SherpaB

Collins is kind of hard to find but he generally shows up at the shows and is for sale at both Trout Town Flies in Roscoe NY or Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone. I have 4 of his necks and they are absolutely terrific...his hackles tie better than whiting they wrap better with NO TWIST ever and thinner stems...they don't have as many barbs of hackle per inch or as many feathers per cape but for the price its probably fairly equivalent on a per fly basis as whiting Bronze...the colors are all natural and beautiful and they tie better than whiting IMO

I agree on the overall coloration on the fly after its tied...dark barred ginger is probably very very equivalent and nothing looks quite as good as brown and grizzly mixed, The allure of Cree is its scarcity so....count me in on getting another (I have one !)

I go back to Metz necks of the 80's through Hoffman grizzly and most recently the whiting products of the last 20 years. Todays Pro-grade = Gold/platinum of 15 yrs ago...I've been finding the bronze Whiting to be borderline ridiculous compared to just few a years ago...by ridiculous I mean the hackle length is quasi saddle length and there is a better variety of sizes which is important to me...basically there are no bad grades of whiting...but if you can swing bronze or silver you will get more bang for your buck over the long haul.

the Stonfo is a good vice I've tried it but its a poor man's Petijean, the worry I would have is if something goes wrong who do you call??? Italy? I doubt the fly shops sell enough of them to really know what to do other than call the Hareline Rep or whomever distributes it... I'd rather get something that you can call up a guy who makes it in the USA and get a quick part or an answer...Renzetti, Regal, Dyna King and HMH are outstanding companies...I recommend the Renzetti or Regal because they are capable of holding almost any hook size right out of the box. No jaw changes and they've been tested and true for decades...the big name tyers such as Kelly Galloup choose these brands as their vise of choice probably because they work flawlessly