Believe this should work well for crappie and perhaps trout in small streams.
Tim
Can’t speak for the crappie, but trout love that fly on the swing!
kelly.
I was using one of these on a small stream and had fun with the bluegill and smallmouth.
Also I like tying soft hackles like the grouse and orange and purple and starling.
Panman,
I was retrieving my fly out of a tree along Penns Creek here in Pa. and found what looked like a Grouse&Orange soft hackle fly hanging. I put it on my fly patch and there it stayed for quite some time. I returned back to the U.P. of Michigan where I was going to school. I was at a small pond in the area where the local T.U. chapter liked to hold its meetings during the warmer months. After our meetings we liked to hit the pond for brook trout. A lot of the fish were surfacing too far out to reach with my fly rod so I rigged up my spinning rod with a spinning bubble and a 10 ft. leader. I rifled through my fly patch and saw that soft hackle sticking out of the fuzz. I had forgotten about it. I eye-balled it for a second and said why not and tied it on. Well to make a short story long, I commenced to doing some serious business with that fly. As I type this I’m thinking that I may still have that fly somewhere around here, even after 14 years! I’m gonna look!
Best regards, Dave S. (fishdog54)
I always start my fly fishing outing using a soft hackle wet fly, specially when there is no obvious surface action.
Soft hackle wet flies are some of the oldest fly pattern, in fly fishing. There are historical records of soft hackle wet flies being used for over a thousand years. Soft hackle wet fly pattern are used just about in the world there is fly fishing! You will find that a soft hackle wet fly pattern will out produce just about any other fly pattern on or in the water, when it comes to fly fishing.
Even a soft hackle used for a Salmon/Steelhead patten is the way to catch the fish. There is something about the motion of the soft hackle that triggers the strike on the fly by the fish.
Each November I start my “Beginner’s Only Fly Swaps Series” with November being a "Soft Hackle Wet Fly Pattern. ~Parnelli 
Warning: Soft Hackle Wet Fly Patterns can become indicative, where you soon will be only casting Soft-Hackle Wet Fly Patterns when you go fly fishing.
Swamp Fox: Welcome to fAOL. Hope you enjoy this site as much as I do. A lot of fine members and an abundance of information.
Steven: I have tied flies for close to 60 years but until I got involved with fly tyers on the computer I never tied a soft hackle. Guess you can say I had about about one years experience 50 times. I had a lot of difficulty with soft hackle until I got some tips from Rick Z and then took the time to visit You Tube and watch the tying procedures. You are right - I have become addicted.
Tim
Care to share those tips with the rest of the class?
I’m not convinced I do it quite right, and would welcome some tips.
Also… in your experience, can rooster pheasant feathers be used, instead of the hen pheasant feathers? Or are the hen feathers really that much softer? I ask because I have plenty of rooster pheasant feathers, but no hen pheasant feathers.
Tis amazing who will “visit” when you have a soft hackle on the line!!
Use startling, snipe, coot, hen pheasant, what ever is soft and sparse.
That fly reminded me of a Syl Nemes fly I have a photograph of:
Syl Nemes’ Cumberland and a few more
[b]I could not resist when I read this thread.
One of my favourite fly types.
Traditional Spiders
http://donaldnicolson.webplus.net/page61.html
Spiders with Hen (chicken)
http://donaldnicolson.webplus.net/page35.html
Spiders on s/e hooks
http://donaldnicolson.webplus.net/page58.html
This a Blue Dun Spider
Thread: Blue Unithread
Body: Tying thread touch dubbed with grey 'possum
Heavier behind the hackle.
Hackle: Starling
This, of course, is a flymph.
There are plenty of spider recipes on these pages.
The tying season is approaching.[/b]
I love Soft Hackles!!!
Two of my favorites:
PT/TB
Not sure why, but soft hackle flies are my favorites for sure. Like yours too, nice tie!
Skip
Stunning
PlaneTrout
For Stage1
PHEASANT TAIL and PARTRIDGE…
HOOK: Daiichi 1560, # 12 -#18 or TMC 5262 # 12 – #18
THREAD: Danville 6/0, # 47, Tobacco Brown
RIB: Fine Gold wire, or Wapsi x-sm Gold
HACKLE: Partridge , speckled brown, lower back
PEACOCK HERL AND PARTRIDGE
HOOK: Daiichi 1560 or TMC 5262 #12 – # 18
THREAD: Gordon Griffith 14/0 Sheer, Claret
BODY: 3 – 6 strands of Peacock Herl, twisted around thread
HACKLE: Partridge, gray and white speckled, from the neck ( I over hackle this pattern – it works for me)
PT/ TB
Thanks PT
These patterns are goig to get a workout north of the border on the weekend
Yes rooster hackle can be used for soft hackle wet flies, wrapping the dry hackle the same way you would the hen hackle. On Donald’s site there are many old soft hackle wet flies that used rooster hackle. ~Parnelli
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?38280-Sharing-new-fly(for-me)-and-results
It looks like a SH with eyes… check it out
I have had great luck with a SH, I use a UNI stretch flo green for the body, peacock hurl abdomen, and hun hackle, EZ to tie and a great dropper
PT…very nice patterns! I like your dressing of the Pheasant tail soft hackle. Nicely done. The Peacock and partridge is a favorite in my box as well.
It’s all my wife fishes! Now she’ll want some red ones, too!