That's the beauty of tieing our own patterns. We can switch up materials and styles to see what works best for us in the waters we fish. I like to find ways to give the appearance of a larger prey item without adding too much bulk. The hackle seems to do that. That said, I am a huge fan of soft hackle patterns and have some very nice long Schlappen feathers that I will try on this pattern to see how they work as simple crawfish patterns.