Hareline Hen Cape

[robow7 0]

Has anyone purchased or made use of a hen cape by Hareline.  I'm in need of a new grizzly hen cape since my Whiting is just about shot and I had not seen these before.  About $10 less than Whiting.  I normally only use these for palmering and as a soft hackle substitute, and not as a dry fly hackle.  Anyway, just curious as to the quality.  Thanks 

[jrodell 0]

I have been using a prince nymph brown cape and it's pretty good.  enough feathers of different sizes and I haven't had any problems plucking ones that fit the prince nymph collars I've been using them for.

[robow7 0]

Well I finally got my hands on a Hareline hen cape and it was not going to work out for my needs.  Not nearly the number of useable feathers as in my previous Whiting hen capes and the feathers, though nice and soft/webby were too wide and short for my particular needs.  I'm sure it would work for others.

[SilverCreek 0]

Can you return it?

[robow7 0]

3 hours ago, SilverCreek said:

Can you return it?

yea, and now they supposedly have Whiting grizzly hen cape back in stock so exchanging for that.  It's hard to go wrong with Whiting but thought that I would try it.

[SilverCreek 0]

That's Great News!!!

[DFoster 0]

On 1/15/2021 at 7:35 PM, robow7 said:

yea, and now they supposedly have Whiting grizzly hen cape back in stock so exchanging for that.  It's hard to go wrong with Whiting but thought that I would try it.

I usually like to buy hackle in person (if possible, Covid is making that tough these days) You can get good hackles from lesser know companies as long as you can weed through the unacceptable stuff hanging with it.  Mail order or sight unseen I would go with Whiting.

[robow7 0]

22 hours ago, DFoster said:

I usually like to buy hackle in person (if possible, Covid is making that tough these days) You can get good hackles from lesser know companies as long as you can weed through the unacceptable stuff hanging with it.  Mail order or sight unseen I would go with Whiting.

Couldn't agree more.  Normally I would have a chance to go thru all the capes in stock (or any natural material for that matter) and select the one most suited to my needs but our normal supplier isn't allowing that to happen at this time due to covid.  Yesterday I was at both Bass Pro and Cabelas, looking for a certain colored bucktail and luckily they had a bunch that I could go thru until I found one that was suitable.  As I went thru them, I was thinking to myself, thank God I didn't have to go mail order for this because my chance of being satisfied with that tail would have been minimal.    

[WWKimba 0]

I DO agree with robow7.  I have burned a couple times on bucktail that I will NEVER buy it on-line again!  One was so bad that the dealer - and one that I had dealt with many times in the past - sent TWO tails in one bag BUT BOTH were missing the tip sections!  Besides, you want to not only buy the right color shade and length hair but also the right hair style for the patterns you are tying - crinkly hair is lousy (impossible!) to stack but is a better choice for some patterns.

BTW, I knew the above BEFORE ordering on-line and I could blame COVID but the truth is I talk so much that sometimes I don't listen to myself!  

Kim

[robow7 0]

Yea, some of the bucktails were nice and full but the hair was too short for the wing I needed.  Others had had the length but were really sparse and were not going to allow for very many flies.  Some were as you mentioned, all the hair extremely crinkly  and some were just total garbage that should never have made into a bag unless noted as a "second" quality.   Hate to buy natural materials online.