Philip Bailey’s article in the Advance Fly Fishing (this weeks edition July 10th, 2006) is something that should be shared more often with beginning fly anglers and fly dressers. There is nothing really advance about the whole topic, actually it is very basic.
Most of the books tha Philip Bailey mentioned are not available, or would require and “Arm & Leg” to possess, but there are books out there that have most of the information of the last 200 years of Spider (Soft Hackle Flies) that will not set you back too much. Two that I can recommend are…
“TWO CENTURIES OF SOFT-HACKLED FLIES” complied by Sylvester Nemes, Stackpole Press 2004, ISBN 0-8117-0048-8
Sylvester Nemes, has compiled the plates and major parts from 31 texts that are normally not available to todays anglers.
The last book in S. Nemes book has been recently reissued after 20 years, it is…
“CLYDE STYLE FLIES and their dressings” by John Reid, 2nd edition by David & Charles, ISBN 0-7155-5352-7
Which addresses the sparsed winged soft-hackle flies of the Clyde River of Scotland.
Donald Nicolson (who supplied the photos for the “Spider Patterns of Norhtern England” has a wonderful site that has many of the spider patterns for tying, as well as photos.
[url=http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/:dcc17]Donald Nicolson’s Site[/url:dcc17]
Steven, I’m in total agreement, a great simple fly that catches fish.
At Ronn Lucas’s last Thursday night fly tying meeting we tied up soft hackles and it was a bit of fun playing with some softies like snipe , grouse, and g plover. Here are a couple of pix from last thursday:
Steven, I am very sorry that his article is so far below your expectations, but do thank you for the names of the books which you feel are far better, more readily available and cheaper. I will email him noting your view of his work and am sure he will be interested in your opinion. We actually thought it was rather well done and were impressed with the text and graphics.
“How long does it take to learn fly-fishing?
No one knows.”
Grand poo-bah
Steven, while the process of tying the soft hackle or spider flies is relatively simple i believe the article was more oriented towards the fishing of these flies. To properly fish a soft hackle fly is an art onto itself and can take quite awhile to get even “average” results.
Personally i found the article rather informative and quite interesting.
Also seeing as the author is from the UK and not North America he included the books that he is aware of and are popular in his area and not what is on the market on our side of the pond.
Hi,
For the past year or two I’ve been fishing soft hackles quite a bit here in New Zealand. And I can attest that they work very well on the fish here.
And, although I’m no expert by any means, my experiments with these flies were leading me to the similar conclusions. I had more success just below a fast riffle than in the riffle with the soft hackles although I found a larger wet fly like an Invicta worked well in the riffle itslef. And, there were a few times when something just felt “different” and so I set the hook and sure enough there was a fish on! Other times, however, there is no mistaking the take and the fish will often hook itself. Also, these flies really come into there own just when a rise starts during a hatch. When you start to see a few dimples and bulges, just drift a few of these along before switching to the dry. As Philip mentions, a very delicate presentation will allow these flies to sit in the surface film (on the lighter gage hooks) and you can fish them upstream like a dry.
I tend to tie the body to “half-way between point and barb”, which I’ve also seen as the described marker for the body length. However, I have also read that the body should end at the point, as Philip recomends. I’ve read books that have recommended either length, so these are probably the two extremes for the body.
Here are some patterns I’ve had success with:
Body: orange ; hackle: pheasant
Body: black, silver rib (optional) ; hackle: black hen
You misconstrued my words, their meaning and intent. The article was excellent!
My comment was about the placement of the article in the “Advance Flyfishing” column of FAOL, where those who do not consider themselves “Advanced” might ignore the article pertaining to themselves, or ever perchance get the opportunity to read the article.
Wet Fly Fishing, and Fly Tying, are some the most simple and basic techniques to get someone into fly fishing and fly tying. When helping a new fly angler enjoy the the art of flyfishing, or fly tying, nothing is better than starting with a “Soft Hackle” Wet Fly.
There is no cause, for this discord! My apologies, if I raised your “Soft Hackles”.
FWIW ,
I just returned from a seven day fishing trip to Montana. I’m going to rename the PMD flymph to the “Madison Mauler”. Many large fish in the 20" range fell prey to it’s seductive charms…If I could have only “touched” the 2 24"+ Rainbows that took the “Mauler” … an arms length away dosen’t count in my book…I would have had the trip of a life time. Ah heck it was! Maybe I ought to buy a net!LOL
[This message has been edited by Jim Slattery (edited 11 July 2006).]
Those who do not consider themselves advanced are beginners. That is why they read things in the beginners section. In time, some of them want to advance. These read things called ‘advanced’. It’s true, many beginners may not ever read this article. That will be their choice.
The extreme for short bodies is much shorter than you might think. This is a Tummel style spider.
Cheers
Alan.
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride!”
