Soft Hackles

[Byron haugh]

Tying some of my soft hackles. This soft hackle pattern is one of my most productive flies ever. It is very simple.
I use coffee grinder fluffed antron; size 16/18 gold mylar for ribbing; natural partridge for the collar; and peacock herl at the head. I tie them on a size 14 dry fly hackle. They are mostly fished with a quartering downstream cast and thus, represent an emerging insect.

They can also be dried off with a few quick false casts and then fished as a dry (probably a cripple).
Truly, it is a great producer for me.

[NJTroutbum]

Looks like a deadly soft hackle. Love the pink...perfect color when wet I bet.

[John Rhoades]

Byron -

Are you tying the body and the thorax with this same pink dubbing? Kind of hard to tell for sure from your picture. Thanks.

John

p.s. I doubt they will work on the Yellowstone, but I'm going to tie a dozen or so to prove that's the case.

[Byron haugh]

John,
Same dubbing. It is DazzleAire, which is the Antron that LaFontaine suggested I use for his sparkle pupa.

The variegated DazzleAire before and after a trip to the coffee grinder:



I use selected color, and cut that section in 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces and then grind it in the coffee grinder so it fluffs out.

[John Rhoades]

Thanks, Byron. Now that I see the dubbing separate from the fly, it does not look as pink as it did on your finished flies. Whatever the color, I like it.

I will say that LaFontaine was quite a marketeer, if nothing else. He sold me on that yarn too, although he sold it himself on a small card, probably no more than a yard or two, and called it Antron yarn, and probably got a couple dollars per card. I think I bought almost every color he sold, but don't think I have the color you're using, and I rarely have used any of what I bought, except maybe the apple green color.

John

[Byron haugh]

John,

That apple green color is what he used on his sparkle caddis. I believe he cut the antron in very short pieces and then ground them. Because, his finished dubbing particles were very short and he used the "touch dubbing" technique.......holding the thread above (not below) the hook shank; applying dubbing wax to the thread; and then barely touching the thread, the green particles sort of got "sucked" against the thread. His bodies wrapped that way were wrapped pretty thinly.

I do like the way the antron appears in the water column.

Were your cards of material from Bookseller?

[BBBruce77]

Gary had four colors made up special by Coats & Clark around 96 or 97. I offered these four colors and a bunch more that I still had left over from when I was tying commercially. I was going to offer this collection again if anybody wants some of the antron yarns. I have found that chopping it up much finer actually works better for touch dubbing especially. 1/4" will dub just fine as touch dub or just twisting on the thread.

[Rocketfish]

A well tied soft-RF.jpghackle is always a killer pattern.

[Byron haugh]

Gary had four colors made up special by Coats & Clark around 96 or 97. I offered these four colors and a bunch more that I still had left over from when I was tying commercially. I was going to offer this collection again if anybody wants some of the antron yarns. I have found that chopping it up much finer actually works better for touch dubbing especially. 1/4" will dub just fine as touch dub or just twisting on the thread.

If you still have some, I would be interested.
Byhaugh1@mac.com

[John Rhoades]

John

Were your cards of material from Bookseller?

Yes. I used to look forward to getting that monthly newsletter, and believe that I may have also bought several of his books through the Bookseller.