Losthackle

The simplest start: DE 12 hooks medium guage Black tying thread (sewing cotton is fine) 2nd or 3rd grade dark red/brown/furnace cock cape with plenty of black spadey hackles. Beeswax (candle) Clear nail varnish First fly (black spider style): well waxed black thread body; soft black cock hackle Add peacock herl and fine copper wire stripped from electric cord to list for the second fly: the Black and Peacock Spider http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/flyfishing/fly_tying/3026-black_and_peacock.html Add Black marabou and true red wool to the list for the third fly: A red and black woolly bugger You can now use the red wool and the furnace cock hackles to make Red Tags. Add wools and furs to the list and tie basic mayfly nymphs. And you are on your way....

I won't get in to the strip versus cut argument, except to say that I've done both. (and I have lost count of the number of times I have removed the barbs from the wrong side, cut through the stem or torn the stem to pieces) Endorse phg's explanation for removing the barbs on one side And I tie in by the tip. Here's a good instructional http://www.intheriffle.com/fishing-videos/fly-tying-tips-tricks/stripped-partridge-soft-hackle/ although I would take fewer turns of hackle than he does. Somewhere recently (and I'm sorry I can't find the site again), I read about an alternative method, not involving winding the hackle, which on a trial of once seems to work. Cut off the tip of the feather forming a V, tie feather down loosely over the butt, pull feather back through the loop, wind thread around barbs to distribute them evenly around the shank.

Not sure what your wife would be wanting, but if I was looking for somewhere low key and relaxing and friendly, I would check out Kiribati.An acquaintance of mine spoke highly of the experience there. Here's a couple of links:- the fishing http://www.fishabout.com/article/Fishing_Report_The_Villages_by_Roger_Flynn and generally http://www.kiribatitourism.gov.ki/ if it doesn't work for you this time, you can always add it to your bucket list (on mine.)

I've just learnt that there are some crab feeding trout in our local estuary. I've never tied a crab fly before, so I am open to suggestions as to flies. I've noticed that some crabs are tied with the claws to the side, some to the rear and some to the front. Is there some logic to this? For instance, the sideways tie for a moving crab; to the rear (with weight at the eye) for a static, threatened crab; to the front for ??? Any and all advice welcome.

Not wanting to interfere with anyone's entrepreneurial spirit, but it is also available free in other formats at https://archive.org/search.php?query=fly-fisher%27s%20entomology%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts and in hard copy at CochyBondhu books (not free, of course) http://www.anglebooks.com/search.php?jssCart=d3bb61d726e395e275e677a330eee616

I have used a piece of hard plastic (from a pantone pen) and sections of an old car aerial sharpened around the edges to cut foam discs and cylinders, including some from old flip-flops. Is that the sort of thing you mean?

Forgot to mention: the third rank would depend on where I was fishing. If I was going to the Lakes I would have a three fly English rig (carrot on the top dropper, one of the soft hackles on the middle dropper and a daddy long legs on the point); I would also have a set of midge emerger patterns. If I was fishing our meadow streams, I would have a variety of mayfly nymph patterns, emergers, red spinner and black spinner. This is all for regular trout fishing. It would be completely different for sea runners (sea run brown trout), estuary or saltwater fishing, of course.

This question got me thinking long and hard, partly because I re-cast the question along the lines of what one fly would you not be without. And it's a toss-up (in no particular order):- Black and peacock spider (#12, fat peacock herl body and long soft black hackle) Red and Black Woolly Bugger (#8 Long shank, unweighted) (Black marabou tail, copper wire rib, black cock hackle palmered, carmine red wool) And in the second rank:- softhackles (#14 black and starling; gray and partridge; orange and partridge); a shrimp type Czech nymph (#8 grub hook plastic green back over hare's ear, copper rib, bead head); a small sedge/caddis dry (# 14 deer hair tip wings, light tan fur or sub, mottled ginger-brown cock hackle); #14 Adams Hope that helps.

Cross threading: great thread on Spider softhackles here http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=76094

Also, I endorse what Old Hat had to say and don't forget to collect game feathers whenever you can. There's always wild duck feathers around our municipal ponds, for example.

Thread cross linking (also note references to online versions of some of the classics): http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=75889&hl= Oddly enough, the "spider" pattern that got me interested in softhackles in all their glorious variety isn't strictly a spider pattern ...The Black and Peacock Spider (plump peacock herl body and black hen hackle). It represents snails and beetles and still remains one of my "Go to" flies. Really interesting contributions on this thread. Thanks for the great read.

SilverCreek I do wish I had read your article before I ever bought wading boots. I thought the lack of a heel was to improve traction on the river bottom. Oh foolish me. When the time comes to consign my current boots to the the furnace (assuming I don't get there first), I will bear your piece in mind. Very good, sir, and thank you

Congratulations and welcome to the obsession... here's a link to a thread about the first fish on fly, where fellow addicts confess to their first adrenalin rush: http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=75462&hl=

See also this thread http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=75634&hl= I should also add that I had no problems with casting, er, let me refine that...no new problems with casting... just the usual

Worked like a charm...great action particularly when teamed with craft fur and marabou streamers. Our local "salmon" ..(.Arripis trutta, kahawai in New Zealand) loved them...but then again they aren't too discriminating! Have yet to try them on the trout.

Oh this is a tough one for someone with a philosophical bent...if I did what I think now I should have done then, I wouldn't be where I am thinking that's what I should have done...an endlessly recursive conundrum. I'm with Chase Creek...fly tying is a journey. We each approach it in our different ways. Some people (not me) are wonderfully methodical and organised and will master one technique at a time before moving onto the next; others (like me) will tie everything and anything, leaping from experiment to experiment and never master anything. Some people (not me) love gizmos gadgets and fine tools and have the wherewithall to indulge their interests; others (like me) scrounge and make do.Some people(not me) have to have the finest and best materials; others (like me) are forced to make do with what we can find in the bargain bin or out-and-about. As a self-taught (from the handheld non-electronic tablet instructional devices), I have had the finest teachers in the world, but still managed to develop a muddle-through technique. I don't know that I regret not having a flesh-and-blood teacher. I expect I could manage not to learn equally well from one of those as well. There is some virtue in having to find your own way of doing things, I suppose, although in my case, it seems to be limited to winding the thread the opposite way to everyone else and whip finishing by hand. In short, I am not sure I can tell you what I would have done differently if I was starting out now. What I can say is where I'm at now, which hopefully might be of some use. Having bought stuff whillynilly to feed the experimentation obsession, I now have too much stuff. AND I have actually disposed of my flytying stuff three times in my life; once in a fit of pique during the divorce; once when I went to New Zealand for a few years and again when I returned to Australia. So I would like to have less stuff (NOTE: this will probably never happen). I now think that most flytying tools and materials are overpriced (Translation: I don't have the money) and you don't actually need most of the stuff. For example, I won't be buying tying thread any more...I have three or four lifetimes of silk and cotton sewing thread around the house. I don't need fur...heaps from roadkill and there's always wool. I'm now controlling the experimentation bug. Sometime back, I realised that I looked like the Michelin man with my vest bursting at the seams. Since then, I have simplified what I carry and how. (The story is on my blog, in 3 parts, starting here http://losthackle.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/simplificate-part-1-fly-fishing-gear-i-used-to-carry/) This means that I regularly cull what flies I carry and therefore need to tie. So I am narrowing down what I need in the way of materials. To end this ramble, that perhaps is another difference...you can start out broad and then narrow down; or you can, as someone suggested above, start small with a couple of key patterns and then grow from there. Any-o-how,m I hope that has been of use/interest/amusement...cheers P.S. Razor blade is an essential tool for destroying experiment 626

Sort of neither? Used to fish in New Zealand where felt is banned, now I'm in Australia, where it isn't exactly banned, but very few anglers feel it's okay to use them after NZ banned them to stop the spread of didymo there. I have korkers (lug sole, sticky rubber sole, sticky rubber sole with studs). The lug sole is great on mud, gravel or sand and good for generally walking, but absolutely dangerous on the rounded mossy rocks we get in some of the freestone streams around here. The sticky rubber soles (little suction cups) were about as useless on the rocks; studs a little better. What I did was to overcoat the sticky rubber part of the studded sole with Selley's Spred sole compound (1 tube did both soles). The studs are still visible and still work. This gives a superior grip. I've been using it for the last season and I have to say that it works almost as good as felt. And it's still intact. Plus it has the advantage that when I am walking across wet grass or slippery mud I don't fall on my ...um dignity...

AW, gwarsh! I also like FlyTire's response...after all that's how the various styles of soft hackles developed anyway. I also like mvendon's charts...an excellent resource. And my softhackles tend to be messy and, in spite of everything I do, sometimes catch a fish or two.

Just found this link by accident & thought it is of interest. (page 2 isn't much), but 1, 3 & 4 are good. http://flyfischa.smugmug.com/Flyfishing/Soft-Hackles/20555372_2HrLF3#!i=1628444912&k=Mpwt8wX

For anyone interested in the history and development of the "soft hackle" fly there is a good article by Phillip Bailey here The old books by T. E Pritt North Country Flies (not all soft hackle) (1886) can be read online and downloaded here Harfield Edmonds Brook and river trouting, a manual of modern north country methods, with coloured illustrations of flies and fly-dressing materials (1916) here W.C Stewart's The Practical Angler (1907) here By the bye the internet archive is a useful search point for all old books. Enjoy!

forget what i said about the hackle proportions...mvendon is the man! Thanks for those charts...really good. especially the second one. The differences and the reasons behind the different styles doesn't seem to be well understood or documented, as far as I know...love to be wrong on this. Anyone know a good reference? The evolution of the different styles grew out of differences in the type of waters and the type of fishing. The type of fly life maybe a secondary consideration, excepting the development of the flymph. I have had very little success with the Stewart style on the rivers I have fished...far more success with the North Country Style with the longer hackle (& more recently the kebari style), fished upstream, and the flymphs, fished with the Leisenring lift. There's a lot of subtlety in the choice and use of the style. A lifetime's study!

As riffleriversteelheadslayer said, I would use a little less hackle. When using wood duck I usually strip the fibres from one side of the feather and take 1 wrap, maybe 2 wraps. Having said that, I think there are a number of different styles of soft hackle flies. There's the American style (Nemes, Leisenring, Hidy) style ...the swept back hackle; the Pritt and Edwards North Country Spider style ...very sparse with the hackle standing more straight out from the hook; the W.C Stewart style where the hackle is spun onto the thread and then wound in open turns up the shank (a right old mess); the tenkara Sakasa Kebari (reverse hackle fly) where the hackle is tied to flare over the hook eye. The American swept back style seems to "imitating" the emerging caddis, so the hackle is swept back and perhaps a little fuller than the other styles as it imitates both legs and wings. Designed to be fished upstream and then held in the downstream current (the Leisenring lift) The Spiders were designed for the rough and tumble freestone streams of the North Country, where any fly was quickly sucked under and messed about. Stewart's style similarly. (upstream, short line) The tenkara fly is designed for fast flowing mountain streams, and to be fished with a subtle pulsing movement to enliven the hackle. Interestingly, the proportion of hackle length to hook shank is about the same (1 to 1 1/2 times) and all the flies emphasize the importance of movement...the mobile hackle. One final historical note: GEM Skues' first set of "nymphs" were actually imitating mayfly emergers and used soft hackles very much as the North Country Spiders. (Dead drift upstream to fish "on station").

Bwah Hah hah haH! *Rolls on floor clutching stomach* Hah hah ha! " No stop I can't take any more" * wipes tears from eyes*

I once tied for a local fishing shop.Some lessons I learnt that might help: Like Christopher K said...you have to be able to keep up with demand (Think, I need 50 #16 Adams by Friday morning). You get paid for quantity. You get paid for quality and evenness of quality. Being able to tie a lot of flies of the one pattern quickly to standard is essential. To achieve that you need to have all your materials prepared and on hand. For the Adams order, that means having all the hackles of the right size selected before you start tying, for example. Ask what the fly shop needs before you start tying, but take some samples (of well known flies) along to show them what you can do. You will probably be surprised at what they actually want. They probably won't want your originals. Be prepared (or even offer) for them to sell some "on consignment" AS A TRIAL ONLY. Be prepared to accept "fishing tackle in exchange" rather than cash, but insist on trade price or at least a discount on retail. Hope this helps if you decide to go this way. And in any case, may your venture soar.

I'm so glad I started this thread. I get to share in everyone's excitement about that first fish on a fly.