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Tying in a feather and wrapping it … easy-peasy, right? Or maybe there’s more to it. This in-depth article looks at various ways to make a feather hackle.

Hackle or material guards help you keep stuff out of the way while you tie or varnish your fly

A simple technique to fan out dry fly hackles to form wings the Comparadun style.

Grizzly hackle is something which most tyers use all the time and which we all take for granted, but in my eyes grizzly isn't nearly as appreciated as it deserves to be

Large feather rooster saddles are different beasts. Here are some tips on buying them.

My venture into the history and legacy of the classic March Brown led to a whole lot of variations over the theme

I purchased a purple dyed golden pheasant skin and thought I'd tie a Purple Omoe Brush… and then things happened.

Raccoon – or Vaskebjørn – is a highly successful and good looking Norwegian sea trout fly.

Hackle pliers are simple tools for a simple task: handling hackles. But there might be more to the story of these humble tools.

There are numerous applications for feathers that have had barbs on one side folded opposite to the barbs on the other.

This emerger is great for smaller, slower streams and has proven a very successful pattern for the author. It's tied the paraloop way with no hackle under the hook.

A super simple and inexpensive home made tool to hold hackle and other materials while tying.

Inspired by some large, colorful saddles and an ordinary feather duster, this pike fly is voluminous and voluptuous, easy to tie and easy to cast.

Even though the marabou is a large African stork and the marabou feathers indeed used to come from this bird, the marabou feathers of today come almost exclusively from turkeys and chickens.
The marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) is actually on the CITES list of protected animals, and feathers from this bird should not be traded or used for fly-tying or anything else.
What we're dealing with in fly-tying is mainly turkey feathers. Chicken feathers can be found, but are not nearly as often labeled marabou.

With such a name a fly has to be good. And this one is. The Super Pupa is a killer pattern! Different, simple to tie, and very efficient.

The soft hackle is supposed to be - as the name implies - soft. Soft hackle can come from many birds. Chickens, gamebirds like partridge, grouse and quail, pheasant and even crows and jackdaws.

When you buy feathers for hackling dry flies, you essentially have two choices: necks or saddles. Necks used to be the thing to go for, but these days genetic hackle has made up for the difference, and oftentimes saddle hackle will actually be a better and more economical choice. You simply get more feather for your money.

There's absolute nothing original or innovative about this fly. On the contrary: it's super simple and has probably been tied in a gazillion variations before. It was inspired by some nice mallard feathers brought to one of our fly-tying and fishing trips.

Golden Pheasant must be one of the most versatile fly-tying materials you can get your hands on. The wealth of different feathers on one skin is simply overwhelming. And the skin is inexpensive too.

If you never tried washing a newly bought saddle, neck or bucktail, it's about time you try! Proper treatment can transform the useless to useful and the mediocre to sublime.

Steaming materials has a fantastic effect! Feathers, fur, hair deserves some steam. You will be amazed what a little vaporized water can do.

As you probably already know I'm an avid proponent of buying used books, and because of this you often see reviews of books with a few years on their back.

This book by the renown AK Best isn't that old - less than 10 years in fact - even though the first release of the book dates back 10 years further than that. The book at hand is the second edition and the one you should acquire if you want to own the book. It's thoroughly updated and has been completely revised, not least with excellent color photos.

Effective anglers carry a myriad of emerger-style flies to take picky trout during hatches. While there are many styles of emergers to choose from, para-hackle style flies may not come to mind first. Tying emergers para-hackle style is a forgotten technique not often taught and even fished less. We at GFF can't understand why!?! Read along as GFF partner Steve Schweitzer walks you through the

Awhile back, I received a shipment of hen necks and saddles from Whiting Farms. The saddles struck me with their intense colors and solid web, then necks with their stem length and shortish barbs. These feathers were perfect for the wet flies I was working on.

This is the book that soft hackled aficionados have been waiting years to see.

My first thought was probably the same as yours - what is "paraloop"? Paraloop is part technique, part style. Take a piece of a parachute, a bit of a thorax dun, and some thoughts of a comparadun, mix, and you'll arrive at a paraloop.

Pike fishing requires large flies, and they are not nice to cast! GFF partner Martin Joergensen has improvised over some well known salt water patterns and made them into a fly, which is light, large, easy to tie and still acceptable to cast on a 7 weight rod.

GFF co-webmaster Bob Petti coordinated an effort to share Grizzly Streamer Patterns by members of the Streamer List.

With over forty years of experience behind him, and a flock that's almost a half a century old, Dennis Conrad knows how to grow hackle.

GFF Rating: 5

One of the things most often asked by neophyte streamer tyers is what types of hackle are best suited for streamer wings. The short answer is... there is no single source best suited for streamer wings. The long answer... well... I'll ramble on about it for the remainder of this essay!

A way to palmer or body hackle

George F. Grant's flies utilize some very special techniques.

Hen hackles have long been the source of confusion to many fly tyers. Whether they are looking for wings for their dry flies or hackles for their wet flies, there seems to plenty of head scratching when it comes time to purchase the appropriate feathers.

One of the most difficult things for today's streamer tyer to find is suitable hackle for winging Rangeley Style streamers.

Learn to tie a really classical wet fly hackle.

We have all read fly patterns that refer to quills, barbs, barbules, fibers, shafts, stems, vanes and so forth, but when we read these terms do we know what they have reference to? This article sets all these terms and many more straight.