Whiting Farms Hackle Quick Picks
- Best All-Around: Whiting Dry Fly Hackle Full Cape - The pelt to own if you tie a range of dry fly sizes, because it carries feathers from big attractors down to small mayflies. Available in Bronze, Silver, and Pro grades and a wide color range.
- Best for Production Tying: Whiting Dry Fly Hackle Full Saddle - Long feathers with dense barbs and supple stems that wrap easily, so one feather hackles a whole fly and often two. Pick a saddle when you tie dozens of the same pattern in a narrow size range.
- Best Starter Pack: Whiting 100 Pack Saddle Hackle - Enough saddle hackle to tie 100 flies in a single hook size from 10 to 20, without buying a whole pelt. 99, and the easy way to match a color to a hatch.
- Best for Midges: Whiting Midge Hackle 1/2 Saddle - Feathers sized mostly for hooks 18 and smaller, which standard pelts run short on. A half saddle is plenty for a season of small flies.
- Best for Streamers and Buggers: Whiting Bugger Pack - A pack loaded with a range of feather sizes for Woolly Buggers and leeches. The best value in the line for tiers who palmer hackle on streamers rather than dries.
How to Choose Whiting Farms Hackle
Cape, saddle, or pack
Action: Decide how many sizes you tie. A cape gives you the full size range on one pelt. A saddle gives you very long feathers in a narrower range. A 100 pack gives you one size and one color for about the cost of a few dozen shop flies.
Best for: Tiers starting from zero, the Whiting Intro Hackle Pack - Four 1/2 Cape - Assorted Colors, which covers four colors in half capes so you can tie most classic dries without buying four full pelts.
Understand Whiting grades before you pay for one
Whiting grades dry fly pelts by the approximate number of usable dry fly feathers, counted on both sides of the pelt, which is why a higher grade costs more. The grade does not tell you the hook sizes on the pelt, and under Whiting's Olympic Grading System every retail pelt must first meet one standard: supple, twist-free quills, dense barbing, and feathers more than 85 percent web-free.
Best for: Most tiers, Bronze. It is the same genetics as the higher grades with fewer usable feathers, and a Bronze cape or saddle still ties a lot of flies. Step up to Silver or Pro when you tie in volume or want the longest, most uniform feathers, and size feathers with a Whiting Hackle Gauge rather than by eye.
Beyond dry fly hackle: soft hackle, streamers, and tails
Best for: Wet flies and soft hackles, the Whiting Hen Saddle from the Red Label line, with long, webby feathers that also collar streamers. The Hen Cape gives you two feathers in one pelt: wide soft hackle for salmon, steelhead, bass, and saltwater collars, and chickabou, a fine marabou for small streamers, leeches, and damsel nymphs.
Best for: Big streamers, salmon, steelhead, and saltwater patterns, the Whiting American Rooster Saddle and American Rooster Cape, with webby, tapered feathers on sturdy quills. Rooster Schlappen Bundles (10 to 14 inches) make long, mobile streamer wings.
Tip: Coq de Leon is the tailing material. The Whiting Coq De Leon Tailing Pack covers perdigons and spinners, the Mayfly Tailing Pack is dyed in mayfly shades, and the Predator Pack has long feathers for big flies. Chickabou Patch and Bird Fur add movement to small streamers and nymphs.
Why Trident Carries Whiting
Whiting Farms is the reference standard for genetic hackle. The feathers are long, the barbs are dense and stiff, the stems wrap without twisting, and the grading is consistent from year to year, so a Bronze cape you buy next season will tie like the one you bought this season.
Materials & Durability
- Feathers are sold as is: Whiting pelts and packs are natural products, sizes and colors vary, and they cannot be returned or exchanged. Check color and grade carefully before ordering, and buy the photo option if you want to see the exact pelt.
- Keep moths out: Store pelts flat in sealed bags with a moth deterrent, away from untreated skins and old materials. A week in the freezer kills anything that came home in a new purchase.
- Keep them dry: Damp storage mats barbs and invites mildew. A dry drawer away from floatant and head cement fumes is all they need.
- Size with a gauge, not by eye: A feather one size too big makes a dry fly ride badly; one size too small sinks it. The Hackle Gauge keeps you honest across a whole pelt.
Complete Your Setup
Related Gear
- Fly Tying Feathers & Hackle - CDC, partridge, pheasant, and the other feathers that go with Whiting hackle.
- Dry Fly Hooks - Fine-wire hooks sized to the hackle you just bought.
- Fly Tying Thread, Tinsel & Wire - Fine threads that keep dry fly heads small.
- Fly Tying Dubbing - Dry fly dubbing for the bodies under your hackle.
Related Guides
- How to Tie the Parachute Adams Fly
- How to Tie the Adams Irresistible Fly Pattern
- How to Tie the Woolly Bugger Fly
- How to Tie the Patridge & Orange Soft Hackle Wet Fly
Whiting Farms Hackle FAQs
Q: What do Whiting hackle grades mean?
A: Whiting grades dry fly pelts by the approximate number of flies each pelt will tie, based on a count of usable feathers on both sides. Bronze has the fewest, then Silver, then Pro and higher grades.
Q: Should I buy a Whiting cape or a Whiting saddle?
A: A cape for size range, a saddle for feather length. Capes carry feathers for everything from size 8 attractors to small mayflies. Saddles have very long feathers concentrated in the mid sizes, so one feather can hackle more than one fly, which is ideal when you tie a lot of one pattern.
Q: Which Whiting hackle is best for a beginner?
A: A Bronze cape in grizzly or brown, or the 100 Pack in the size you tie most. Both give you real genetic hackle at the lowest cost of entry.
Q: Can I return Whiting hackle if the color is not what I expected?
A: No. Whiting feathers are natural products sold as is and cannot be returned or exchanged, and colors and sizes vary from pelt to pelt.
Q: What is Whiting Coq de Leon used for?
A: Tails. The stiff, speckled barbs make clean split tails on dry flies and spinners and durable tails on perdigons and other Euro nymphs.
Q: How many flies will a Whiting 100 Pack tie?
A: About 100 in the single hook size on the label, which runs from 10 to 20 depending on the pack. It is the cheapest way to get a specific color and size without committing to a full saddle.
Whiting Farms Warranty & Resources
Hackle is a natural material and Whiting Farms does not offer a warranty on it; Whiting sells through dealers and distributors rather than direct, and its pelts are sold as is.
Learn More from Whiting
- Whiting's Olympic Grading System - How pelts are graded and the quality standard every retail feather must meet.
- Whiting Farms FAQs - Where Whiting sells, special orders, and dealer information.
- Whiting Dry Fly Hackle - The current dry fly cape and saddle lineup by grade.