Many Salmon Fly Tiers have difficulty, it appears, in getting ostrich herl in anything but huge, ugly, and/or sparse. My preference is for tight, short in barbule and fuller herl barbs. Most available herl is of poor quality. Thus a substitute of better feather structural quality might be worth consideration.

Through the years some have used wool or chenille as a substitute of more durability, but inferior look. The pattern for the Sir Herbert differs in that it calls for Peacock Sword for the butt. I tie the sword barb in tip first (remembering that there are right and left barbs) and carefully wrap forward. The barb is so full that even with its inherent brokenness, the end result is a compact well proportioned, nicely iridescent herl butt.

Later doing a Popham I remembered this. But instead of using the broken barbs near the tip of the feather, I went on down the stem to the barbs more similar to those on an eyed Peacock feather. The iridescent green, short, compact herl butt gave a most desirable look to this multi-jointed fly.

My intent is to continue using it in other flies, possibly dyeing it, which may give the darker color, but leave some natural iridescence.