I’m new to this forum so please bear with me. Is there a specific link on this site where there are flymph and soft hackle patterns stored?
Welcome to the board Lastchance.
If you go to the main page and click on the image of the fly of the week, it will take you to a page with the instructions for tying it, and also a box in the right upper corner with a link to “Previous Flies”. If you click on that it’ll take you to the fly archives where you’ll find a soft hackle (2Q 2006) and Flymph (4Q 2004).
Lot’s of great info here. Also check out the fly tyers info for beginner,intermediate and advanced tyers. You can get to those links off the main page as well.
Folks on the board are very knowledgeable and helpful, so feel free to post all your questions.
regards,
peregrines
You are welcome to any recipe or information on my site.
http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/
I highly recommend you visit Donald’s site. Great web site for soft hackle and flymphs.
Thanks for the info, guys. I really haven’t been able to explore the site as much as I’d like to. I jump on here at work, and well, you know, I have to work sometimes.
Hi,
I also recommend Donald’s page http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/
He has lots of patterns (with photos of many of them), and other sections with very useful information.
Another site with lots of patterns, but fewer images, is www.wetfly.co.uk , which includes written description of many classic patterns that still work (no surprise there really). I’m currently tying up a bunch of Pritt’s patterns to try out this weekend!
- Jeff
There is plenty of info here:
http://www.flymph.com
Hi Jim,
I’ve just added your flymph site to my favorites. Good stuff there.
- Jeff
Thanks all for the information.
Question: I’ve been fishing modern nymphs for the past 15 years and know when to fish them. Since flymphs, soft hackles, etc. aren’t exact imitations of nymphs, caddis, midges, etc. how do you determine what fly to fish and when? Do you try and match them to what you find under rocks? Also, I read you can fish them on the same leaders and tippets you use for fishing dry flies. Is that correct? These flies are so cool!
Yup, if you can match them in size to stuff you find under rocks it’ll be a help. While they’re not exact imitations by a lot of folks, they look enough like a lot of different stuff that they really catch fish. I also think the soft hackles are great caddis pupae imitations, so if you see caddis cases you might want to try some of them.
IMHO most important would be to try and get something the same size, next important the right shade (light, dark, medium) and then color to stuff you see crawling around.
But they’re also great searching patterns when nothing is going on. I often fish a partridege and green or partridge and orange down and across as a searcher if nothing is coming off. They’re a “go to” fly for me.
And yes they can be fished in the film or just under the surface by greasing up the leader and fishing flymphs and soft hackles as emergers and soft hackles as drowned duns and spinners. They’re very effective when trout are bulging the surface.
hope this helps.
peregrines
Hi lastchance,
As peregrines says, match size and shade as best you can. I think Nemes suggests that in faster water it may be better to use a pattern with a thorax as there is more to the fly to see. However, I’ve had trout grab very small flies almost as soon as they hit the water in a fast breaking riffle, so I’m not sure a thorax and non-thoraxed version would make that much difference, especially since the hackle is what does 95% of the job. For example, recently I was fishing a team of 3 spiders. After catching 3 trout, all on the same fly, I noticed that the floss body had come away. All that was left was the black soft hackle and a wee tuft of the blue floss body sticking out from under the hackle. Basically, this was a bare size 12 hook with just a black soft hackle collar, and a small black head. I wasn’t sure, however, if the body had come off after fish 1, 2, or 3? If 1 or 2, then at least one fish took the “hackle only fly”. But I couldn’t be sure.
Next day, I was fishing a different river. I tied on the above fly as one of the team wondering if it would still work? This would help answer my question from the day before. Sure enough, in the next hour I hooked 4 more, landed 3, one of which was on the black hackle-blue tuft fly. The other two were on different flies as well, so I got one on each of the 3 flies of the team.
Nemes also suggests that the patterns with the peacock hurl for heads are caddis, the ones without are mayflies. I think, but I’m not sure, that patterns with two colour bodies (back half red front half blue, for example) are generally considered stone flies. Add a “fullish” tail and you’re probably suggesting a nymph shedding it’s shuck (although, if you only add two or three fibres for a tail, you’re back to mayfly).
Given that these flies are impressionistic, I’m not sure it’s important to get more than rough enough is good enough.
In terms of size, I find size 14 probably the most general, with size 12 a close 2nd. Sizes 16 and 18 are good, but smaller than that is really hard to find proper hackles for. I think osterich hurl could work for size 20 and under if you wanted to try them.
Tie them on light wire hooks and on heavier gage wire. This gives you the option of fishing them in the surface film, or just under it, or deeper in the water column. They can be cast upstream to a rising fish (classic dry fly fishing) or across the current to dead drift then swing across (classic wet fly fishing). It’s hard to fish them wrong really, they are a very versitile and effect fly. And, they result in a very relaxing approach to fishing (at least for me they do).
- Jeff