Soft Hackle Wet Flies

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D

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Anyone use or tie soft hackle wet flies? The flies on the left side of the fly box are some of my soft hackles. They seem to work pretty well in the streams of east Tennessee and they are easy to tie and fish. The yellow bodied ones seem to work best.

Joe

[Camp'n'fish 0]

I use tie them up for bluegill in west Tennessee. One of favorites. Only use them for trout once, but they did produce.

[Dave G. 0]

I tie them for spring time rainbows and use them in one or two ponds locally. I tie a different one for Maine streams brookie fishing. Sometimes these are the flies that will get fish when nothing else seems to produce. So they are well worth having a few on hand.

[MckinneyLonghorn 0]

I don't do any trout fishing in Dallas, Texas, but use soft hackles a lot on sunfish. Typically in rivers and creeks I fish a size 12 soft hackle as a dropper under a foam hopper. I am sure color doesn't matter, but typically I tie them with purple bodies with dark gray hen hackle and a gold bead. But like I said, every color combination I have ever tried has worked, so I just tie what I think looks good and don't worry about it.

[spiralspey 0]

I love softies. They're an awesome mayfly and caddis emerger imitation. My favorite is a simple hares ear tie that I use both dead drifted and swung on my local rivers, and stripped just below the surface on stillwaters when callibaetis are hatching. There's something special about partridge hackle that fish just love.

[heavynets 0]

I caught my biggest trout on a peacock blue bodied soft hackle in the Cumberland river. That rainbow measured 22+ inches.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I love tying and fishing soft hackles. A hare's ear soft hackle is my go-to "searching" fly for smaller trout streams here in Michigan. I've caught a lot of nice-size browns on them, up to about 17". They work surprisingly well on the Au Sable, considering how simple they are to tie and how "educated" some of those fish are. They're also a great fly to tie on when teaching someone to fly fish.

[Guest]

Some are putting glass beads on soft hackles....

Red Asses, pink, orange, yellow too...

[Dave G. 0]

Probably my most productive soft hackle is the peacock and hen . I haven't tied any in a while now, other soft hackles work too LOL. Good stuff, fun to tie. Before I kick out I will tie some with silk thread bodies, most of mine are like others say, the hairs ear etc..I tie one with jade colored floss that works great, as does the same fly with a turkey wing on it. I've caught salmon and brook trout on those.. No reason they won't work for pan fish either though, I know the peacock and hen will. Maybe try both of those in about a size 12.

 

The peacock and hen is easy: size 12 wet fly hook ( I like mustads 3906 or 3906b for my soft hackles). Black thread, gold wire or oval tinsel tag at the back of the hook, wrap the peacock herl forward and put in two turns of natural hen hackle and whip. That's it.

 

The jade is on the same hook. Wrap the floss forward ( a tag is optional as is a gold rib, I don't use either), one turn each of Coachman brown hen hackle ( might be hard to get so use brown) and one turn of grizzly hen). I have brown Ruffed grouse feathers, I use that sometimes instead of the two colors of hen. If you add a turkey wing on it you have a more traditional wet fly. It's very universal with small alterations like that.

[Bimini15 0]

If you don't mind, is there a good cheap all purpose soft hackle?

[spiralspey 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.

[vicrider 0]

Beaded soft hackles are great but if you want to try what I think is an improvement try some with the bead behind the hackle. Gives a shifting view of bead, helps hold the hackle out and wiggling more and lot laying back over body, and I know some who claim it will outfish the from bead flies. Always worth it to have a few varied offerings to experiment with.

[Guest]

Most of mine little different than normal skinny body and long hackles ....

[Dave G. 0]

If you don't mind, is there a good cheap all purpose soft hackle?

You could try a Wapsi natural hen skin. I think they have other colors but I never really looked. Seems to me the last one I got was around or maybe even under $10. I bought it from Bears Den.

 

A good partridge skin will be around $30, maybe $40 these days. Not sure what grouse might cost. But those birds both offer prime soft hackle feathers. Bears Den back in May had a great looking partridge skin, I almost bought it but then checked my sanity, since I have one stash of loose feathers in a baggie mostly unused yet, certainly still worth picking through.

 

It's good to hook up with a bird hunter for grouse or partridge if they are in your area.