Quote Originally Posted by DShock
cholcomb,
That is a good point about too much hackle. All the soft hackle flies I have tied have sparse hackle. They sink better, probably look more realistic to the fish and the flies still catch fish after they get beat up.
I caught you on the hackle color!
Doug
Doug,
The heavier hackled flies have their place as well, the sparse North Country style of hackle is not the only
Spider that catches fish. Stewart wrote about the Black Spider etc. in 1857 but they were older than that, he got
them from James Baillie, http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/page141.html This is worth reading for Baillie's views on flies.
Also Leisenring was a big fan of the 'Stewart' style nymphs and used them a lot, he was influenced by them when he devised his
wingless wet flies which were later called Flymphs by Pete Hidy.
The North Country flies can look very neat, and they are, I dress them myself, but remember the whole point is to catch trout,
a lot of which are caught just sub-surface and the straggly hackle is no liability there, maybe even an advantage.
The way Baillie taught Stewart to tie the spider was by wrapping the hackle around the tying thread and winding down the body away
from the gut. I have a note of this somewhere and I'll dig it out.