I was going to post a picture of the 75 or so soft hackles I'd recently tied, but I guess I'm out of the pic business. They range from the usual and standard as described by Sitka to complicated or ornate or concept stretching. (Is a foam ant with a hen feather, originally white but with the lower barbs Sharpied black, tied around its center a soft hackle?)
Bodies of thread, yarn, dubbing, wire, peacock, moose, ostrich, marabou, dry fly hackle, tinsel, horse mane, foam, feather barbs, D-rib, and more. Ribs of copper, thread, mono, fine dry fly hackle, peacock, Flashabou, and more. Thoraxes (thoraces) of dubbing, peacock, ostrich, yarn, and more. Tails of hackle tips, emu barbs, Crystal Hair, Flashabou, peacock, deer hair, calf tail, and more. Hackles of game birds, waterfowl, chicken hens or roosters, peacock, deer hair, and more. Thick bodies and slim. Tapered bodies and straight. Wingcases or no. Appendages like butt tufts, biot 'wings', antennae, or no. Size 24 to 2.
The options are innumerable, the insect shapes many, the attractors myriad.
Floating soft hackles, weighted soft hackles, greased soft hackles. Besides a box full of Aztecs, is anything else really needed?
