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AKA: Legs - hackle 'beard' type.

Hackle beards are tied in to represent legs on a fly and in some cases to camouflage the point of the hook. They can be tied with almost any soft hackle or feather. In the example below I have tied the beard with a Ringneck Pheasant feather (also known as church window feathers). The important thing is to select a soft hackle that has barbules that are the correct length. In most cases select a hackle with barbules equal in distance to the distance from the top of the tie in position and the barb of the hook.

Process

A	Stroke all but the very tip hackles toward the butt of the feather. Tie the hackle in by the tip hackles.

B	Trim the tip off.

C	Wind the hackle round the hook shank just a couple of times. Tie the hackle off with a couple of firm wraps of thread.

D	Trim the butt end of the hackle with a blade rather than scissors. If you use scissors you are likely to trim some of the beard hackle of at the same time.

E	With the fingers of your left hand stroke all the barbules downward and slightly back taking care to approach directly from the top so that an equal number of barbules are stroked down each side of the fly.

F	Whilst retaining the grip with your left hand take a couple of wraps of thread around the base of the barbules to secure them in that position.

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