Looking to buy a couple of decent hen capes, looking at metz I see that saddles are cheaper than necks but are they as good? Shorter, longer etc. If anyone has experience of either would appreciate any feedback you have, cheers
Go for the necks Andy.
You can get 3 flies out of one feather. Also much more usable feathers.
Good saddle hackles are great for loch patterns, but the smaller feathers are on the neck.
Ok sounds like the necks are the way to go, as with everything I should have known the more expensive would have been the preferred option, tying free flies ain't cheap!
When it came Down to it I couldn't pay £50 for 2 capes so I chickened out and got 2 Turrall ones from angling active for £7 each, would be nice to get the metz ones but seems a hell of a jump, there's nothing in between, you've got Indian capes at £3, Turrall at £7 and then it jumps to £20+!
Sure these will do me til I have a lotto win
just seen this post so i might be too late,but i get hen saddles from here
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fly-Tying-Whiting-Farms-Hen-Saddle-Medium-Ginger-J-/290820648933?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b642efe5 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fly-Tying-Whiting-Farms-Hen-Saddle-Medium-Ginger-J-/290820648933?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b642efe5)
i find them excellent for wet flies if tied in at the tip . you only wait a week and there is no customs duty at that price .if you get a couple you save on postage .i have a black ,a medium ginger and a white that i dyed claret .well worth the money.they also do necks .Whiting are just as good as Metz in my opinion.
Garry
To be honest, I don't think you really need expensive hackles for loch flies, Indian and Chinese necks are fine. Expensive genetic hackles are useful for small dry / parachutes flies etc.
Indian for dries; chinese for wets. I've never used anything else and I have capes going back forty plus years still in use :)
The reason for buying better quality was that I've bought loads of cheaper capes and they come and some fall apart, some don't have useable hackles and these have been bought from decent suppliers so wanted better. Definately makes a difference buying decent hackles for dries etc but why wouldn't you want wet flies to be just as good?
Anyway push came to shove I went for the Turrall, I'm sure they will be decent and do think £20+ is a bit extreme
The ones I got were around 16. I'll have a look.
it all depends how many flies you tie .due to the quality of the fibres i dont need to use more than one turn and usually get three flies from one hackle .having used both ,the difference in quality is visible for me and if you tie lots of flies they are not expensive..
Garry
Quote from: garryh on November 08, 2014, 10:22:38 AM
it all depends how many flies you tie .due to the quality of the fibres i dont need to use more than one turn and usually get three flies from one hackle .having used both ,the difference in quality is visible for me and if you tie lots of flies they are not expensive..
Garry
True. I am lucky if I tie two dozen flies a year. I have fly boxes full of flies that I seldom if ever use and the flies I do use I only replace the ones that I have lost or have fallen apart. As long as I have half a dozen of each in my box at the start of the season I don't bother tying any :)
I got mine from Lakeland and every hackles is usable. I bought them for 16 but they seem to have gone up to 18. I think it's still good value when you consider only a third of a normal cape is really usable.
I did look at those Lakeland ones but they didn't have the 2 colours I needed, the only ones They didn't have!!
I've ordered these Turrall ones now so I'll see what they're like and feed it back to the forum, if they're crap I'll refer back to this thread, thanks for info