I have been a big fan of soft hackle flies ever since reading Sylvester Nemes’ little books. The first one, as far as I am aware, was published in '75 and I enjoyed it a lot…it was The Soft-hackled fly"… It got me into tying and fishing softies. The book contained a color photo of 14 of his patterns representing the pre-emerged state of 14 different mayflies. I loved the look of the flies. I was fortunate enough to get those same 14 flies, tied by Nemes himself in a little fly box. I still look at them from time to time.
He wrote several other little books. One of my favorites, though, was his little book on soft-hackle spinners. Again, I was able to get a brace of his hand tied spinner patterns. Love looking at them.
Anyway, in his memory, I am tying some of my own little softies. This one is to be used before, during, and after a PMD hatch. Very simple little flies, but quite effective. AND, they can be false casted a few times and then offered as a dry fly to risers. It really does work that way. Sort of imitates a cripple.
I recognize that I prefer a little more robust and “harrier” softie than most. Just my personal preference.
Forrest Wood, who is a well known bass fisherman and developer of the Ranger bass boat, said “I catch more fish with a plastic grub by accident, than with anything else on purpose.” I believe in the fly fishing realm the same could be said for the soft hackle. On any given day another fly may catch more fish, but day in and day out I can probably catch more fish with a soft hackle than anything else.
If it wasn’t for the four with thoraxes behind the hackle they could pass for North Country spiders. (On NCS’s the thorax would be eye side of the hackle). I’m surprised as I was told the hackles on soft hackles are far heavier than NCS.
Cheers,
A.
Alan, I was just reading Fogg and he advocates a small bump behind the hackle to keep the hackle from laying flat against the hook shank. Also many of the old patterns call for just one to two wraps of hackle, never more.
You should note that Roger Fogg is a modern writer. Could this be a case of reverse influence as his work is after that of Mr Nemes? Do any of the flies in Byron’s first photo look as if they have more than 2 turns of hackle? They don’t to my eye.
They appear to be size 14. They appear to be of uniform size.
On page 75 of his book, he writes: “Here are the recipes for the fourteen flies. Hook sizes 10-16.”
But in the collection he tied, they really look uniform in a size 14.
Nice collection. Nemes really brought the traditional North Country spider to the North American market. His book, Soft Hackle Fly Addict, is by his own admission an opportunity to re-publish Pritt’s original patterns! So it’s not surprising his ties look like traditional NC spiders, because, well, that was his model. He did a great job of introducing a lot of people to a very interesting style of fly and fly fishing.
He used to come into Blue Ribbon Flies in West. You could buy his book, leave it there, and he would autograph it the next time he came in. At that time, I don’t believe BRF sold more than 1-2 soft hackles. Now, they have a bunch of different softies.
Syl really brought the soft hackle into the mainstream of US fly fishing.
Syl would come over from Bozeman to fish the spring creeks south of Livingston, and I came to know him fairly well. In my fly tying desk I have a small film canister with about a half dozen soft hackle flies that he gave me to try during the Baetis hatch. That was probably 15+ years ago. I never fished them and now I’m glad that I still have them. I saw Syl in Bozeman, in Walmart of all places, shortly before he died. He was obviously in poor health but he remembered me. He was an interesting individual and I was privileged to have known him.
I am glad to see the interest in Spiders,(soft-hackles) etc. is still very much alive on FAOL.
My web-site, which is dominated by wing-less wet-flies was lost by Sky, some-where in the void.
Luckily I still have it complete on file, so when I sort things out it should be available again soon.
All the seasons Greetings. Donald
[b]Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! And Donald, I’ve been missing your website also. I was worried about you as well as I hadn’t seen any activity from you, and your site went missing! I’m glad to see that you’re still with us, even if the web site requires resuscitation.
