Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”

by Rusty Dunn

“Of all feathers required for fly dressing, the hackle is the most important and, unfortunately, the most difficult to pro­cure.” –F.M. Halford, 1886 in Float­ing Flies and How to Dress Them

How times have changed. If Halford could visit a fly shop today, he would be astonished. The quality and variety of modern dry fly hackle is extraordinary. Colors that used to be as rare as the crown jewels are now as com­mon­ as a knockoff Rolex. How did it happen? A handful of meticu­lous, observant, and persistent fly tyers raised chickens for decades, choosing and breed­ing at each generation only birds with the best quality of hackle. Such ‘selective breeding’ yielded today’s birds having long uniform feathers with thin flexible stems and short, stiff, glassy barbs.

Chickens were domesticated over 4,000 years ago fol­lowing crosses between at least two different species of wild Asian jungle fowl. Two separate and inde­pend­ent poultry breeding programs in America pro­duced today’s fly-tying elite from ordi­nary do­mestic stock. One lineage began with Harry Darbee in the 1930s, and the other with Henry Hoff­man in the 1960s. Their pioneering work on poultry breeding for fly tyers lives on today … literally!

Harry Darbee (1906-1983) was a commercial fly tyer in the Catskill town of Livingston Manor, NY. Darbee bred chickens expressly for fly tying from the 1930s through the 1970s. He began with stock obtained from the famous fly tyer Reuben Cross, but Darbee had the wisdom to diversify his flock by crossing it with old European vari­e­ties, most notably Blue Andalusian and English Gamecock. Darbee bred mainly for feather color, especially the many shades of dun. He spent decades seeking an elusive “self-blue” variety, which might yield only natu­ral blue dun offspring. He never succeeded, but Darbee’s many flavors of dun were treasures of the fly-tying world.

Darbee was as gen­erous as he was clever. He gave eggs in 1954 to Minnesota’s Andy Miner, who ex­panded the color range and greatly improved feather quality. Darbee de­scribed Miner’s hackle as “the fin­est in the world”. Miner never sold a single feather or egg, but, like Darbee, he gave many away. He gave eggs to Michigan’s Ted Hebert in 1973 and to Penn­sylvania’s Buck Metz in 1972, who established the first large-scale hackle business. Metz sub­divided the Dar­bee flock, yielding a series of lines whose feather colors were more predict­able. This was an impor­tant advance, as it improved on the random “shot­gun breed­ing” strategies of Darbee.

Henry Hoffman was a commercial fly tyer in Warren­ton, Oregon. Disappointed with the quality of avail­able hackle and being raised on a chicken farm, Hoffman decided to take matters into his own hands. He bought a pair of bantam Plymouth Rock (grizzly) chickens at a livestock show in 1965 for five bucks. The birds had exceptional feathers and founded Hoffman’s se­lective breeding program. He later added browns and natural duns to the flock. Within 10-15 years, Hoff­man pro­duced the finest hackle ever known, es­pecially his griz­zly. His im­prove­ments in feath­er qual­ity were remark­able. Before Hoffman, rooster saddles were poorly suited for dry flies, but by 1980 Hoffman “Super Sad­dles” were leg­en­dary. Demand was high, supply was low, and Hoff­man hackle was as scarce as it was famous. Gene­tics of both the Darbee/Miner/Hebert and the Hoff­man stocks is now en­trusted to Tom Whit­ing of Whiting Farms. Continuing advances in the qual­ity, variety, and colors of Whiting dry fly hackle are noth­ing short of amazing. Hackles that most tyers thought impossible are now everyday items in any good fly shop.

When you next wrap a hackle feather of uncommon color or beauty, or you hackle a dozen #24 midges with similarly sized hackle, think of the obser­vant poultry breeders who made it possible. Harry Darbee’s, Henry Hoffman’s, and Tom Whiting’s hands will be all over your finished flies. Their brood stocks are a century in the making, yet they con­tinue to improve every year. We should all age so gracefully.

Copyright 2024, Rusty Dunn

Adams Midge

The Adams Midge might just satisfy all your midge needs, but black, olive, cream, and grizzly midges are also useful. Vary colors of the thread, tail, dubbing, and hackle as needed.