by newriverspey » Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:48 pm
This is a very interesting post and I use to post on this forum regularly but life threw me a curve ball and I had to deal with that for a while. During that time, I have continued to fish and have always swung soft hackle/hackled flies and flymphs for trout and smallmouth bass. I started with a 10’ 3wt single hand rod but started fishing exclusively with a 10’ 6” 3 wt and an 11’ 4 wt switch rod using either a 150 grain or 175 grain Commando head with a 12’ 96 grain floating tip and 10’ leader. The soft hackle/hackled flies and flymphs range from a #4 down to a #19 but mind you, I am fishing for trout and smallmouth bass. Most of the time people look at me and wonder what exactly I am doing but after a while, like most fisherman, curiosity sets in and they wade over to me and inquire about the switch rod but also ask me what flies I am using because I am catching fish. I show them my flies and talk to them about soft hackle/hackled flies and flymphs and what they represented and how I would fish them. The majority of the people would say to me they had heard of soft hackle/hackled flies but thought they were not used anymore and did not work. This lead to long discussions about materials (synthetic vs. naturals), hooks, equipment, etc. I truly believe that swinging soft hackle/hackled flies and flymphs is extremely productive for many species of fish, not just trout and it is an extremely fun way to fish…..beats staring at a bobber (sorry could not resist). After several discussions with others, it dawned on me that the original soft hackle/hackled flies and flymphs (Skues, Leisenring, Hidy) served as a tying platform or conceptual platform for a lot of the “newer” flies. Most of the natural products are now replaced with synthetics and shiny materials that burn my retinas and agree with the earlier post about these flies catching more fisherman than fish. So, I agree that a lot of people are not fishing the traditional wet flies/soft hackle/hackled flies and flymphs as we know them to be, but to me they are the conceptual platforms that people still fish and tie. The intruder fly seems to me like a giant or mongo soft hackle/hackled fly with a flymph characteristic that a lot of people use for steelhead. Some I have met and have spoken to, now try soft hackle/hackled flies and flymphs and although they aren’t exclusively fishing them, they do understand the history and more importantly that they work. I have a lot more to say on this subject but I will see how this initial post goes over.