Just wanted to mention something I saw in Sylvester Nemes's second edition (released a month or two ago) of "The Soft-Hackled Fly and Tiny Soft Hackles." He uses black, orange, green, olive, silver/grey and brown ostrich herl for the smallest flies (size 19 --> )

I find that if you select ostrich herl with long barbules and only wrap it around the hook once or twice the results are quite pleasing. Unfortunately I haven't fished them yet to tell how successful these flies are, especially as Syl writes that soft hackle waters are much more common out west.

G.A.