Genetic dry fly hackle has been in continuous development for over 50 years. The earliest hackle pioneers, most notably the legendary Catskill fly tier Harry Darbee and Minnesota attorney Andy Miner, were the first devoted individuals who successfully raised and genetically selected roosters to have better dry fly hackle. Their stocks were the foundation for almost all genetic hackle lines today.
In the mid 1960’s Henry Hoffman of Oregon began raising the finest dry fly grizzly the world had ever seen. During the 1970’s and 80’s a dramatic blossoming of quality and availability in dry fly hackle took place led predominantly by the hackle pioneers of their generation, Hoffman, Hebert and Metz. These devoted and unique individuals brought to the ever increasing fly tiers of the world dry fly hackle that their predecessors, Darbee and Miner, could only have dreamed about
In 1988 Thomas Whiting of Colorado finished his doctorate in Poultry Science and in the Spring of 1989 launched himself into the hackle business. Starting with the well known Hoffman dry fly hackle line, he also introduced Darbce, Miner and other assorted stocks to broaden the color range and genetic foundation with which to work. The fledgling company, Whiting Farms, rose during the 1990’s to become the dominant hackle company in the world.
In 1997 the excellent Hebert hackle line was also acquired to expand and complement the range of products offered by Whiting Farms. In addition new genetic lines of birds developed by Dr. Whiting were coming to market providing feathers for other types of fly tying. Most notably is the American Hackle; a uniquely versatile fowl excellent for salt water, bass, streamers, steel head and other tying applications.
After 10 years of careful study, experimentation and refinement of the genetic selection and husbandry systems essential for these demanding hackle stocks, the feather products from Whiting Farms have risen to new levels of quality Genetic progress has been ever accelerating and the unique environmental and nutritional requirements for realizing these genetic advances have been increasingly well defined by Dr. Tom and the crack staff at Whiting Farms.
This higher plateau of quality and value demanded a rethinking of how dry hackle capes are graded, packaged and sold. No longer is the old grading system of 1, 2, and 3 appropriate. Rather, an Olympic medal designation will more effectively guide the fly tier to their appropriate level of expenditure. In the Olympic medal system, all grades of Whiting hackle are of the highest quality (i.e, excellent barbs, quill, turning and web freeness for exceptional hackle collars). The differences between grades is determined by assessing usable feather length, range of hook sizes and ultimately the total number of flies that can be tied from the pelt.
THE OLYMPIC GRADING SYSTEM
Whiting’s Olympic Grading System was developed to consistently grade capes and saddles across all dry fly product lines. Whiting Farms does not grade from harvest to harvest or “batch to batch”. We do not grade to push up or down pelts to meet certain sales requirements or financial obligations. We do not grade to meet consumer demand. Rather, our grading methodology remains consistent throughout the years and is independent of any bias that would skew the true value of the pelt. When grading our pelts, one rule-of-thumb always stands true: the quality level of the feather is always consistent. What does this mean? It means that each dry fly feather has a supple quill, void of twist, contains dense barbing and is greater than 85% web-free. If a pelt doesn’t meet this core criteria, the pelt is never sold in retail.
