When I started testing Frances, Snaelda and Franc ‘n Snaelda patterns for steelhead I ran into a couple of “issues” with the patterns. Firstly the traditional body with ribbing did not hold up very well to repeated catches. Maybe a luxury problem, but still I wanted a more durable body. So I replaced the body with epoxy; no more body failure. The second problem that I had was that the hen hackle that I was using was too soft and wore off from the vibration against the edge of the cone head. I tried other hackles, like shlappen, spey hackle and standard rooster, but I still was not very happy with the hackle. Finally I used Nutria, in a reversed tie. This works great. It is extremely durable, has great action and does not collapse in the current like most feathers will. There is one disadvantage; it is much more work to tie a Nutria hackle. The material is slippery and requires some attention to tie in properly. But the effort is worth the result. Nutria hackle is also great as a support for soft wing materials. I wrote a blog article on that here. Below is a step-by-step instruction on how I tie a Nutria hackle. I hope you enjoy it.
