There’s at least 175 ways to get this outcome accidentally, but only one way to do it intentionally…
Grizzly is one of those “must have” chickens that’s used on absolutely everything. Big feathers used on streamers, small feathers used on dry flies, and everything else used to make hackle tip wings or add mottling to nymph parts.
Fly tiers that dye their own feathers are often tempted to toss all the other colors and just dye Grizzly necks Brown, Medium Dun or Ginger. Impressionists like myself love the mixture of colors on the feather – with the light bands somewhat indistinct, and the dark bars offering rigid color that define the fly.
I’d been fiddling with Jacquard Acid Dyes and streamer feathers – using the old “butt ends” of grizzly necks to tinker with yet another dubious idea. Dyeing is the best way to destroy materials and experimenting with new dyes always adds a couple extra foibles guaranteed to disappoint.
I ran out of the chestnut dyed grizzly used for the Calibaetis dry flies I use while lake fishing, and worked up enough nerve to dye a Hoffman Saddle with Jacquard’s version of Olive – which is actually a nice brown color.
Testing on a chunk of Red Fox confirmed it was a warm chestnut color, and I added a teaspoon of Aztec Gold to warm it further. I vacillate on this fly every season – some years I use natural Grizzly, and when that doesn’t work the next I’m tying the chestnut variant.
A feather with both would be perfect.
I’ve been playing with a “tie-dye” method for feathers that does something similar. I tightly wrap kite twine to a stick then bind the saddle onto the surface with concentric wraps of twine. Tied tight enough the twine prevents the dye from reaching the feather yielding a “bar” of natural color that can be dropped into a second color of dye (or left natural) to make multicolored hackle.
One look at typical baitfish explains why you’d want a multicolor effect – or the dyed-natural flavor, fish start with a light colored belly and a dark back – with many colors between the two.
Us retired commercial fly tiers recognize an Adam’s could be tied with one hackle. Not only would it be cheaper but it would be much faster too. While profit is no longer much of a motivation, like most fly tiers, I still hate using two hackles to tie one dry fly.
Large streamer hackles (some shown above) give a nice color transition from natural to brown. Olive would make another nice color to transition with yellow or similar light color. Toss this into a lighter colored dye bath, like yellow, and the brown would be untouched while the natural sections slurped up that yellow dye.
With this batch I tried a couple other cords all smaller than the kite twine, and all failed to hold the color at bay. I don’t think anything smaller than 30lb mono is capable of mashing the fibers tight enough.
Tags: tie dye, fly tying materials, grizzly hackle, Hoffman saddle hackle, chestnut, Jacquard’s Acid Dyes, Red Fox fur, dyeing fly tying materials
Fishing was frustrating and fun – but meeting my first female brownliner was a first. I was already in deep yogurt with the Missus, so I didn’t compound the sin by chatting longer than pleasantries.
The points are fiendish, much longer and sharper than what I’m used to – and beaked, turned up to hold onto the flesh its just violated.
Designed to attach precious artifacts to glass display cases without staining or adding residue. Also called “Miniature Wax” – used by those hobbyists that delight in recreating the battle of Waterloo with lead soldiers, spending months building battle scenes complete with miniature foliage and regiments of soldiers, all of which is secured to the base substrate with small balls of semi-transparent white wax.
On most patterns I’ll stick a dubbing needle between coils and yank out the underbody. Slick and glassy looks great in a magazine – but I like scruffy and dirty, and have never had much luck on flies that seemed stiff and glossy.
They are – the assortment is broader than what we’ve 
Called “Cool Spools” – they show the connector colors but only have violet, rainbow (shown above), black, and dark blue to purchase online. It’s a rather poor web presence – but I called and they mentioned the other colors were available – but not all were in stock.
I figured I was uniquely qualified – knowing the stiff and austere demeanor of the 
Tropical, Cold, and Lukewarm, describe the melt point of the material so it doesn’t slough off once applied. It also describes whether it’ll be stiff or soft at room temperature and how it’ll wear with you running threads and other materials over its surface.
There’s nothing quite like an epic outage of materials on the eve of a trip – where your own shortcomings cause you to lack whatever was required to catch fish…
