Hackle Stripping

[NewSal]

I recently came across Barry Clarkes videos @ The Feather Bender - Perfect Parachute on youtube about hackling methods. Both traditional and parachute. I noticed one of the things he does is strips all of the fibers off the side of the feather that will face down on the shank or post.
I've done this with soft hackles to get a sparse collar, but havent really done it with dry fly hackles. I have to admit, the finished product looks really nice. My only thought would be because half of the fibers are gone the float-ability factor may go down a little (doubt it).
Anyone else hackle with a stripped down feather?
I know I'll probably hackle like this more often to get that nice clean look..

 

[tomgamber]

I'VE SEEN IT DONE THAT WAY. TRIED IT A COUPLE TIMES. JUST BECAME AN EXTRA STEP FOR ME SO I DON'T DO IT. MY FLIES ARE GOOD BUT NOT GREAT SO IT DOESN'T MAKE THAT MUCH DIFFERENCE. IF YOU'RE OCD OR A PERFECTIONIST YOU'LL NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

I don't strip one side of the hackle, but I tie parachutes the same way aside from that step. Notice he doubled the number of turns of hackle to nearly a dozen so he ended up with a similar number of hackle fibers only neater.

I'm not too much of a perfectionist when it comes to flies like this. I will use the final thread wraps and whip finish around the post to tidy the stray hackle fibers up a bit.

While I appreciate the beauty and skill of his flies, I think the fish won't care, especially considering a flush riding fly often imitates some kind of emerger or spent spinner which are inherently "messy' looking naturals.

 

[NewSal]

Fly-Swatter wrote:
I don't strip one side of the hackle, but I tie parachutes the same way aside from that step. Notice he doubled the number of turns of hackle to nearly a dozen so he ended up with a similar number of hackle fibers only neater.

I'm not too much of a perfectionist when it comes to flies like this. I will use the final thread wraps and whip finish around the post to tidy the stray hackle fibers up a bit.

While I appreciate the beauty and skill of his flies, I think the fish won't care, especially considering a flush riding fly often imitates some kind of emerger or spent spinner which are inherently "messy' looking naturals.

The fish definitely don't care, I think it looks nicer with one side stripped, and fly tying to me isn't just strictly about catching fish.
I tied a half dozen chutes, and a half dozen traditional hackled flies last night using the stripped hackles, they came out looking really really nice. Its a pleasing way to wrap hackles.

 

[dryflyguy]

I really never thought of trying it before.
But I could see that it would look a little nicer - to us anyway.
Would have to make more wraps though, to float the fly as well

 

[NewSal]

Yeah, I've been able to squeeze in more turns with the stripped hackle, they look really really nice that way. Only downside is the time it takes to do the stripping

 

[Fly-Swatter]

NewSal,

No doubt they look great. There is an art/craft to fly tying that's part of the appeal.