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The flies shown are the Yellow Sally on the left and the Oak on the right.

Hi Shakeylee:

The first person that mentioned using full collar hackles on wet flies was Harry Darbee. Harry stated that he seen no use for the beard/false hackle and served no purpose on the fly. Harry alos stated that a full collared hackle added life and movement to the wet fly thus enticing more strikes. You can read this for yourself in Harry Darbee's book A Catkill Fly Fisherman. When I read this I thought to myself could this be true. So I researched on this a little more (You should see my library at home) and found that most wet flies before they came across the pond for Europe actual had full collared hackles. It seems that as wet flies migrated into the USA the full collared hackle was lost and the beard/false hackle was obtained. When I was schooled on tying wet flies from Don Bastian, I was taught to tye in a beard/flase hackle. Boy the flies are pretty and yes they will catch fish. Harry's statement stuck with me and I experimented on stream. I found that a fly with a full collar hackle out produced a fly with a beard/false hackle. Plus as I matured into my own style and techniques I have found that I prefer wet flies specially when fishing with a full collared hackle. Lastly I do use hen capes for the full collared hackles on wet flies.