Soft Hackle Patterns

[Fontinalis]

Hello everyone:

I need a little help, what in your opinions would be some good affective soft hackle patterns to start tying that would catch Trout. I was thinking of the following:

1) Pheasent Tail soft Hackle
2) Gold Ribbed Hares Ear soft hackle?????????????? or drop the ribbing entirely
3) Greenwells Glory

I do have a vast amount of books on soft hackles, but I do not know where to begin, do any of the Partrige and orange or Partridge and green, red or purple be affective patterns.

Lastly if I go with any of the Partidge and orange or green or red or purple, would the Danville floss that I use for my traditional winged wets work or do I really need to go with the gossamers silk floss?

Now have any of you used Guinea Hen for soft hackles as well?

sorry for all the questions today but I am diving in full speed. I plan to fish 50% winged wets this season and 50% soft hackles.

Thanks for all your patience and time
Andy Brasko

[Slate_Drake_9]

Partridge and Orange, Partridge and Yellow and Partridge and Olive are three of my most productive patterns and well worth having on a stream.

I also suggest a partridge and peacock, as well as the grey hackle peacock and brown hackle peacock. Search this site and you'll find tons and tons of patterns that work.

I use Guinea Hen for soft hackles for steelhead. I find it to be very resistent to the damage the steelhead seem to put my flies through. My trout soft hackles are usually of a much smaller scale than I can find guinea.

As for floss for bodies. I see no problem with using it, but there are a few real traditionalist out there that would puke at the thought of it. I usually just use tying thread of the proper color and add some head cement over the thread for these types of flies (more for durability than look). Again the real traditionalist get upset by this, but I have yet to find a trout that has cared. To each their own.

[Soft-hackle]

Andy,
The flies you mentioned are very good starting points. You also want something more olive in color. Perhaps the Greenwell's would work for that. The Partridge and Orange is very effective. I also like Leisenring's Black Gnat. Very effective and simple. Also you might check this out: http://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/flymphs/ The Leisenring Spider (AKA Hare's Ear Flymph) Is murder. You might also wish to have something in the cream color area like a cream soft-hackle. Maybe even a light Cahill tied with Partidge dyed a pale lemon yellow. Remember, in many instances, the hackle represents both wing and legs of the fly.

Try to match your selection to where you know the insects, their hatching times, etc. It's a good starting point, which will probably work well for you in other places. Do this and you can kind of limit your selection from the vast variety of patterns out there.

Mark

[flyfishwithme]

The Greenwell's would have to be my most successful NC Soft Hackled fly BUT it needs to be tied as detailed in Edmonds & Lee - that is with split wings.

[Old Hat]

As far as the partridge and .... they are all good flies to have. I think any thread would work, but as you may know these were most commonly tied with silk thread and the the thread was well waxed. So your talking different shades of color. However, when just matching a hatch, any thread as long as your getting the color you desire I think is fine. I feel silk however has a translucency that is hard to find in the synthetic threads. If you're after the traditional appeal, use the silk and wax it. The partridge spider series is a minimalist fly and serves a great purpose and often can be fished quite differently than the wet patterns you have listed. I often fish these (tied on light wire hooks) swirling in the pocket water or upstream in the film much like it were a dry fly or the Stewart's Spiders.

The Stewart's Spider series (a definite must for the box) is very often fished on a short line, with short drifts, just in or on the water's surface. Gently set the fly down, drift a short distance, pick it up gently, set it down softly again and just work the fly around current seams and broken water. Fished this way, it serves a little different purpose than those patterns under the surface and on the swing.

Your going to have to go buy a couple more fly boxes after this question.

Carl

[Fontinalis]

Thanks all for the input so far. I am planning to tye a few flies tonight to fish with tomorrow. I am going to use materials I already have. Once I get a feel and nack which I think will be pretty quickly I do plan shortly afterwards to tye them in classic tradition. Carl & Mark, you both know how I love old classic flies and love to fish with them the way they were tyed a long time ago. I love and am glad to see that others are trying to preserve the traditions of old. I love classic wet flies and love even more being a throw back/Dinosaur fishing and catching fish with them.

[FliTrap]

Here is a good reference for some of the flies, noted, including the Greenwell's as detailed in Edmonds & Lee - that is with split wings.
http://www.flyfishinghistory.com/edmond ... tterns.htm
Have Fun!
FliTrap