PondStalker

Welcome, shayes11, from a former Idaho resident, now retired and living in Colorado. This forum is full of excellent support and other advise as you gain your fly tying experience. Happy to see you here.

My experience is that in tying the Soft Hackle Streamer there is "no" marabou tail. The colors of marabou that you select to use are tied in one at a time at the front of the fly and wrapped in place stroking back the marabou with your non-bobbin hand as you palmer wrap it. I think using the blood quills work just fine. Once you have tied in one marabou feather and palmer wrapped it, if you choose, you can tie in another color in front of that marabou and repeat the process. Good luck!

I am all in agreement with the other guys here. Mohair or Simi-Seal Leeches are my favorite. Utyer's attachment gives a good look at what the pattern looks like. I like mine in Brown, Olive, Blood, and Black.

Just to chime in here, anglers talk about following the Stonefly hatch on western rivers often. I don't know if "hatch" is an appropriate thing to call it. As Bryon already mentioned, the Stonefly nymph crawls from the water and attaches itself to surrounding stream side vegetation where it goes through the process of drying off and wings developing. They do not fly around like other bugs hatching. They are very clumsy and are not swimmers either. They either fall back in the water or they are blown back in and are at the mercy of the trout. Maybe a better term would be to call it an Emergence of Stoneflies.

Good looking work on this Scud pattern. Thanks for sharing.........................................

Brian - Count me in as a very satisfied user of the Peak Rotary Vise. To be fair, I have not used the Mongoose vise, so I can't comment there. However, for the price I believe that one could not find a better vise than the Peak Rotary. Tying flies is much more enjoyable because of the rotary features and the ability to access all spots on the hook as you tie. I, also, tie primarily from size #12 to size #4 for Bass, Panfish, Trout, etc. Jaws are easy to use and hold hooks well. Plus, the vise does have add on capability for some other great Peak accessories. BTW, nope don't work or have any connection with Peak. Just a satisfied customer.............................................................................

Kim - My take on that is that it is possible to tie them in any color you want. That being said, I prefer Olive over White, Gray over White, Black over White. While I say "White", what I am really referring to is a "Pearl White". Some times I will tie them with a Gold color on the bottom. Particularly, if I am tying a Gold colored Shiner or Perch type pattern. Just my two cents worth................

Welcome to the Forum. I am relatively new to the Forum, but, not to fly fishing and fly tying............. I will be happy to answer any questions you have or be glad to share with you what I know.............. If I can't answer your questions, there are lots of folks here who can also. Thanks for joining.

I don't buy it in bulk, but, I use Sally Hansen Hard as Nails.......................

Looks like Mallard "breast" feathers too me. I don't see Mallard "flank" feathers there much. Anyway, some useage but you do want a better package and purchase Mallard "flank" feathers. They have some good usage for nymphs and streamers. Here is a pattern that I use Mallard Flank on and love it.

Thanks everyone for taking a look and leaving your comments here. Tidewaterfly - Thank you for following my blog. I sure appreciate your support. It sure is easy to forget how we humans have just kept moving more and more into areas that were not residential in the first place. I think I will share with this neighbor... utyer - You make a good point about the Fall season. We will see........

mikechell, Sorry to hear that you don't follow anyone's blog. Us Bloggers have plenty to share............................................

Check out my prospective new neighbor over on my latest blog post..... What the heck are these guys doing in my neighborhood anyway? http://pondstalker.blogspot.com/2014/07/prospective-new-neighbor.html

Agree with Bryon on Sylvester Nemes. His books are wonderful and he was a leading authority. I had the honor to talk with him and watch him tie at the FFF National Conclave. He made you want to go fish Soft Hackles. In addition, I want to give a shout out to a BlogBuddy of mine, Neil Norman. He has an excellent blog on fishing Soft Hackles and goes into the history with a lot of the old patterns. Check it out! http://softhacklepatternbook.blogspot.com/

One of my favorite soft hackles is tied to do just what the guys here have mentioned. It is the I.D. Olive Soft Hackle. Just recently added to the database here so you can check out step by step tying instructions there.