Ed,

Thanks for the reply.

I have been a devotee of soft hackle fishing in both the Tenkara and western style for many years. I have fished and tied flies with both Sylvester Nemes and Davy Wotton, two of the fly fishing world's most noted experts of the past few decades regarding soft hackles and wet flies. But let me begin by saying "the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know." I put that in quotes because I even learned that statement from someone else. I just don't recall who at the moment. Everything we accomplish in life is like that - built out of a succession and menagerie of things we collect which were contributed by others who collected them from others...and so on. No man is an island (despite what the Randian egoists may believe about themselves).

A soft hackle is one of the most effective and versatile styles of flies in water where fish are sight-feeding on insects...period. Adding a soft hackle collar to virtually any nymph will increase the number of takes and/or aggressiveness of takes. Soft hackles fish well in the water column from the surface film to suspended just above the bottom. SH's fish well dead drifted, fished upstream, and fished downstream. They work great in still and flowing water. They are attractors, so you have great latitude in how you tie them to mimic what the fish could be feeding on or just include some known strike triggers and go for it. Several of the most effective and popular classic nymph patterns have a soft hackle collar: Prince Nymph, Red Fox Squirrel Nymph, etc.

Here's the thing, Ed: For the hackles to flair (abduct), a soft hackle must be at a true dead drift in the water or suspended in the surface film. The slightest variance moves the hackles back and forth - toward the eye or shank of the hook. This is what the soft hackle so effective. This is what gives it "life." This breathing gills or moving legs motion is almost always undetectable to any observation by the naked human eye, but it is occurring even when the hackles seem to be "plastered to the body of the fly." The hackles form a long arch down the side of the fly and undulate in and out as water friction moves them ever so delicately. Don't ask me why fish see this instantly and miss that big ole hook sticking the end of the bug they're about to eat! I have no clue. But they do it all the time. It has something to do with the way that sub-pea-sized brain is wired I imagine. It is programmed to do about 3 things I guess: eat, procreate, and avoid natural predators. Fish hooks sticking out of a bug's butt or bait fish's belly and tail just doesn't register as a threat, I guess. That's all I can figure. It's sort of the opposite of why they think a chartreuse spinner bait looks like food: beats me!