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Saw another piece on Soft Hackle flies.. Anyone fish these.. I have a few, but need to know a bit more.. When to fish them and maybe your 6 favorites for trout in the west.. See a bit on them from time to time, but little solid information.. Tough to buy them in my area.. Had my tier make up some, but haven’t given them a try yet.. Any information would be appreciated..


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I start every season with no fewer than a couple hundred and end the season with virtually none. I give lots away, but they are extremely effective as long as your technique is good. Keep the line tight and do not be afraid to raise them a little during the drift. Rick Bin and I caught hundreds of dollies in the course of a week on newly returning sea-run fish a couple times on Kodiak. Profile is as important as color.

Keep the hackle very sparse!


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You will want to fish soft hackle flies pre hatch, that is to say when the fish are feeding on nymphs and possibly emergers prior the the hatch. There are two ways to fish them, or at least two ways I fish them.

First is to fish them on a tight line and swing them as you would a steelhead fly. Throw the fly across current and allow it to swing downstream. Add weight based on the speed of the current and the depth of the water. As the soft hackle swings downstream and the line comes tight at the bottom of the drift the fly will rise in the water column making it appear to be an emerging nymph. The hit will most likely occur at the downstream rise of the fly, so be prepared and just lift your rod and bring you line tight when you feel the fish hit, it will be on then.

The other way I fish them is to tie them on as a "Dropper" behind a dry fly, the dry being a match for the anticipated hatch. I use this method when fish are feeding on the emergers and adults right at the start of a hatch. By using no weight on the soft hackle it will float in the surface film, or just below the surface, and will take those fish feeding on the emergers. Since you will not be able to see your soft hackle and you are fishing these in a natural drift manor you will use the dry fly as a strike indicator. If you see a rise close to your dry fly set the hook, if you see your dry fly jump or be pulled under set the hook. I typically run the soft hackle/dropper 18" or so off of the dry fly. Of course you will also catch fish on the dry fly so you will be doubling your chances with this method.

As Sitka deer said, tie them sparsely. They are simple flies to tie and youtube is your friend in this regard. Typically it is thread body, pheasant tail fiber body or a dubbed body of a color matching the hatch with a partridge collar or other soft hackle feather, and that is it.

Last edited by VaHunter; 03/17/18.
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Thanks!


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I fish them in still waters during hatches. An aggressive strip gets the fish to hit them hard under the right conditions. Sparse is better, for the third time. Fatter bodies get followers, thinner bodies get hammered. Tangerine and olive are my colors of choice. I am not a tier, but that's what I buy.


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My favorites:

Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear soft hackle.
Grey Hackle Yellow.
Tellico (sometimes referred to as a nymph but tied with soft hackle). Sizes 14, 12, and 10.
Grey Hackle Peacock.
Grey Ugly (tied like a Renegade but with Grizzly Hen hackle fore and aft.). I mostly use this fly in lakes.
One I tie with no tail, a slim tapered body of light beaver or muskrat, a thin pearl Mylar rib, brown hen hackle, and a very slim down wing of pheasant tail fibers.

I usually tie these in 18,16, 14, and 12 with the 14 being the most commonly used.

In lakes I use a retrieve of small quick jerks with irregular pauses (works best with the tip of the rod just in the water)or will very slowly retrieve line as I wriggle the rod tip up and down quickly. Longer slow jerks and pauses also works as well as just a very very slow retrieve.

In streams the above noted techniques by Sitka deer and VAHunter work, as well as the Leisenring lift. Cast up and across and follow the fly as it tracks across the currant till the rod is parallel to the currant and slowly raise the rod to the 12 o'clock position, often feel hard strike as the fly rises up. About a foot (10-11 o'clock) movement of the rod letting the fly rise and sink will often trigger strikes.

You can fish unweighted soft hackles tied on dry fly hooks with a greased leader which lets them ride in the surface film like an emerger with devastating results.

I also fish these in lakes behind a bubble with spinning gear.

Also tie quite a variety of larger (12,10,8) gaudy (yellow, chartreuse, or red bodies with black, yellow, or red hackles, contrasting tails, etc) for fishing in warm waters for pan fish.

I love fishing soft hackles. Very effective flies.


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If you can find one the Syl Nemes book "Fishing the Soft Hackled Fly" is a good treatise on their use. It ahs lots of good pictures on tying them. Can't add a thing to the above.

Last edited by sharps4590; 03/19/18.

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This one is good too:

Wet Flies


This is a nifty little book also (it's free to read if you have a Kindle):

Link

Slyvester Nemes book:

Nemes


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If you want the real deal on wets, including soft hackles, check out Helen Shaw's Flies for Fish and Fishermen...

https://www.amazon.com/Flies-Fish-Fishermen-Helen-Shaw/dp/0811706079

It is great for every aspect of these flies, except fishing them! wink


For tyers, the best, fastest way to tie soft hackles is incredibly simple. With the hook in the vise, present thread and prepared hackle to the shank and wrap hackle on as you wrap and lock your hackle on. Then wrap back toward the back of the shank and make the desired body with thread, or floss, or whatever.. then wrap the hackle and tie off BEHIND the hackle. Cover the tie-off with a tiny bit of dubbing and move your thread forward through the hackle. Tie a tiny head in front of the hackle to push it back slightly. Tie off and clip your thread.

It takes mere seconds to tie and it looks extremely good.

The hackle is tied in by the tip with the convex side to the shank and the butt of the feather pointing AWAY from the eye and on the back side of the shank.

If using thread bodies, use flat thread and keep unwinding it as you go to keep it flat which is the only way to produce a beautiful flat body.

If your hackles are too big for the flies you want to tie, wrap them first around the shank, well back from the eye. The wrap the down with thread toward the eye and make them point forward from under the thread. Then make your body and finish off by wrapping the thread through the hackle and then sweeping it back toward the bend and making a head in front to shove it back. Tie off with a tiny head for class.


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Thanks.. I need to check this stuff out.. We were gone for a week and just got home.. Thanks again..


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Tried to find a piece I wrote quite a few years ago where I took five old standard bodies and used a dozen different soft hackles for each body and looked at how they looked and worked... on uneducated fish of course... wink

It was a good excuse to look at how much the body mattered versus the hackle... found out 60 was too many test subjects. wink But grayling showed some strong preferences for very long, very sparse hackles, regardless the body... "spiders" as the Brits call 'em...


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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?


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Good thread here. I am going to give some of these a try, in my ongoing attempt to simplify my fly box (es).

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Soft hackles are a staple for me. They are the easiest to tie and are so incredibly versatile. I mostly fish them in lakes to be honest in the spring and fall. I like them fished with an intermediate or type II 10ft sink tip along weed lines and off points. I fish them pretty slow too. Patterns I like are *Carey Specials*, *The Guarantee* are just a couple. As said before, tie them sparse, with tails or without and just about in any colour body and hackle you can think of. I tie them small, size 16, right up to 1/0 4x long shanks for Pike.

In rivers and streams I've used the traditional quarter down and swing method and caught a lot of fish. I've also caught a pile of fish on soft hackles tied weighted and fished under an indicator on a floating line. This method seems to be deadliest in mid summer for me anyway. Get those flies into the death holes, it works.


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