Soft Hackle Wet Flies

[1hook 0]

Yea you can pick up a hen saddle or neck pretty cheap in a variety of colors

[denduke 0]

BTW there are techniques to utilize even the large fethers on small flies. Google it for videos

http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/forum/threads/using-larger-feathers-on-small-soft-hackles.81978/

[Bimini15 0]

I do have a chinese hen cape I use for large streamer tails and poppers, and a couple of pheasant rump patches, so maybe I do not need to buy more stuff.

[Dave G. 0]

Seems like some of us really like a hares ear soft hackle. Here's the version I use during the sunny days of summer when callibaetis hatch on my local lakes and the trout are eating nymphs near the surface. Partridge tail and hackle, hares ear body, flashabou rib, and silver bead to get it down a few inches and represent an air bubble.

Spiralspey, those look like they would be killers !

[Dave G. 0]

I do have a chinese hen cape I use for large streamer tails and poppers, and a couple of pheasant rump patches, so maybe I do not need to buy more stuff.

Hmmm, maybe 6 months ago I watched some you tube on using Chinese Hen that was tool long fibered for the wet flies and such being tied. The method of shortening them up was very effective, even having the fibers lean rearward. No idea who made the video now or where I found it. I think it was just in a general search so it's probably still around out there. i was interested because I have a Chinese Blue dun cape that fits that bill. However I found a better use for it, smaller traditional grey ghosts like we tend to use in the Maine rivers..

[atxdiscgolfer 0]

My best producing and favorite soft hackle patterns are the Purple and Starling, Copper and Hare, and a simple soft hackle pattern with wine thread and patridge.

[planettrout 0]

I just returned from 4 days of fishing high elevation lakes in the Eastern Sierras..I used a number of patterns in this soft hackle box:

 

 

 

...and a bunch of these as well:

 

 

Hands down, this fly was the most consistent producer on this trip:

 

 

I will be taking those and others up for a work-out on the Madison and some waters in YNP, September 13 - 26...

 

 

PT/TB

[Rocco 0]

Check out the Soft Hackle Journal for eye candy soft hackles that go well beyond most of the simple patterns that we have come to associate with the pattern type. The founder also has a draft treatise/eventual book on tying and using them.

 

Rocco

[vicrider 0]

This is the coolest idea I've seen so far. Copied this from denduke's video and will change my way of using too large feathers.

 

[vicrider 0]

Planet Trout, as usual you have a beautiful bunch of flies to choose from but your main producer has an unusual body, at least to me. Mind sharing your secret ingredient on that. I'll be on the White for a week next month and soft hackles are definitely producers there, along with many other flies the millions of stockers (pellet trout) in there love.

[Mike West 0]

Planettrout,

Is that Tioga or Virginia lake?

I grew up there..

[planettrout 0]

Mike,

 

That is Little Virginia...

 

vicrider,

 

The body on the soft hackle pattern is Kingfisher Blue dyed Peacock herl from Spirit River:

 

https://www.arricks.com/collections/fly-tying-feathers/products/uv2-iridescent-dyed-peacock-eyes

 

BTW, I highly recommend this book on SH patterns by Allen McGee. He lists all the different techniques for adjusting large feathers to small hooks and he has created a bunch of new patterns to match various insect hatches and some baitfish too...His attractor SH's are astounding !

 

 

PT/TB

[chugbug27 0]

I'll second you on this book PT. I recently had a ton of fun with his soft hackle wet/dry grasshopper, of all things.... He's got some great ideas in here. It's like he's re-imagined the wet fly.

[Stoneflylama72 0]

 

I have been fishing soft hackles since early spring on the Holston and Clinch rivers here in east TN. Never fished them much before this year but probably over 90% of trout caught this year have come on these two flies. On the Holston all spring and early summer the top fly did the business. It's a simplified Bastian's Floating Caddis Emerger. I tie it with a green foam abdomen and brown foam back, ruffed grouse soft hackle is just brown. Dead drifted with a more visible Caddis dry fly as an indicator was deadly on the Holston. The bottom fly is just pheasant tail then a green glass bead, same grouse soft hackle. Slightly smaller for the Clinch River. Been fishing it wet, across and downstream swing since July. Been catching alot more fish on the Clinch that way than I ever did with little PT nymphs or midges. Both rivers have/had good hatches of size 16-20 green bodied Caddis with brown wings.