6 Alternatives to Dry Fly Hackle

When I first started fly tying, one of the first things I noticed was how expensive high-quality dry fly hackle is. This kept me from tying dry flies for a while until I finally did decide to buy a quality cape (neck from rooster) full of good dry fly hackle.

Dry fly hackle is an important component of many traditional style dry flies, as the stiff fibers cause the fly to float due to water tension. Little did I know as a beginner that there are a variety of other materials I could use to make a fly float.

Maybe you’re new to the hobby and don’t want to splurge for some pricy dry fly hackle, maybe you’ve been fly tying for a while and are curious about different tying materials? Either way, let me share with you a few cheap (and not so cheap) alternatives to the classic dry fly hackle.

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Elk and Deer Hair

You can use elk hair (and deer hair) for spinning, tying dry fly wings, making heads, collars and more. It’s is a wonderfully versatile tying material. Elk hair relies more on buoyancy than it does water tension (although it does still use water tension to some degree) to stay afloat. The hollow compartments that fill the inside of deer and elk hair make it very buoyant.

Caddis Patterns

One of the most common fly patterns (and one of my personal favourites) used to target trout is the elk hair caddis. That pattern does use hackle, although you can tie a variation of it without the hackle. You can substitute the body for spun deer hair if you would like to compensate for the lost buoyancy from omitting the hackle.

Comparadun

The comparadun is another very effective dry fly pattern, and is uses no hackle at all! A comparadun pattern has elk hair flared to mimic the wings of a mayfly, this hair also keeps the fly afloat.

A comparadun floats with its body in the film of the water. By comparison, Catskill style mayfly patterns (those with wrapped hackle) tend to float higher up on its hackle.

The flies are both useful imitations of mayflies, but each has their time and place. Comparadun’s represent mayflies stuck in the water film, such as those that are emerging, crippled, or just hatched. In contrast, Catskill style mayfly patterns are a better representation of active mayflies in the middle of the hatch.

Natural Elk Hair Patch (Amazon Link) Can be bought here. It’s a very inexpensive material, and you’ll be able to tie a ton of flies off one patch.

Spinning Deer Hair

Spinning deer hair is another way to make a fly buoyant. The main ingredient in many bass bugs and popper patterns is spun deer hair. Spinning deer hair is an art form all of its own and requires some practice to get the technique right.

Here’s a great video with Kelly Galloup as he shows his deer hair spinning technique.

You can also use deer hair to build the body of insect imitation patterns as well. The Adam’s irresistible is a good example of a pattern that uses deer hair to make its body. Many hopper patterns and other terrestrials also incorporate deer hair in some fashion, such as Dave’s Hopper.

Foam

Foam is more buoyant than anything else you are going to tie with. It’s commonly used in larger dry flies, such as dragonfly, terrestrial, popper, mice and frog patterns.

Foam is also great because you can do things like extended mayfly bodies. Extended body mayfly patterns work great for imitating larger species like green drakes, but can also work well for midsized species as well. Extended bodies also work well on hopper and dragonfly patterns.

I find the best source for foam is from a craft store. It’s much cheaper here than from a specialty fly tying shop. There’s a large number of other materials you can get cheap from a craft store as well.

CDC

Okay so this isn’t exactly cheaper than dry fly hackle, but it is a substitute, so I’ve included it here. CDC stands for Cul de Canard, which is literally “duck bottom” in French. The feathers come from the rear end of duck near their preening gland, which produces the oils that ducks use to keep them waterproof.

This oil, coupled with the webby nature of these feathers make CDC very buoyant. Something about CDC seems to drive trout crazy, and it’s used in an increasingly large number of dry fly patterns. It’s especially popular in small sizes (size 16 and smaller) of midge, caddis, and mayfly patterns.

Even though CDC catches trout like crazy, it’s quite delicate. Flies tied with CDC have the durability of a wet piece of toilet paper, so be prepared to tie a large number of them. They also don’t fish well after they’ve already caught a fish or two without drying out first. I wouldn’t be surprised if I get some hate for that comment, but it’s true. They still catch trout though!

There’s some debate that natural CDC is better than the dyed stuff. This is because you have to clean the feathers to properly dye them, so the dyed ones likely have less oil than the undyed ones.

You can get a poor man’s version of CDC by using the fluff on the bottom of hackle feathers and marabou. It won’t float as well as CDC, but can be used in a pinch.

Rabbits Foot

Snowshoe rabbit’s foot is like a more durable, more buoyant version of CDC. It’s honestly a shame it doesn’t get more attention in mainstream fly tying, as it’s very cheap and floats very well (especially when combined with floatant).

You can use rabbit foot to tie emergers and rabbit version of camparaduns. The hair between the toes makes the best-looking wings, but all the underfur from the foot will work for dries. A bonus of using a rabbit’s foot is that the fur can double as dubbing for the flies body.

“The Usual” is the classic snowshoe hair dry fly. Jackrabbits foot is a comparable alternative to snowshoe rabbit, but there’s no beating the real thing.

Soft Hackle

You can make dries with soft hackle. They typically do not float as well as flies tied with traditional dry fly hackle, but they can be made to float (use floatant!). The soft, webby legs are more suggestive of a real insects legs, even if they don’t hold the water tension as effectivley as dry fly hackle. Use these on calm water, they won’t float well in fast or turbid water.

Synthetic hair wings

Poly Yarn is a synthetic material that has a number of uses in fly tying, such as winging material and making posts for parachute patterns. Many spinner patterns use poly yarn for the wings. These patterns stay afloat but have to be presented carefully in order to stay above the water.

You may have noticed that comparaduns are your friend if you’re trying to tie flies hackle free. You can also tie a comparadun with poly yarn as the wing.

Duck Feathers

You can use duck feathers to make what’s called wally wings on flies. These look really cool, but are actually quite simple to make (once you get the technique down, they are a bit delicate). It’s basically splitting the hair down the middle.

Here’s a great tutorial on how to tie wally wing flies. They’re commonly used in spinner patterns, but can also be used in other mayfly patterns to replace traditional wings as well.

Maybe I should buy some dry fly hackle, how do I decide?

If you’re serious about fly tying, at some point you’re going to want to use quality dry fly hackle. How to decide what dry fly hackle to buy? Check here for an in-depth look no the difference between saddles and capes.

You’ll use many other types of feathers in fly tying such as saddle hackle, schlappen (often used in streamers), marabou, cdc, and many others. These are all useful varieties of feathers, but for the most part make poor substitutes for proper dry fly hackle. The exception being CDC which I touched on earlier.