i have seen a number of beautiful flies with partridge soft hackle. My experience is that if it is close to the dimensions the fish don't mind. However, I love the symmetry of a row of flies with the hackle looking like it is measure perfect. What skills, ideas, talents or tricks do you find to aid ...

That is a nice looking fly. I immediately started dreaming of trying these out on brook trout. I bet they would go crazy for them. I bet you're right. I have a load of wire bodied softies in my boxes and they often do very well. This one is quite bold, but I know that can be productive in some situ...

It may have been posted by Mark Libertone (sp?)

Several years ago I saw a mini-muddler in this site I can no longer find it The link has been taken down Does anyone have suggestions on how to tie a mini-muddler in a 16 or 18?

Hook: Curved #20
Thread: Purple Silk
Wing Bud: Golden Pheasant Crest
Hackle: Starling

Just trying a little attraction to the normal Starling and Purple. The photo is a bit large for the window

Eric's tie sounds big, but not for that part of the country. One of the first times I fished the Snake my friend handed me a stonefly nymph to tie on. It was black, about the size of my thumb and weigh as much as a small pocket knife. We floated them down underneath log jams, fallen trees or up and ...

This is my first attempt at macro photography. I will fix the background and light shadow problems for future posts.

Hook: Tiemco 2302 #14
Thread: Black 8/0
Abdomen: Caddis Green Turkey Biot
Thorax: Black UV Ice Dub
Hackle: Mearns Quail Feather
Head: Thread

Dubbin, What sizes of this pattern do you usually fish? I have found that I tie and fish mostly 14 and 16. But with this fly I have gone down to 20. I'm not sure that the 20 is better than the 18 or even 14, but I've been influenced by dry fly sizes. Syl Nemes wrote that he thought that smaller wasn...

For a step-by-step from Spenser Higa himself try http://outsmartingfish.com/2010/12/sos-baetis-nymph/ . You will notice Higa uses an Orvis hook (he is an Orvis Guide) and black pheasant tail. Every fly doesn't have to be a copy of the original and many times the patterns are improved upon with a cha...

For those of you who fish softhackles in the winter months, what patterns do you perfer? I have been fishing a tiny black and a Syl's midge. I picked those due to the number of midges we have in our local waters. Next month the baetis will be starting, but the hatch won't really get going well until...