Last week Sweetwater Fly Shop, Storefront Manager Marya Spoja, was interviewed by the Livingston Enterprise.  It was great to hear her take on the new craze that has hit the fashion world. Quite eloquent Marya!

Enjoy the article.

Hackles selling like hot cakes — for fashion
By Camden Easterling, Enterprise Staff Writer

Enterprise photo by Aaric Bryan

Livingston stylist Tracy Flanigan shows her feather hair extension at The Edge Salon recently. Local fly shop workers say they’re out of saddle hackle feathers in light of the trend.

Ask Rick Halloran of Dan Bailey Fly Shop where to find the long feathers called saddle hackles that are popular in fly tying, and he’ll point to an empty row of hooks on a wall.

“That’s where they used to be,” Halloran, a sales associate, said during a recent day in the downtown Livingston fly fishing shop.

Several Park County fly shop workers and owners say they’re out of the feathers due to a trend of women — and the occasional man — sporting them in their hair.

“We ran out of our last one probably two weeks ago,” Halloran said.

Local and national theories on just where, when or why the fad began vary widely. Some say rock icon and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler spurred the feather fervor when he wore the fly tying staple as a judge on “American Idol.” Others credit teen idol Miley Cyrus.

Either way, local fly shop workers say the result has been a nationwide run on feathers — and a premium in price for those used as accessories.

“Probably once or twice a week we get a couple of girls coming through looking for feathers,” said Marya Spoja, the retail manager for Sweetwater Fly Shop south of Livingston.

The women — who tend to travel in small groups of three or four and range in age from 20s to 30s — stand out a bit as a different customer demographic than the fly shop is used to seeing, Spoja said. Sweetwater doesn’t carry fly tying materials, so workers refer the feather seekers to other shops.

Spoja said she hasn’t been inclined to try the trend herself.

“I’d probably get run out of the shop,” she laughed.

Dandy Reiner, owner of Hatch Finders Fly Shop just south of Livingston, said she received her first call about the feathers about two months ago when a hairdresser in California inquired if she had any hackles available.

“The past few weeks,” she said, “I’ve gotten a phone call a day from hairdressers across the country.”

Reiner, whose shop provides its own hand-tied flies, said she has charged stylists roughly what had been the going rate of about $56 dollars for a saddle. A saddle yields about 200 usable feathers.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “We sold $500 worth of saddles to a hairdresser in Colorado.”

That caller also offered to pay far more if she could sell him feathers once she gets a new supply, she said.

Suppliers are backordered on the feathers but still are charging shops the normal price, Reiner said.

“It takes a long while to raise these on a rooster,” Halloran said of why suppliers can’t immediately offer more feathers.

Tracy Flanigan, owner of Livingston’s The Edge Salon, has been using feathers on clients for about two months.

“We just kind of put a few feathers in people’s hair for a little bling,” she said.

When she first caught on to the trend, she ordered the feathers online without realizing they are common fly tying materials.

“I was paying a fortune for them,” she said.

Online feathers had been fetching about $40 per set of 10, she said. Once she figured out she could find them at fly shops, she began sourcing them locally. Fly shop workers have seemed “not thrilled” when they learn she’s using them for style rather than flies but have been polite and friendly nonetheless, she said.

Flanigan sells the feathers for $5 to $10. They can be washed and styled and last up to three months. The feathers can be dyed, and for a while bright colors were popular with clients. Lately, though, she’s been using the neutral versions she’s found at fly shops, Flanigan said. Stylists attach the feathers to the hair with a small plastic bead.

“We don’t sell the beads,” Halloran quipped.

Jokes aside, Dan Bailey’s has had some customers frustrated by the shortage of hackles, Halloran said.

“Obviously the guys that tie are a little perturbed because we don’t have any,” he said.

But others are taking the trend in stride, said Dean Reiner, former owner of Hatch Finders.

“Any tier worth a salt has got two or three boxes full of feathers,” Reiner said.

People using the feathers for hair styles typically want those from the saddle of the bird, which provides longer pieces, he said. But fly tiers easily can use the shorter feathers that come from the bird’s neck, he said.

Shop workers and owners said they’re confident the craze will subside as stylists find the feathers in short supply nationwide and pay high prices for them.

“I think it’s going to be a fad,” Halloran said. “We’ll be able to restock.”

Sage Vantage Fly Rods

I am the type of fly fisherman that thinks if one or two rods will do, then you better own 37 of them. Actually my own personal quiver numbers somewhere around a dozen but there is always room to expand. If you hang around Rosy long enough, he can assist you with whatever excuse you need to buy another one. What I found this year was a need for another 6 weight fly rod. I have a great six weight, but it broke during some violent streamer ripping last fall and I was in need in a bad way. I also needed a 9 for six that I could hand to a client in the boat and not worry too much if they strip that 16 inch whitefish all the way to the top guide and then lift the fish out of the water. I was looking for a forgiving medium action rod that a client could easily cast. I was also looking for a rod that I would enjoy fishing myself until my other one was repaired. If you pull into Sweetwater fly shop on a slow day, chances are you will find Rosey, Andrew, or myself out on the lawn either perfecting that line shooting double haul or trying out the sweetest new rods to hit the market. We have cast every rod in that shop and have defiantly formed our opinions.

I have cast the old launch rods, which was the Vantage’s predecessor. I was never very happy casing one of these and wondered even more how difficult it would be for a newbie to cast one. Sage did their homework in redesigning their entry-level rods. The Vantage has a sweet taper that is delicate enough for the smooth and easy strokes but with plenty enough backbone to turn over a double nymph or dry attractor rig in the wind. This is a go to stick for the hopper dropper rigs that we fish on the Yellowstone, especially for clients who need a little extra help with their cast. The 9 for 6 weighs only 3 and 5/16 oz. and feels good in the hand. It is probably a bit heavy for delicate dry fishing but the 4 or 5 weight would do the trick just fine, at least that’s what I thought casting them on the lawn out back. I have been fishing this rod for 6 months now, still have not sent my other six weight in for repair and have not really missed it. I have a buddy of mine who purchased the 9’ 7 weight as a streamer rod that I did get a chance to fish. He lost his Z Axis overboard in the stone and found himself in need for a backup, quick and on the cheap. Per my suggestion, he went for the Vantage and has been
happy with it so far after fishing a rod 3 times the cost of his new rod for years. I found it to be a great stick that wouldn’t hurt my shoulder casting a sink line and articulated streamer all day.

I see a lot of Temple Fork, Echo, Cortland, and Cabellas rods out on the river and I know they do the trick just fine. I feel an entry-level rod should cost $100 to $150 but for the fisherman who really wants a fine piece of Sage craftsmanship made in the USA, it is worth the extra hundred or so dollars. You get to own a rod that will be with you for a lifetime or a backup rod that will make you forget you broke your 600 dollar stick on a rip rap snag.

The Vantage has 8 rods offered ranging from a 7 ½ 3wt up to a 9’ 9wt and offers them in combos for 5,6, and 8 weight rods. The Vantage also comes with a nylon covered PVC combo rod tube meaning you can leave your reel on your rod when you put it away. Sweetwater Fly Shop carries several of the Vantage rods and Vantage outfits as well as any rod Sage builds at www.sweetwaterflyshop.com