How many do this with hackle??

[bowmike 0]

I am just getting back in to dry fly tying. I am trying to cut down time on tying and was wondering if anyone does this.

I just got a large amount of material donated to me. Within this material was a hackle gage. I am not veteran enough to tell just by looking at the hackle what size it should be so I will be using this cheater device.

 

My question is how many of you. pull your hackle off, size it , and set it in a seperate storage bag marked with the appropriate size. I thought this would aid in cutting my time down and ensure better proportions.

[nick2011 0]

long ago i started to do it, but when i couldnt find bags long enough to fit how i like i left them alone..it will save time in the long run

[Crotalus 0]

Al and Gretchen Beatty and AK Best both recommend that procedure.

 

I recently tore up a bunch of saddles for my musky flies just to make them quicker to access and get rid of the feathers that were substandard

[Piker20 0]

Had an idea to do that once but lifes too short to spend time doing it. I think if you are tying for money it can be a great idea but other than that I'm not sure.

[bowmike 0]

I guess this could be a good practice as well, I could take all of the big hackle feather i never use and swap them for other materials

[Bryon Anderson 0]

AK Best recommends doing it while you're watching tv, which is what I do. I have one of those organizers with the little drawers that are made for storing nuts and bolts. I label each drawer with the color and size hackle it will contain, then pluck away. When it's time to tie, say, Adams dry flies, out come the #14 brown and #14 grizzly drawers, and I'm off to the races.

 

Those little sets of drawers are handy for storing finished flies, too. I have another one set up according to the Michigan insect emergence schedule, starting with tiny black winter stoneflies in the upper left hand corner, and progressing through the season to Tricos and tiny BWOs in the bottom right. It lends some "structure" to my winter tying, which can veer off onto innumerable tangents if I'm left to my own devices.

[RodL 0]

I think its a great idea, but sometimes I look into things a little too much. For example, if you are doing this to save time when tying, if you would add up the time it takes you to sort all the hackles out before hand compared to the time it takes to pluck the correct sized hackle from a cape or saddle while tying which one would take less time in the long run? Other than that I think its a great way to store your hackles and when you want to tye a dozen or so of the same size flies you just grab the container that has that size hackle and get busy.

 

Rodney

[flytire 0]

i dont tie enough dry flies nor do i tie commercially or for speed to sit down and pluck chicken feathers and size them

 

i just use 1 feather, bend it on the hook shank for size and tie the fly

 

30 + years of tying its gets easier to just eyeball a size.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

I do something kind of in-between sizing a whole neck and picking as I go. When I have a batch of poppers or other fly that takes a splayed feather tail, I don't do dries, I'll sit and pick the feathers for that dozen or half dozen. I'll pull off three feathers for each side of the bug's tail, that's six total for each bug and take a piece of tape and wrap around the feather butts to keep those three together. I put all of the sets of three from one side of the neck in one pile or baggie and he sets of three from the other side in another pile or baggie. When I start tying, I grab a bunch from each pile that somewhat matches and tie in my splayed tail.

I imagine you could do that with dries if you knew you were going to sit down and tie a batch of them.

 

Kirk

[Ugly Bob 0]

I bag only if I pull the wrong size from the cape and use them as soon as possible.

[SilverCreek 0]

I do not pluck and size the hackle before I need it. IMHO, the best way to store hackle is on the pelt.

 

I pull the hackle as I tie.

[dontheo 0]

I tried it once, but don't do any production fly tying. There is something about seeing the hackle on the cape that I like. They look good stored that way. But if you need to go fast it seems to make sense.

[Bruce Derington 0]

yeah some production tyers do that. think most commercial guys have moved on to the whiting saddle packs