Dub,
Nice flies; ostrich thorax on this one?
Regards,
Scott
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#12 Professer or Grizzly King!
Attachment 9769One of the flies Dub showed reminded me of this one I did a few years ago. Not really a soft hackle but...
Hi,
I really like soft hackles. I'm a big fan of older patterns, tying up many from Pritt and Edmond and Lee's lists, and also Stewart's patterns. I've found a few books that list old collection of spiders and often tie a few up with the materials I have at hand, making substitutes for the feathers we can no longer use (like Owl, etc).
Here are three that I fish a fair amount with success. The first, the Waterhen Bloa, was responsible for my one and only UK trout. I've also taken a few NZ fish with it, and I think I brought to hand some trout in Nova Scotia with it as well.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...erhen_Bloa.jpg
The next one, Pritt's Water Cricket, is the first pattern of Pritt's list. He doesn't say that these are in order of his preference, but they are not listed alphabetically, nor do they seem to be listed by season. So I took this to mean it was a favorite of his. However, he describes the casts he makes up, and this fly isn't included on either? Anyway, this is one of my go to flies and I've taken a lot of fish in New Zealand with it.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...terCricket.jpg
Finally, this pattern I call a Dark Betty. There's a lighter version (lighter blue, and a snipe's feather) which I call a Betty Blue, because it was our own Betty Hiner of the Board who introduced me to the Snipe and Blue (Betty Blue). I didn't have the appropriate materials and tied up a Royal Blue and Black (starling is what I use now; not sure what I used in this old photo though) pattern. This has also produced a large number of fish for me, possibly being taken for a blue bottle. Regardless, I always like to have some of these with me.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ackAndBlue.jpg
Ah, here's the "Betty Blue" for comparison, although the feather isn't a snipe feather but something I used as a substitute at the time:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...Betty_Blue.jpg
- Jeff
...these two are soft hackles:D
Attachment 9770Attachment 9771
Very strange feathers on the left hand one - what are they?
Chukar (sp?), or sold here in NZ as French Partridge.
- Jeff