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smallieFanatic

Metz or Whiting?

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Since I started using Whiting's I have put all my 30 or so Metz necks and saddles in storage . Rarely do I find any use for them . Having said that I wish the great Hebert Saddles that were available a few years back were still around . We would use them for hook sizes 8 and larger for Atlantic Salmon flies ...........Frank

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I also have a Herbert saddle which is great for larger flies. Bought it in St. John's fairly recently and hadn't realized they were hard to come by.

 

I have one Whiting amongst my Metz and it is certainly nicer. It has a sticker on the front that says "Pro Grade", I'm not sure where that fits into the new Gold/Silver/Bronze rating system.

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How would you compare Whiting to Conranch hackle? Was thinking about getting a cree neck [sNIP]

While Conranch has their fans, I am not one of them. In my experience, their dry fly hackles is quite disappointing and there are a number of small producers I'd buy from before them (Keough has been mentioned, but I also like Spencer Hackle). Their hen hackle is pretty good, but their rooster hackle is garbage (cue Denny fanboys for rebuttal).

 

You asked specifically about cree, and that is a different topic in and of itself. Denny’s cree skins (only way it comes) are quite beautiful, very expensive, and require a very long wait to get one. In terms of color they are probably more “authentic” than the stuff I’ve seen Whiting sell as cree.

 

However, what is the point? You would be much better off, I would argue, buying a several more saddles and necks for the price you’d pay for a single Conranch cree skin (even the Whiting cree is twice the price of a comparable neck/saddle). Cree has a mystique due to scarcity but it does not have any magical fish catching abilities. I personally would get more use out of a good brown and grizzly saddle than I would a cree skin, but YMMV.

 

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Thanks Whatfly for the info. I meant to mention Spencer hackle as well as they have some nice hackle as well for a low price. And no real point to me wanting a cree neck other than have one for my collection. I may try a conranch neck in a grizzly or variant and see how they are but have no real expectations. I don't really care as long as they tie nice I'll find a use for it, I just hate when they twist or it's webby or is brittle or they make the claim that Whiting is nothing "special" and that they're hackle is 100% comparable when in fact it's apples and oranges.

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I have hackle from keough, whiting, CCQ, metz, collins and conranch. For the price and what I tie I'll go with the Conranch, IMO and that's only IMO I like it better than the whiting. As for hen hackle Denny's is way better than anything Whiting has agian IMO.

 

My flies catch fish, it's all that counts and if using the cheaper hackle works go with it but we all have our own tastes.

 

Now for those wanting spade hackle Collins does sell bags for $5 and it is pretty good stuff, but I got some spade hackle from a friend on another board that's probably 20+ years old and MAN if we could have that stuff now it would be EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!

 

Fatman

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Dude metz is just fine, I have a couple capes/necks and they work great. Whiting does have superior quality but Metz works great for the price. It would take a peice of $$ to go full upgrade.

 

 

 

 

Jan

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I use keough, and about two years ago I did a "feather census" of a couple of Keough necks, a tyers grade and a number 2. If i had any idea how to make links, i would provide one, but do a search for "Feather Census" and itll show up.

 

Short version; keough Tyers grade are really nice necks, my local GM store stocks em for 25 bucks each in all the colors i use, and they handle down to 24-26 with ease (and loads in the 14-20 range that i tye most often).

 

A lot of the necks that go into his "Tyers grade" packs are just as nice as his higher grades, just smallish. I just bought a beautiful dark blue dun (on sale for 20$, no less) that will provide me with teensy BWOs for years. I havent used Metz or Whiting, but assuming they are at least as good as the Keough necks (keough's saddles are nice too, btw) I dont think ya can go wrong.

 

PS. I dont have any problems with soft hackle barbs on my necks either...odd. But as the Whiting 100s packs are the same price as the Tyers grade necks at the GM store, ill stick with the necks.

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Dude metz is just fine, I have a couple capes/necks and they work great. Whiting does have superior quality but Metz works great for the price. It would take a peice of $$ to go full upgrade.

 

 

 

 

Jan

I think I might buy a Whiting cape sometime. But you are right Jan, it looks like Whiting is definetly superior, but for the price of Metz you couldn't go wrong with either of them.

 

Thanks for the info Jan. :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

gage

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Do the swap box next year,thats where i got mine

Hey Brian, I was thinking of doing that next year.

 

Thanks for the awesome suggestion!

 

 

 

 

 

gage

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Or you could just buy the Whiting 100's pack. Usually they are around $12-18 bucks and you are certainly getting what you pay for.

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I just wanted to clarify.... I simply prefer to use Whiting over other brands. It doesn't mean that it's significantly better and that other brands are garbage hackle. For the sizes of flies that I tie, and my style of tying (I prefer small flies, sizes 16 and smaller for the most part) I can grab a whiting neck and pretty much know where to get a feather that will be the right size and there are plenty of feathers for that size.

 

Metz, maybe I need to revisit the necks I have. They're beautiful necks when you look at them and I would say that visually they compare with Whiting in terms of color, size of the neck, and general overall quality. My only problem was the neck I used the feather's twisted badly. Maybe I can try using them for parachutes and it'll be fine....

 

For the price I think Spencer and Keough necks can't be beat. They're typically softer hackle though (which I kind of like at times), smaller necks, and sometimes don't have the range of hackle sizes we represented but you can typically get smaller hackles from them just not as many as from a Whiting neck.

 

For some people it comes down to cost as well. Whiting will tie more flies but the cost ratio is still higher for the most part. Like it might tie 4X the number of flies but it cost 6X more than the other neck.

 

At the same time Whiting has come pretty far, but sometimes I wish I had that stuff I was using 20 years ago as although it wasn't the greatest hackle it had a lot more utility and some of the characteristics that made it bad for hackle made it great for hackle wings, tailing material, quill bodies etc....

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