John Other than a bunch of hackles that I bought from Conranch Hackles virtually all the other hen hackles that I have came from Dave Roberts of Feathers Emporium in Madison, WI. I've visited Dave's home several times and you wouldn't believe his stock of hackles. I literally mean his entire basemen...

Barry

Take a look at Veniards web site for pics of Moorhen / Waterhen, Coot, Jackdaw & Crow wings:

http://www.veniard.com/section1/feathers

Bob

Barry

Check your mail in a few days.

Bob

Barry

Ordered a bunch of the old Partridge hooks from Richard and received them a few days ago, just a week or so after I placed the order. There's something special in tying the old dressings on the old Partridge hooks.

Bob

Whoops, I forgot to mention Daiichi #1330 up-eye hooks.

Paul

I just ordered some E3B - up eye hooks from Richard Jefferies.....have been using his old, discontinued Partridge E3B, L2A, L3AY, etc. hooks for many years.

Bob

Barry

I'm with Bill in that almost all the soft hackle dressings I tie, I use the Daiichi 1550 or 1530 hooks. I also like the old Partrridge Caps. Hamilton hooks that I've purchased from Richard Jefferies (he now lives in France).

Bob

If you have access to Oliver Edwards' video on Wet Fly Fishing on either DVD or YouTube, he describes and demonstrates Stewart's Upstream Fishing method. You can see some of the method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge7Cl6ltAAs

John

This Davie McPhail video might give you a few ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP0hoz_RGzo

Bob

John

I've been using Maxima Ultragreen in tying my leaders for many years ... using Oliver Kite's leader formula (or as close as I can get to it) of 20# (54"), 12# (10"), 6# (10"), 5# (10")& 4# (36").

Bob