My latest crazy experiment...herl hackle

[Soft-hackle]

The herl hackle works for me. I'll bet it'll be murder in the water.

Mark

[gingerdun]

Ray,
There's a "Deck the Halls..." feeling to this first peacock herl concoction that goes well with your Santa hat. How about adding a gold bead, or tufted tag of red?
It really is too bad that Mark is not here to add his comments after all the grief he took for designing flies that his forum buddies said looked like Christmas tree ornaments.
Seriously, this is the kind of innovation that keeps the sport alive.

Lance

[letumgo]

Ho Ho Ho! (Lance - I got a good chuckle out of your comment!)

[CreationBear]

That's a great combo on the steelhead softhackle--just something sexy about those big irons.

[hankaye]

Ray, Howdy;

Kinda reminded me of "Doc Octipus" from one of the Sipderman movies...
Interesting and well built ... Looks like a great attractor and ... by the way,
got a wet shot of it, how's it react in the water?

hank

[letumgo]

Hank - I will try to photograph the Herl Hackle fly tomorrow night (to tired tonight). I dropped the fly in a Dixie cup of water to see what would happen. The Herl fibers spread out on the surface of the water, spread eagle style. I had to drop it in four or five times before it sank to the bottom of the cup. Once it was soaked, it sank each time it hit the water. Another interesting thing I noticed, was the herl legs tended to "relax" out over the eye of the hook, in the position they were initially tyed in. I should have formed a larger head, to hold the fibers in position better.

So, what did I learn with this little experiment? I like playing in water, but I already knew that...

[letumgo]

Okay, here you go Hank. These are two photos of the herl hackle fly soaking wet. The first photo shows the fly sitting on my tying desk after it has been completely soaked with water. The second shot is of the fly sitting at the bottom of a Dixie cup filled with water (note the air bubbles captured by the hackle).




It is interesting to note the color shift in the peacock herl when it is wet. This is natural peacock herl (undyed). As you can see, the fibers take on a distinct bronze tone when they are wet. I've noticed this on herl body flies when fishing them in bright sunlight, but this is the first time I noticed it indoors. I could see it in my viewfinder as I moved the camera around, but did not expect it to be captured in the final images.

The second photo almost looks like some sort of abstract art. Cool.

[Kelly L.]

Great flies. I am partial to the second one!

[hankaye]

Ray, Howdy;

I find it interesting that the upper hackle fibers tend to
lean forwards while the lower ones lean towords the bend,
almost like weedgurds.
Like the way those photographed wet, interesting about the
color of the hurl too.

hank

[William Anderson]

Ray, whether it's the light or the camera or the materials...I'm not sure, but it's a telling image. At least that there is something about peacock...and we don't always see it.

I'm sure everyone has seen that bronze effect streamside when your looking at a wet herl, and I've wondered if the recipes that call for bronze herl didn't assume we would know that the green appears bronze when wet. I like the bronze, natural peacock herl a lot and have a stash, but it has occurred to me that it's not a readily available material and is it possible that the oldest recipes made this connection?