I am tying some soft hackles in various colors and sizes. I was wondering what colors and sizes do most of you use in this pattern? I have them in yellow, orange olive, red, black and a natural rabbit fur/hairs ear color. Sizes are mainly 12 to 16. Comments please.
Dr Bob
Dr Bob, I use the hares ear soft hackle in 12 to 16. The yellow, and orange in the same sizes. Olive I use 14-18 size. I do not tie them in black or red.
Bill
Dr Bob, come into the chat room around 6PM PST. There will be lots of folks who can help you out. My own soft hackle has been my go to fly for 3 years now. It’s called Creation: Tail- 5-6 teal flank fibers, Body- Lt Cahill mohair Rib- oval gold tinsel,counterwound for durability Hackle- Teal flank, sized to the hook. I use size 10-12, and usually dry fly hooks, so it will ride in the surface film.
This fly has accounted for 80-90% of the trout I’ve caught in the past 4 years. It is easy to tie, and will imitate a number of different types of emergers,depending on the thread(read-underbody) color. Remember, when wet,underbody color shows through.So, if you use red thread, it will show through almost pink.Black-olive, olive-deep olive,etc,etc. Hope this helps. This fly will be the subject of a magazine article in the near future. Jamie
“Fishing is more than a sport.It is a way of thinking and doing,a way of reviving the mind and body” Roderick Haig-Brown
Dr Bob, by far my favorite is Muskrat with a Brown hen hackle collar, in sizes 12 to 18. After that, Partridge and Orange, and Partridge and Green are my best producers. Both in size 14.
Wayne
Yellow, orange, red, pheasant tail and peacock are all good choices. With or without bead heads.
Bill
Bob,
There are probably as many favorites as there are sizes and colors!! My favorite is the partridge and orange in a #14 … or maybe a Snipe and purple in a #16 … or a blue and snipe in a #14. Really you can’t go wrong with a soft hackle/spider, regardless!
Betty
Trouts don’t live in ugly places
I’m a big fan of the Soft Hackle Gold Ribbed Hares Ear nymph, particularly in olive (olive hare’s mask) with a gold bead head. I usually fish this fly dropped off a moderate sized dry, perhaps a #14 Hare’s Ear Parachute or Stimulator.
Also, the snipe & purple ribbed with very small silver tinsel is a favorite.
-Darryl
“If we carry purism to it’s logical conclusion, to do it right you’d have to live naked in a cave, hit your trout on the head with rocks, and eat them raw. But, so as not to violate another essential element of the fly-fishing tradition, the rocks would have to be quarried in England and cost $300 each.”
~John Gierach
Hi,
Hmmm, I like just about all combinations of body colour and hackle for spiders. However, ones that have produced for me recently would be:
size ranges between 12 and 18 (naming is hackle, body colour, and any extra details, like ribs, thorax, etc; i.e., grizzle gray and possum, dusted means grizzle hackle, gray body & head, possum thorax, with the dusted indicating a very light possum dubbing over the abdomen as well; that’s probably a far too “complicated” name for such a simple fly).
If you can find Nemes’ book “The soft hackle addict”, then that will give you a good starting point.
In my local river the heaviest hatch of the season is the alder fly, a large caddis.
A soft hackle with a peacock body, copper wire rib, and brown gamebird hackle in size 10 or 12 is the way to go.
The best fly this time of year in that river.
May the fish that you catch always be larger than the hole in your net