons, blue quills, slate drakes? Also blue winged olives?

 

Kev

 

i think your list of what you already have covers what youre asking for. add a brown and keep on tying

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Grizzly, brown, black, light dun, dark dun, golden badger, olive. Thats pretty much it, and I have them ordered in most used.

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I didnt even think about soft hackle here. Above I was just talking about my dry fly hackle. For soft hackle its a wide list...

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You could hunt for a whiting intro pack with black, cream and brown, and double up on grizzly. $65 for four half capes. Normally $25 or so a piece.

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Not trying to be a smart arse, but that's like asking, "How big is a rock?" And actually, my favorite hackle is whatever belongs on the fly that I'm tying. There's too much involved in the answer. Aside from the pattern or what you are trying to represent with an original, the color could be anything. As McFly stated, it could depend on what you're doing with it. Palmering, dry hackle, spey, just hurts my head to try to give you an answer. But in the original post, it looks like you are trying to assemble a collection of colors you may need to use.

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I don't use a lot of hackle, as I don't tie most of the flies you list. When I do use some, I like barred hackle. I consider contrast to be one of the most important features of a fly. So, solid color hackles don't possess contrast like barred or spotted feathers.

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IFlicted, yougot it. Sorry for the confusion. Just looking to see if I have most of the colors covered. I felt I was missing a few. And also was curious to as what guys used what color hackles on said dry flies in the original post.

 

Kev

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