Thank you for a great post. I have read that Cutcliffe preferred game cock hackles for his flies and lamented that these birds were no longer being bred as a result of a prohibition on cock fighting. The sport was also later outlawed in the US. Consequently game cock feathers disappeared from commerce.
In 2018 I spent 5 months in Puerto Rico helping with hurricane disaster relief. During my time there I travelled to every mountain town and hamlet on the island as part of my work. It turns out cock fighting us still alive and well in PR. Game fowl are quite common there and can be found everywhere as barnyard and feral birds. The dominant hackle colors are well represented, including ginger, brown, red, & black. And in an area of SW PR I found a small, isolated population of beautiful dun colored birds - the holy grail so to speak.
Re: H,C. Cutcliffe Flies
Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:11 am
by wsbailey
Years ago I bought various colors of cow’s hair from a rancher. I was disappointed with the black because it wasn’t quite black. It was only recently that I realized that this might be Cutcliffe’s “bullock’s hair, of dark, almost purplish tint”.
A3EB7415-34E4-4519-8178-9393EF1CBF4F.jpeg (162.17 KiB) Viewed 2876 times
Re: H,C. Cutcliffe Flies
Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2019 2:20 pm
by Theroe
wsbailey wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:11 am
Years ago I bought various colors of cow’s hair from a rancher. I was disappointed with the black because it wasn’t quite black. It was only recently that I realized that this might be Cutcliffe’s “bullock’s hair, of dark, almost purplish tint”.
A3EB7415-34E4-4519-8178-9393EF1CBF4F.jpeg
Ahhh-HA!!! One of the many benefits of never getting rid of anything.....See how this works ??
Re: H,C. Cutcliffe Flies
Posted: Sun Nov 24, 2019 5:16 pm
by wsbailey
Video about Cutcliffe.
Re: H,C. Cutcliffe Flies
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2019 11:58 am
by redietz
wsbailey wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 5:16 pm
Video about Cutcliffe.
There's a sale on right now on pre-orders of Gaskill's new book: