coq de leon hen

[paddy5]

I have been tying up some small river wet flies and find it difficult to get consistent game bird hackles in the smaller sizes. I was wondering if any of you have used coq de leon hen as a sub ,would like to get some feedback before I make a purchase . Thanks . PJ.

[dabhoy]

Im a bit confused as to why you would want to purchase coq de leon hen and what size of flies are you trying to tie .
You should easily manage to tie wet flies with hen,starling.snipe etc.
You can get cheap hen capes that will most likely do you just remember and tie in at the tip of the feather rather than the base where the longer fibres are.

[paddy5]

Hi . I seem to get into difficulty when tying size 16 and smaller . particularly when I try to strip one side of the hackle to reduce bulk and keep things sparse, the stalk inevitably shears too close to the hook leaving me with very little to work with or worse looking for a new feather, I have seen these hen capes advertised and they seem to have a very nice barring to them . starling do have lovely feathers and I do use them , I am not a good enough shot for a snipe so have seldom tied them , anyway thanks for your input .
PJ

[arkle]

Paddy, have you tried putting the feather into a thread loop so that the quill is parallel with the thread. Then you can use a pair of scissors to cut away the quill side of the feather whilst the remain's held between the (well waxed) threads.

It can then be spun & wound, & the odd stubble is hidden with a couple of turns of thread & use of very fine point scissors or if you're extremely careful a cauterizer tip held close to them.

Or wind the hackle 1/2 way-ish along the shank & pull all the fibres forward over the shank so that they are pointing forward over the eye, wind the thread over them, complete the body & stroke the fibres back & use a couple of turns to position them correctly.

[paddy5]

Thanks for those sugestions Arkle I spent a few hours last night practicing your solutions with varying degrees of success, the loop method seems to end up looking like a dubing brush and a scruffy one at that , how do you manage to align the fibres in the same plane? I had better results using your second technique, I have in the past plucked the fibres from say a jay wing and rolled them around the hook to form a nice leggy collar , your twist on this procedure gives far supperior distribution of fibre around the shank . Bravo Arkle it seems that Mr Dreaper did teach you well. Once again thanks. PJ.

[roll cast]

If you stroke the fibres back well enough they should look ok, puting the fibres into a loop is smething I do with partridge hackle as mine split alot, although if the hackle stem is cracking and breaking a quick soak in water and conditioner softens the stem, I think I'm right in saying that hackle are made of the same as human hair hair so conditioner softens the stem and shouldn't break as easily.

AL

[paddy5]

Hi Al. I gave the loop method a few hours this evening , and I must confess that although a bit fiddly and difficult to predict ,when it comes together the results are good , the flies may not have the clasical looks you see in the books ,but the hackle does have a good kick which may make them better fish catchers ,which after all is the object,I am still wondering about the CDL hen capes however the whiting ones are available for less then 20 pound . thanks for the advice . PJ.

[Chris Reeves]

To answer your original question, I do use coq de leon hen a lot, its a great soft hackle and the mottling is a good partridge substitute.
That said the Whiting brahma hen also gives a a lot of good feathers for small flies. I like the dyed yellow and dyed olive ones best.

Cheers and happy new year

[paddy5]

Yes Chris, I feel a purchase coming on .
thanks PJ