Cutcliffe

[@brianfeeney9493]

Gotta 🎉 Love 💕 this Pattern !!! Thank You !!!!! 🌟🎣💫

[@flyanorak]

Thank you!

[@xaquinlopezgomez1028]

Oh, so thankful !! I am a Spaniard but always liked the English soft hackles better than our tradicional " gallo de León" dressing. Not because softs fish better, just a matter of aesthetics. Now, I always had the suspicion that our dressing could work better on fast water, preciselly because of the stiffness of the feather, and that it was what Skues tried to correct by tying his hackles from BEHIND . But you have achieved here a wonderful merge of the two styles that I am.dying to tie and fish just to compare.

[@flyanorak]

Thank you for your comment and thoughts. Cutcliffe was a huge hackle geek. He talks about breeding chickens in his book. The hackles he used in the mid 1800s were often from English bantam game cocks but he also mentions Andalusian blues. I don't have a vintage collection of hackles from that period but pictures I have seen point to something very different than what Whiting offers today. What we get in the US of Gallo de Leon feathers are always the riñon feathers. My work takes me to Spain often and I learned about the cuello feathers. I have purchased some and to my eyes they look a lot like the vintage hackles people post pictures of from England in the late 1800s. So I think they work exceptionally well for this type of fly. I also love Gallo de Leon...one of the worlds' fly tying treasures we need to protect and support!

[@kenb4685]

Gidday. Great tie. Thankyou.

[@flyanorak]

Thank you too!

[@michaelsmith7193]

Very nicely done! I have to wonder how many modern fly anglers (perhaps especially in the U.S.) know their debt to Cutcliffe.

[@flyanorak]

Thanks. Good question. I would guess very few have heard of him and even less have read his book. But honestly I don’t think the percent goes to say 90% for a figure like Halford or Skues. I think most anglers don’t get into the history end of things. What do you think?

[@michaelsmith7193]

@@flyanorak Agreed. I find the history of the sport fascinating but accept that many, perhaps most, do not. Nonetheless, fly fishing offers some intriguing glimpses into the past.

[@flyanorak]

For sure and that is one reason for my love of tge sport.