If you are a feather junkie like me, I think you’ll enjoy the YouTube video series of Kelly Galloup explaining Whiting feather products.
If you haven’t seen any of Kelly’s videos, he is a wealth of knowledge which he freely imparts to his viewers. Here he is tying a fly for me, his Compara Spinner which I featured as a Throw Back Thursday Fly back in September 2017.
Kelly’s Slide Inn is located along the banks of Montana’s Madison River below Quake Lake.
Whiting Farms grows some of the best dry fly hackle for fly tyers and has been expanding their feather products over the past few years. Dr. Whiting continues to work with the genetics of his flock, providing quality capes and saddles for all the different flies you tie. It can be confusing at times if you only purchase an occasional cape or saddle. I used to purchase saddles for the sizes I needed, but have found myself buying more capes lately because of the increased number of feathers and sizes on each cape. Yes, they are expensive, but the best bargain out there are the “pro grade” packages. The quantity and length of feathers will astound you if you’ve not looked at a package lately.
You might be confused with their products like Whiting (red label), Hebert/Miner (green label), High & Dry, American, 4B, Spey, Brahma, Coq de Leon and which ones to use for your dry flies and nymphs.
Kelly recorded several videos recently and while I have a lot of feathers at home, I learned something as well by listening to him. I hope you enjoy and learn as well. Here are the videos he’s published so far:
- Introduction to Whiting Dry Fly Hackle
- How Whiting Dry Fly Hackle is Graded
- Colors and Phases of Dry Fly Hackle
- Which Dry Fly Hackle is Right for You
- Introduction to Whiting American Rooster Hackle
- Whiting & Hebert Miner Hen Hackle
- Coq de Leon
Rather than providing a link to each video, here is the first in his series.
And just to prove I am in fact a feather junkie, this image of me selecting the exact cape I wanted kinda proves the point. Here I am at Campfire Lodge in 2019.
Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!
