Soft-hackle Dry Flies

John Shaner, of Hardy fame, gave me a solid dose of the soft hackle kool-aid and since I've been thoroughly enjoying tying up traditional spiders and north-country wet flies with soft hackles, I decided to see what those materials could add to some traditional dry fly techniques.

Above, is a fan-wing style Adams which grizzly soft-hackles instead of the standard dry hackles. The middle photo is a traditional red-quill but with two turns of Hungarian partridge in front of the traditional dun dry hackles.

The bottom photo is an attempt at a March Brown which a hackle fiber tail and a gold ribbed hare's ear body. I wrapped a few turns of CDC as a thorax hackle and then a few turns of dun hen hackle in front of that.

West Branch Report

I spent a couple of hours on the waters between Walton and Delhi tonight and while there were definitely bugs out and about, there wasn't nearly the surface activity I expected. I netted a few Red Quill (male hendrickson) spinners and saw quite a lot of small dark dun caddis (Chimarra, I believe) and slightly larger greed caddis (apple?) out and about, but the fish seemed to be feeding elsewhere. Perhaps I arrived too late for the main feast. Even so, I did manage to hook up with a few small browns. I'm guessing the stocking truck came through recently because the fish I caught were in the 6-8" range and were pretty pale.

Once again, the dark dun CDC emerger was a killer, as was the Madison Guide Cripple in red quill coloring. While the CDC Emerger is deadly, it's tough to fish in that it's hard to see and a little fish slime pretty much trashes it. I fish it mostly as a dropper off of a larger, more visible fly (a Hendrickson or klinkhamer for example) unless the water is fairly calm. Last night it was my go-to for sight-casting to a rising trout. I stuck with the MGC for prospecting in the faster water since the parachute made it easier to track and it's far more durable.

Red Pheasant

An attempt to imitate the male Ephemerella subvaria or Red Quill (aka male Hendrickson) without red rooster quill. I will also be tying a few parachute style to fish as a truer emerger. Should be fun to see which performs better. 

Hook: Daiichi 1160 (klinkhamer) #14

Thread: Brown

Tail: Pheasant tail (4-5 fibers)

Body: wrapped pheasant tail

Rib: gold wapsi wire counter wrapped

Thorax: UV cinnamon ice dub

Wing: Mallard flank or woodie

Hackle: Natural dun

Madison Guide Cripple

Quick to tie hi-vis cripple/emerger pattern. 

Hook: emerger 14-18

Thread: to match (cream/brown shown)

Tail: Zelon or hair (Himalayan goat fur shown)

Abdomen: peacock herl or dubbed (caddis green & march brown shown)

Wing: Poly yarn tied cripple style

Hackle: to match (grizzly)

Notes:

- trim wing butt to end of thorax. 

- cut notch out of bottom of hackle so fly rides low in the water.