Spider and Wet Fly Hackles.

For Trout and Grayling from Roger Fogg’s ‘Handbook of North Country Trout Flies’.

All statements and opinions are Roger Fogg’s, although considerable editing has taken place, purely to save my fingers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following hackles are those which cater for the dressings given.

Partridge:  Brown speckled back feathers and grey speckled breast feathers. The wing feathers are of little use as hackles and obtaining small enough back and breast feathers is often a problem.

French Partridge:  The wings supply dirty, olive-grey marginal covert feathers which may be used just as they are, or dyed various shades of olive green with waterproof Pantone pens.

The most useful shades are 104 and 396.

Woodcock:  The wings supply superb hackles: rich brown, barred marginal covert feathers and paler buff-brown barred under-covert feathers.

Grouse:  This game bird provides dark brown feathers with orange speckles from the marginal coverts, mottled feathers from the base of the neck, reddish-brown back feathers and smoke-blue under covert feathers (as used in the Poult Bloa).

Snipe:  A whole body is useful for the mottled brown rump feathers are good hackles: the marginal coverts and under-coverts present the most popular hackles. For the Snipe and Purple, feathers from the jacksnipe rather than the common snipe are preferable but I can envisage problems in obtaining any snipe feathers in the near future.

For such flies as the Snipe and Purple, substitute feathers may be obtained from the starling.