Soft Hackle Colors and SIzes
I am tying some soft hackles in various colors and sizes. I was wondering what colors and sizes do most of you use in this pattern? I have them in yellow, orange olive, red, black and a natural rabbit fur/hairs ear color. Sizes are mainly 12 to 16. Comments please.
Dr Bob
Bob Widmaier
My biggest fear when I die is that my wife will sell my fly fishing gear for what I told her I paid for it!
Dr Bob, I use the hares ear soft hackle in 12 to 16. The yellow, and orange in the same sizes. Olive I use 14-18 size. I do not tie them in black or red.
------------------
Bill
Dr Bob, come into the chat room around 6PM PST. There will be lots of folks who can help you out. My own soft hackle has been my go to fly for 3 years now. It's called Creation: Tail- 5-6 teal flank fibers, Body- Lt Cahill mohair Rib- oval gold tinsel,counterwound for durability Hackle- Teal flank, sized to the hook. I use size 10-12, and usually dry fly hooks, so it will ride in the surface film.
This fly has accounted for 80-90% of the trout I've caught in the past 4 years. It is easy to tie, and will imitate a number of different types of emergers,depending on the thread(read-underbody) color. Remember, when wet,underbody color shows through.So, if you use red thread, it will show through almost pink.Black-olive, olive-deep olive,etc,etc. Hope this helps. This fly will be the subject of a magazine article in the near future. Jamie
------------------
"Fishing is more than a sport.It is a way of thinking and doing,a way of reviving the mind and body" Roderick Haig-Brown
Take a Kid Fishing. HECK, take ME Fishing(and my kids,LOL)
Dr Bob, by far my favorite is Muskrat with a Brown hen hackle collar, in sizes 12 to 18. After that, Partridge and Orange, and Partridge and Green are my best producers. Both in size 14.
Wayne
Yellow, orange, red, pheasant tail and peacock are all good choices. With or without bead heads.
Bill
Bob,
There are probably as many favorites as there are sizes and colors!! My favorite is the partridge and orange in a #14 ... or maybe a Snipe and purple in a #16 ... or a blue and snipe in a #14. Really you can't go wrong with a soft hackle/spider, regardless!
Betty
------------------
Trouts don't live in ugly places
Trouts don't live in ugly places.
A friend is not who knows you the longest, but the one who came and never left your side.
Don't look back, we ain't goin' that way.
I'm a big fan of the Soft Hackle Gold Ribbed Hares Ear nymph, particularly in olive (olive hare's mask) with a gold bead head. I usually fish this fly dropped off a moderate sized dry, perhaps a #14 Hare's Ear Parachute or Stimulator.
Also, the snipe & purple ribbed with very small silver tinsel is a favorite.
-Darryl
------------------
"If we carry purism to it's logical conclusion, to do it right you'd have to live naked in a cave, hit your trout on the head with rocks, and eat them raw. But, so as not to violate another essential element of the fly-fishing tradition, the rocks would have to be quarried in England and cost $300 each."
~John Gierach
My one wish is that when I die my wife doesn't sell my fishing stuff for what I told her I paid for it...
Hi,
Hmmm, I like just about all combinations of body colour and hackle for spiders. However, ones that have produced for me recently would be:
1) pheasant and orange
2) white hen and white with pale yellow head
3) black hen and black with silver rib
4) partrige and black with silver rib
and
5) grizzle, gray, and possum, dusted.
6) olive grizzle, olive, and possum, dusted
size ranges between 12 and 18 (naming is hackle, body colour, and any extra details, like ribs, thorax, etc; i.e., grizzle gray and possum, dusted means grizzle hackle, gray body & head, possum thorax, with the dusted indicating a very light possum dubbing over the abdomen as well; that's probably a far too "complicated" name for such a simple fly).
If you can find Nemes' book "The soft hackle addict", then that will give you a good starting point.
- Jeff
Am fear a chailleas a chanain caillidh e a shaoghal. -
He who loses his language loses his world.
In my local river the heaviest hatch of the season is the alder fly, a large caddis.
A soft hackle with a peacock body, copper wire rib, and brown gamebird hackle in size 10 or 12 is the way to go.
The best fly this time of year in that river.
------------------
May the fish that you catch always be larger than the hole in your net
The simpler the outfit, the more skill it takes to manage it, and the more pleasure one gets in his achievements.
--- Horace Kephart
Here's my killer soft hackle [url=http://www.peninsulaflyfishers.org/Fly_Tying/herl_brush_caddis/herlcaddis.html:21d11]http://www.peninsulaflyfishers.org/Fly_Tying/herl_brush_caddis/herlcaddis.html[/url:21d11]
Mike
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote