FLYMPH FORUM

Another "Soft Hackle Economics 101" question for y'all: as a rule, how many covert feathers suitable for tying "waterhen" bloa's are there on the average coot/waterhen skin? In fact, now that I think about it, it would probably be useful to have a breakdown for a lot of different species, just in case we newbies run into a skin at a show or on the Devil's Yard Sale. For instance, while I imagine I could tie for years from a red grouse skin, I'm not sure a woodcock, snipe, or jackdaw scalp would be nearly as cost efficient.

Any thoughts appreciated...

I buy just the wings when it comes to waterhen, which, by the way, is different from the American coot.

t2f--how many from a pair of wings, then? The reason I asked was that I ran into a comment on one of the threads here that quoted an "Old Master" who maintained that there were as few as five per wing. I don't doubt he was just being a true craftsman--or perhaps a world-class wing-shot --but it got me to wondering just how many we less-persnickity duffers might expect. (BTW, it was a nice-looking coot skin currently on eBay that got me thinking about waterhen "subs"--I'll have to meet some of y'all on the water and rifle through your flyboxes firsthand before I'm up on the subtle differences that the "classic" materials have.)

Quote from Creationbear: "t2f--how many from a pair of wings, then?"
If you're not real fussy about hackle length, I'm guessing about two dozen.

Excellent, that's great information to have.