Above photo: A #20 adult caddis with a sparsely hackled thorax. I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who lives in eastern Pennsylvania about the scarcity of new patterns now using conventional hackle collars. He noted that for the last twenty-five years, CDC has taken center stage and appears to drive much of the new pattern design. This is not necessarily a negative commentary on fly design; it's just a simple observation. If we look at some of the legends of fly tying, like A.K. Best, Vincent Marinaro, The Dettes, and even Dave Whitlock, the majority of their fly patterns used conventional hackle collars. I'm not saying they didn't use CDC; I'm simply stating that when I was in my mid-twenties, hackle collars were a mainstay for most dry-fly patterns at the forefront. The pure simplicity of a hackle collar is a wonderful thing. It can be wound in a manner that is very gestural and impressionistic. From a purely functional standpoint, it combines gossame...