Andan, you ask a GREAT question regarding how to tie soft hackles without the hackle being too long, as a lot of feathers are too big. And I assume by your question of how to keep them "limp" without being too long, you mean without cutting the tips off the hackles -- you certainly DON'T want to do that. Well, I know of a method that allows you to use ANY size soft hackle feather without it ending up being too long AND without having to cut off the tips of the hackle. I'll be surprised if you find this technique in ANY book on how to tie soft hackles. I posted this method once on another board, and have copy and pasted it here as follows:
You take any size feather and lay your hook shank on top of the feather, starting at the tip of the feather. This is merely for measurement purposes, as you will cut this much of the stem (stem only, not the barbs!) off the feather, leaving a "v" shape at the end of your feather. Leaving 10 - 15 or so barbs on each side of the stem, strip the rest of the feather. The purpose of cutting the stem, leaving 10 - 15 barbs on each size, and then stripping off the rest, is that it leaves just the barbs that will be used for the fly, and all the barbs will be the same length. Don't worry how long the barbs are at this point. Later, after you have dubbed a ball on the hook for the thorax, you simply take this v-shaped section of your feather and drape it over the hook just in front of the thorax with the butt of the feather towards the hook eye. Put a couple wraps of thread around the feather just in front of the thorax, and the dubbing ball will cause the feather barbs to splay outward. Before cranking down with additional thread wraps, pull the feather either back or forward for a final adjustment of barb length. At this point, you can also adjust the placement of individual barbs around the hook. Then wrap a couple more tight wraps, create the head, and whip finish. Done!
To summarize, after cutting the stem and stripping the feather, you're simply laying the remaining v-shaped section of feather on top of the hook length-wise; you are not wrapping the hackle around the hook as given in all the traditional soft hackling techniques. Is this simple or what?!? The secret to the whole thing is cutting the stem hook-length from the tip of the feather, creating that v-shape.
This technique came from a short article in an old Fly Fisherman magazine that was written by a professional tier who figured this out over a couple of beers and fiddling with feathers on his vise after being confronted by a large order and not enough small hackles on hand to satisfy it. You will find, as I have, that this technique will really expand your soft hackling horizons, as it will enable you to use all kinds of feathers that would normally be too big using conventional soft hackling techniques. For example, you'll be able to use all those wonderful, multi-hued pheasant feathers you get when you buy a whole skin. (Some of those are wonderfully iridescent green, by the way, almost like peacock herl). You will only be limited by your imagination. I can't tell you how happy I was when I tried this technique and found out how simple it is and how great it works. Hope you give it a try, it is WELL worth it!
-- Mike
Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that's why there are no signs of life.
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