herl

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Related to herls: heels

herl

(hûrl)

The barb of a feather used in trimming an artificial fly for angling.

[Middle English herle, a strand or twist of hair.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

herl

(hɜːl) or

harl

1. (Angling) the barb or barbs of a feather, used to dress fishing flies

2. (Angling) an artificial fly dressed with such barbs

[C15: from Middle Low German herle, of obscure origin]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Kanegrade Ltd, 9 Bowman Estate, Bessemer Drive, Stevenage, HerLs SG1 2DL.

Raw materials: ingredients & additives

QUILL-BODY FLIES EFFECTIVELY IMITATE segmented insect abdomens, but they are a bear to tie with traditional quill-body materials like biots and stripped hackles or herls. Many of those materials break easily; hackle stems have to be soaked prior to use; and biots are too short and hard to handle.

SLICKWATER QUILL-BODY FLIES

All the fly bodies were invariably made of wool, much of which was dyed wool and also herl from ostrich or peacock.