Should You Buy a Saddle or Cape for Dry Fly Hackle?

Quality dry fly hackle is one of the more expensive fly tying materials a fly tyer will purchase. Fly tyers have the option to buy dry fly hackle on either a saddle or cape, but which one to choose? Let’s go over the differences, and decide which is best for you.

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What is Dry Fly Hackle?

First off, what exactly is dry fly hackle? These are feathers that come from very specifically bred roosters. The roosters are bred to have long feathers with short stiff hackle. The hackle length should also be fairly consistent along the length of the feather, the feather should be strong, and also be a desirable colour. This is why quality dry fly hackle is so expensive, not just any rooster produces these feathers.

As I mentioned earlier, there are two main choices for dry fly hackle: saddles and capes. A saddle is the piece of skin off the back of a rooster (the feathers fall to either side like a saddle), while a cape comes from the neck area of a rooster (The feathers drape backward like a superhero’s cape). Lets look at the differences between the two in regards to fly tying.

Cape

A cape has a huge variation in feather/hackle size, and this is definitely its biggest advantage over a saddle. This means that the feathers can be used for a large range of different fly sizes, eliminating the need to buy multiple packs of dry fly hackle. One saddle should produce enough variation in feather size to tie pretty much any sized fly you would want.

You won’t get as many feathers in a specific size though. You may find you run out of feathers in a specific size if you tie many flies in that one size.

The feathers on a cape are shorter than feathers you’ll find on saddles. This means that you have less overall fly tying material when you buy a cape. The hackle is also less consistent through the length of the feather and tends to taper more. This usually is not an issue unless you’re tying a fly that calls for very dense, consistent hackle. In this case, you can always use two feathers.

The fibers also tend to be stiffer than those in saddles (when comparing a saddle and cape of equal grade). This produces nicer looking dry flies, but the difference is so slight I’m not convinced it changes how well the fly fishes. The difference is only really noticeable at the highest skill levels. For general day-to-day fly tying, the difference is negligible.

The larger feathers on capes that are unsuitable for dry flies also make excellent woolly bugger hackle.

So to summarise, let’s go over the pros and cons of capes.

Pros

• Large variety in feather size.
• Stiffer hackle fibers.

Cons

• Less fly tying material than saddles.
• Less consistent hackle length.

Capes are a good choice for newbies because of the large variety of feather sizes that come on one cape. They’re also a good choice for the perfectionist that want to tie the highest quality dry flies possible due to their stiffer fibers.

Whiting Farms Hackle Cape (Amazon Link) Can be bought here. This is a full sized hackle cape, and Whiting Farms is excellent quality.

Whiting Farms Pro Grade 1/2 Cape (Amazon Link) Can be bought here. This is a half sized cape, also from Whiting Farms.

Saddle

The primary advantage of saddles is the sheer quantity of fly tying material you get with them. They have extremely long feathers with very consistent hackle size. It’s not unusual to be able to tie multiple dry flies with a single feather, with saddles capable of producing up to ten dry flies off just one feather. These long feathers with their consistent hackle lengths are also a joy to work with.

The extremely long saddle feathers can also be used in large streamers, often to imitate a lateral line down the center of the pattern. There are cheaper feathers available that can do the job in most patterns, so don’t buy an expensive dry fly saddle just for this.

Saddle feathers also tend to have a denser barb count than capes do. This is great for really dense looking flies.

So to summarize, let’s go over the pros and cons of Saddles.

Pros

• Cost effective.
• Vary large number of feathers.
• Very enjoyable to work with.
• High barb count on every feather.

Cons

• Limited range of sizes, often only able to tie to one or two different sizes from a saddle.
• Slightly webbier hackle. This is generally not a problem with high quality, modern saddles though. The hackle is still very stiff, just not as stiff as a cape of comparable grade.

These features make saddles better for professional (or extremely avid) fly tyers that are producing alot of flies that are in a similar size range. It’s also a good choice if you’ve been tying for a while, and know what size hackle is suitable for your most commonly tied size of flies. It’s also good for the economically minded, maximizing the amount of materials you get for your money. Although this is only true if you don’t need to buy multiple saddles to tie all the different size of flies you want to tie.

Whiting Bronze Grade 1/2 Saddle (Amazon Link) Can be bought here. Most people won’t need a full saddle, so I’d recommend going with the half saddle.

Whiting Farms Saddle Hackle Pack (Amazon Link) is a pack of saddle feathers not attached to the hide. I prefer to buy my feathers attached to skin, but this is an affordable option if you’re just looking to try out saddle hackle.

Final thoughts

I would strongly recommend going with a cape for the beginner. The larger range in feather sizes is a huge plus, especially when you’re just starting out.

If you’re not quite ready to commit to buying a full or half saddle or cape, there are other options available. Several companies sell mini dry fly packs, and strung hackle is usually cheaper. As mentioned earlier, I do recommend buying hackle feathers attached to a hide though.

Dry Fly Mini Pack (Amazon Link) is an excellent, affordable mini dry fly pack. It is a very small patch, but it’s much cheaper than buying the larger pieces.

When buying hackle, I find grizzly is the most versatile colour choice. If you’re tying alot of caddis patterns, brown is another great colour choice.

You can find capes and saddles that have hackle not suitable for use in dry flies. These typically have webbier feathers and are less expensive than genetic hackle intended for tying dries. There’s nothing wrong with these other feathers, they’re just suited for tying different types of flies, such as nymphs and streamers. Just something to be aware of when shopping for feathers. Those soft hackle capes will not work for tying dries and are typically used for tying traditional wet flies and some modern nymph patterns.

A Hackle gauge is a great way to measure the length the hackle on a feather, and determine what sized hook a feather should be tied onto. Clicking the image above will take you to the Amazon page for the hackle gauge I use. Here’s a list of other tools you will need as a fly tyer.

You use the gauge by wrapping the feather around the peg on the lower bottom left of the tool. You then match the line that the hackle sticks out to on the gauge to the hook size. Oversized hackle on a hook looks sloppy, and undersized hackle looks bare/sparse and also may not float as well.

Maybe you’re interested in looking at some alternatives for dry fly hackle? Check here.