Thanks for the welcome, Dubbin. If you like to tie & fish soft-hackle flies, then I guess we are in total agreement about everything that matters on the subject. I'm a perpetual student & that is fun, I don't need to be right or have people agree with me. And please, don't worry about "...

Dubbin, of course hen hackle does require floatant to work well on dries, as does the best quality dryfly hackle. I like to use hen on some dries as well, as it splays on the water, which serves to give the imitation a more realistic profile, rather than holding the fly up by the hackle tips against...

Thank you for the the kind welcome, guys. I agree, Mr. Hat. Izaak, you can google 'photos of welsummer chickens' & find pics of them. They're not uncommon, & I've found them on craigslist on two occasions. Of course you have to skin them yourself. The 'muddler' head of the flatwing sculpin i...

Izaac, to answer your first question, perhaps there is no empirical "ideal", but rather what may be ideal for a particular application on a particular pattern, serving to create the effect you're after. The barbs of hen hackles, in general, tend to have thinner, stiffer barbs than game &am...