How many top grade dry fly hackle necks does one need? When I started tying dry flies for trout I could afford only one top grade dry fly neck. I chose brown. This worked fine on the Eperous and March Brown hatches. I was dubious about the blue quill hatch. However, I tied up a good supply using the standard Blue Quill recipe in size 16 and 18 except I used my brown hackle. These worked fine and I caught many trout during the blue quill hatch using my brown-hackled pattern.
Sulphur Patterns
As the season progressed I continued to do well with my brown-hackled drys. However, the sulphur mayfly season was approaching and that year both the Pennsylvania and Virginia stream had great sulphur hatches. In fact, Big Spring Creek had the heaviest sulphur hatch I had ever seen on it. I tied up many of Ed Shenk’s Sulphurs and Charlie Foxes Sulphurs in size 16 and 18. Naturally I substituted my brown hackle for the colors these fine anglers used in their sulphur patterns. Much to my surprise I had fine sulphur dry fly fishing that year.
Today, even though I have a broad selection of top grade dry fly necks in many colors I still continue to tie and carry many of these brown-hackled dry flies in what a friend referred to as Outcast Patterns.
Here is a selection of dry fly capes I now use in the order I use them–brown, grizzly, light blue dun, light ginger, dark blue dun, black furnace, badger and white.
I have passed many of the trout flies I tied along to my son Jeff (pictured above). He is catching many trout on them all across the country.
If you are interested in learning to tie flies, I will be conducting my fly tying classes several times throughout the winter.