What is a saddle feathers for fly fishing?

Answer 1

Saddle feathers come from roosters and are predominately used to tie flies in fly-fishing. Saddle feathers are the long feathers on either side of a rooster’s tail and can serve a variety of functions for a fly tier. They are mainly used in tying dry flies (imitate adult aquatic insects) or streamers (imitate aquatic fish or crustaceans). For dry flies, tiers buy pelts based on their size: full saddles, half saddles, or smaller packs. Saddle feathers are typically given a grade: gold, silver, or bronze. The grade is assigned based on the overall quality of the feather and the amount of flies that one can tie with that pelt. It is important to note that saddle feathers come in a variety of colors and other variants and different portions of each saddle feather are used to tie different sizes of flies. By purchasing a full saddle gold pelt, one can tie thousands of flies. For tying streamers, saddle feathers offer long, flowing feathers that create a lot of movement in the water and imitate a variety of fish. Saddle feathers can be used for more than just streamers or dry flies. They are a very useful type of feather for the creative fly tier.