Just starting out with tying proper soft hackles

[Dwclapp]

All,

I have been tying various soft hackles over the last year using regular tying thread as opposed to traditional silk bodies. I am now wanting to step up my game a bit and tie these things with the proper/traditional dressing. Where do I start???

What silk should I use for the bodies (Pearsall's Gossamer???)? Which colours (for e.g. Partridge and (insert colour here))? Do you tie with the same silk that you make the body with?

What about under bodies? With the translucency that silk provides, does one need a tinsel or other underbody to utilize this translucency to the best effect?

Thanks for any advice to get me headed in the proper direction!!

Regards,
Darin

[DUBBN]

A big welcome to the forum Dwclapp. There is a lot of info to be gathered here and some great tyers to get it from. I have been threatening to cross over (step up) to silk for a few years now. It still has not happened.

I am sure you will get alot of advice on this subject. I will be watching the answers along with you.

[chase creek]

First, welcome. You'll find folks here from absolute newbies to World class tiers, and all are more than willing to help. You'll find this probably the most friendly site out there. Pull up a chair with a cup of coffee, and take a few runs through the different forums. You'll find up an incredible amount of information on flymphs and soft hackles.

Again, welcome to the site

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Hey Dwclapp,

Welcome to the forum. I'm sure there are differing opinions out there and my Brothers of the Flymph will chime in soon. When I'm using silk, I like Pearsall's Gossamer, though others have had excellent results with other silks such as YLI. Normally I don't use an underbody when I dressing soft hackles and flymphs unless I want a really bright colored body. The dark hook color mutes the color of the silk making it, IMO, much more insect like.

While we're on the subject of silk threads, you might want to look at a couple threads on tying waxes and the effect they have on threads, colors and translucency.

Welcome to the journey.

[gingerdun]

Darin,
Welcome. You see that folks are reluctant to recommend thread since it is such a personal choice.
The flymph tradition definitely started out using Pearsall's Gossamer silk, as recommended by Jim Leisenring and Pete Hidy (my father).
And silk is recommended when spinning dubbed bodies for storage on notched cards, since it has a "memory" that holds the twist better than synthetics.
But Pearsall's is rather thick for small flies, and not as strong as Benecchi's, for example. So a lot of tyers (like Dubbn) do just fine with synthetics (that's an understatement), and dubbing on dropped loops, split thread, or other techniques that don't require silk. One of the best things about the culture on FlymphForum is that it is NOT doctrinaire. We like experiments, surprises, and unusual materials. One of our stellar members, Hans Weilenmann, has done many fine videos on both traditional and non-traditional tying techniques that a lot of us have learned from.

I'm sure some of the forum members who are more experienced than I am will give you better advice. Also, you can check out the links and resources section of the site. William Anderson has been spending a lot of time updating his site, Williamsfavorite.com, so that is definitely worth a look.

Will you be posting some of your flies?

Lance

[narcodog]

When tying s/h's and flymph's I use Pearsall's silk only. As far as colors, just buy them all. If you limited on $$ get an olive, black, white, primrose yellow and a gold. You should also have some wax. A light, dark and cobblers wax, very dark. Personally I just use natural materials, fur and feathers. But I will use beads on occasion, wire and tinsel.

[tie2fish]

When tying s/h's and flymph's I use Pearsall's silk only. As far as colors, just buy them all. If you limited on $$ get an olive, black, white, primrose yellow and a gold. You should also have some wax. A light, dark and cobblers wax, very dark. Personally I just use natural materials, fur and feathers. But I will use beads on occasion, wire and tinsel.

I would suggest purple, claret, and hot orange as additional Pearsall's Gossamer colors to have on hand. Personally, I have found the Pearsall's black difficult to deal with, as it seems to break easily for me, so I use Danville's 6/0 black instead. Tinsel or other reflective materials used as an underwrap will provide some extra "pop" to lighter colored silks, but this special effects technique seems to work better under floss than it does under thread. Ray (letumgo) Tucker's POP series of flies is an outstanding example of this.

[Mataura mayfly]

Welcome to the forum.
You will be able to read back through a lot of information here and glean advice, body ideas and patterns from some wonderful tiers here as well as advice given to you in this thread.
To practice and begin with I suggest mercerised cotton used for sewing, embroidery silks (which can be separated into single strands) and the like that can be had cheaply and in bulkier hanks and spools than Pearsalls. Once proficient and happy with the results you can use the Pearsall silk for your finished fishing/ display soft hackles.
I found the Kinkame Japanese silk supplied by Britex in San Francisco to be cheap, available in bulk spools that fit standard bobbin holders, is strong under tension and have colours very close to Pearsall silks, they also do website based mail order sales.

Under-bodies and ribbing is/can be your choice. Tie some with and some without and see which you prefer. Dunk them in water and see how the results change, after all a fishing soft hackle usually is wet when it is working.

Experiment, enjoy and be sure to post photos of what you come up with!

[Donald Nicolson]

Welcome to the forum. That is a lot of good advice you've had already.
There are two main reasons for using wax with silk, one is that a little wax at the beginning of the silk, makes it grip the hook better, it is unwaxed when you buy it. The other is that even clear wax changes the silk colour very subtly. Pearsall is the traditional silk for all the older patterns, but I use YLI silks as well. The modern threads like Benicchi and Gordon Griffiths Sheer are also very good.
Have a browse through the archives here and you'll find a huge amount of information. Good tying and enjoy this forum.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Another really good place for information on wet flies and tying them, you might want to check out Donald's web site. It's one of my favorites and is a great source of information. http://donaldnicolson.webplus.net/