GANGGREEN
Active member
- Joined
- May 26, 2016
- Messages
- 169
I'm pretty sure that I've posted a positive review of the Collins Hackle Company here before, but I was up to see Charlie Collins again this morning and I was fortunate to pick up a nice handful of capes/saddles and thought that I'd give my opinion and make another recommendation. The selfish part of me wishes to stay quiet and hope that Charlie doesn't quickly sell out of his remaining inventory of hackle because I'd love to keep purchasing a cape or three every couple of months, but the fact is that I know Charlie's dealing with a lot of personal issues at home and know that he's probably anxious to unload his remaining inventory if he's able.
Today I picked up nothing but commercial grade capes and grade #3 capes/saddles and can report absolutely that ALL of the capes I purchased today are WONDERFUL colors and very high quality dry fly hackle that I'm completely satisfied with, and at a fraction of the cost of almost any of the other hackle merchants/growers. Off the top of my head, I got a light barred ginger, a grizzly variant, a brown, a smoky dun, a couple of barred rusty duns, a rusty dun and a couple of barred bronze duns, oh, a barred cream as well.
Each of those colors are jaw-dropping, but more importantly, the hackle itself is very, very nice. The feathers aren't as long as a Whiting for sure, but they're comparable to or longer than almost anything else out there with little taper and little web. They also aren't stocked on the neck as tightly as some Whitings that I've seen, but each would last me a very long time if they were the only dry fly cape that I owned. Barbs are stiff, the stems wrap very well and flies tied with these hackles just look buggy (I've already tied a dry fly or two from at least 4 or 5 of the capes I bought today). Another shortcoming for some people would be that the sizes might be slightly more limited than on some Whiting necks, especially if you tie a lot of very small dries, but for me, they're outstanding. Each of the capes that I got today had a handful of size 12 or maybe a bit bigger, a handful of size 18 and maybe a bit smaller, but a ton of size 14 and 16 feathers (which happen to be what I tie the most). Same for the saddles that I got. Some of the saddles are admittedly nicer than some of the others (for the cost, I'm not complaining one iota about the quality of any of his saddles), but most of them provide some very nice dry fly hackle and mostly in the 14-16 range.
If money were not a consideration, I could see people going the Whiting/Hebert route and I think some of the other small operators are probably also close to the quality of Collins capes (albeit at a higher price for the most part), but for me, there are no other hackle providers who produce such a nice cape, such great colors at such a reasonable price. As I said before, Charlie's basically out of business and just selling off some remaining inventory, so he may not have the color or grade that any individual may want on a given day, but if you aren't willing to at least give Collins Hackle a look or some consideration because Whiting provides everything you use, you're probably selling yourself short to some degree.
Today I picked up nothing but commercial grade capes and grade #3 capes/saddles and can report absolutely that ALL of the capes I purchased today are WONDERFUL colors and very high quality dry fly hackle that I'm completely satisfied with, and at a fraction of the cost of almost any of the other hackle merchants/growers. Off the top of my head, I got a light barred ginger, a grizzly variant, a brown, a smoky dun, a couple of barred rusty duns, a rusty dun and a couple of barred bronze duns, oh, a barred cream as well.
Each of those colors are jaw-dropping, but more importantly, the hackle itself is very, very nice. The feathers aren't as long as a Whiting for sure, but they're comparable to or longer than almost anything else out there with little taper and little web. They also aren't stocked on the neck as tightly as some Whitings that I've seen, but each would last me a very long time if they were the only dry fly cape that I owned. Barbs are stiff, the stems wrap very well and flies tied with these hackles just look buggy (I've already tied a dry fly or two from at least 4 or 5 of the capes I bought today). Another shortcoming for some people would be that the sizes might be slightly more limited than on some Whiting necks, especially if you tie a lot of very small dries, but for me, they're outstanding. Each of the capes that I got today had a handful of size 12 or maybe a bit bigger, a handful of size 18 and maybe a bit smaller, but a ton of size 14 and 16 feathers (which happen to be what I tie the most). Same for the saddles that I got. Some of the saddles are admittedly nicer than some of the others (for the cost, I'm not complaining one iota about the quality of any of his saddles), but most of them provide some very nice dry fly hackle and mostly in the 14-16 range.
If money were not a consideration, I could see people going the Whiting/Hebert route and I think some of the other small operators are probably also close to the quality of Collins capes (albeit at a higher price for the most part), but for me, there are no other hackle providers who produce such a nice cape, such great colors at such a reasonable price. As I said before, Charlie's basically out of business and just selling off some remaining inventory, so he may not have the color or grade that any individual may want on a given day, but if you aren't willing to at least give Collins Hackle a look or some consideration because Whiting provides everything you use, you're probably selling yourself short to some degree.