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.

Rusty Spinner

Hook: Dry Fly 12-16
Thread: Rusty Brown 70 Denier
Tail: Wood duck fibers
Body: Superfine Waterproof Dubbing - Rusty Brown
Wings: Kiptail

Snow-shoe Hare Comparadun

Hook: #14 Dry Fly Hook (TMC 100)
Thread: black 70 denier
Tail: show-shoe hare's foot
Body: Hare's Ear dubbin
Wing: show-shoe hare's foot

Harry Darbee's Two-Feather Fly

 

Harry Darbee's Two-Feather Fly

Hook: #14 Emerger

Thread: Blue Dun 70 Denier

Body/Tail: Suitable Feather (eg. short and fat hackle feather, wood duck or mallard flank, grouse for smaller sizes)

Hackle: cock hackle to match

 

For some detailed tying instructions, check out Davie McPhail. He calls it a "Hatchmaster" but from what I know, Harry Darbee invented it in the 50s and called it the Two-Feather. It also was simply called the "Darbee."

Griffith's Gnat

Hook: Standard Dry #14-24 (Mustad 94849 #18 shown)
Thread: Black 70 denier
Body: Peacock Herl
Hackle: Grizzly, palmered

Grizzly Crazy 8

This is a bit of an experiment that I worked on over the weekend. I used some traditional techniques and materials, modern poly yarn, and what I think is a new or at least odd-ball hackling technique to come up with what you see above. I tied the fly with two different hackling techniques (comparisons below). For my first tie, I wrapped the hackle in figure 8s around the poly wings creating an unruly ball of hackle, reminiscent of a hackle stacker, but above and below the hook. On my second fly, I posted both poly wings and wrapped the hackle parachute-style around each wing separately. 

Hook: #12 standard dry

Thread: white 70 denier

Tail: 3 black-barred white Hareline Mayfly Tails (micro fibbets)

Body: stripped grizzly hackle quill, laquered with Loon UV resin

Wings: white poly yard tied spent

Hackle: #12 grizzly hackle tied figure 8 (or double parachute)

Double-parachue

Figure 8

Figure 8s on left, parchutes on right

Classic Adams

Hook: #12 standard dry
Thread: olive 70 denier
Wing: grizzly hackle tips
Tail: mixed grizzly & brown hackle fibers
Body: Adams Gray Super Fine Waterproof Dry Fly Dubbing
Hackle: mixed grizzly #12 & brown #14

Red Quill

Red Quill
Hook: #12 dry
Thread: 70 denier blue dun
Tail: dark dun hackle fibers
Body: stripped quill from Rhode Island Red rooster hackle
Hackle: dark dun
Wing: wood duck

Snowshoe winged Light Cahill

Hook: #14 TMC 100 dry 

Thread: Orvis Primrose (pale yellow) 8/0

Tail: Cream Hackle fibers

Body: custom Light Cahill fur blend

Wing: snowshoe rabbit's foot, cream 

Hackle: cream

This is a pattern I picked up from Bob Wikoff, who incidentally also provided the dubbin and the snowshoe rabbit's foot.

Mercer's Missing Link

Great caddis pattern for late fall

Hook: dry fly
Thread: olive 70 denier
Body: olive thread
Rib: pearl flashabou

Thorax: ball of Peacock Ice Dub
Legs: tan Z-lon
Wing: coastal deer hair
Hackle: natural dun, parachute

Olive Devaux

Hook: dry fly
Thread: white and olive 70 denier
Tail: light dun hackle fibers
Body: olive thread
Rib: white thread
Rear hackle: dark dun
Front hackle: light dun
Wing: light dun hackle tips

Fatal Attractor

Hook: Dry Fly, 10-14
Thread: Olive 70 denier
Tail: Golden Pheasant Tippet
Body: UV Light Olive Ice Dub
Back Wing: Coastal Deer Hair
Wing: Calf Tail, white
Hackle: Grizzly
Head: Fl. Orange thread

Bivisible

A classic Catskill dry fly shown above with a few Light Cahills in the background. 

Hook: #14-18 dry fly

Thread: black 70 denier

Hackle: brown for rear 2/3, cream or white for front 1/3

Optional tail (not shown): brown hackle fibers 

Flying Ant

Hook: #18-22 emerger

Thread: black 70 denier

Thorax: black foam over peacock black Ice Dub

Abdomen: black foam folded over wing

Wing: poly yarn tied spent

Head: thread

I'll be trying out a parachute version as well in the hopes that it'll float well and be somewhat more visible for use in faster water. 

Pale Evening Dun

Hook: Dry size 16-20

Thread: 8/0 Primrose (or pale yellow)

Tail: Natural Dun Hackle fibers

Body: Thread wraps

Wings: Natural Dun Hackle tips

Hackle: Natural Dun

Davie McPhail's Black Cricket

Materials (listed in order of use)

Hook: #12 dry fly
Thread: black 70 denier
Back: black craft foam
Butt: black dubbing
Tail: 2 black goose biots
Thorax: black craft foam, wrapped
Rear Legs: black goose biots
Wing Case: black craft foam
Front Legs/Hackle: black dry fly hackle
Antennae: fibers from starling feather or black pheasant tail
Head: black dubbin

For a detailed instructional video, go to the source:  

Foam n CDC Beetle

Hook: #12 Dry

Thread: Black 70 denier

Body: Dark dun CDC tied in by tip and wrapped forward

Wing: Craft foam disc

Thorax: "Peacock Black" Ice Dub

Sulphur Sparkle Dun

Hook: #16 dry

Thread: Orvis "Primrose" 8/0 (light yellow)

Tail: silver poly yarn

Body: thread wraps

Thorax: Hareline UV Light Yellow Trout Ice Dub

Wing: light deer hair tied comparadun style

Isonychia Comparadun

A classic low-riding representation of an Isonychia or Mahogany Dun.

Hook: #10-14 Dry
Thread: Rusty Brown
Tail: Dark Dun Z-lon
Body: Hareline Olive Brown Dubbin
Wing: Natural Deer Hair (the finer the better)

Can be tied with lighter deer or elk hair and combined with different colors to represent other hatches as well.

West Branch Report

The gauge at Walton was down to 300CFS so the water was looking pretty decent tonight. It was still a little cloudy, but any clearer probably would just make the approaches harder at this point. As the weather has been a bit cooler as well, I was hoping the conditions would be ideal for a good night on the water.

JBP and I didn't get out to the river until after 6pm so we missed the afternoon hatches and surface activity was pretty much non-existent until dusk. I puttered around with a nymphing rig (light cahill dry above a gold-ribbed hare's ear) for a bit, but only managed a couple of chubs on that. Once dusk came on, things started picking up as there was a solid hatch of light cahills in about a size #14 coming off of the riffles.

I managed to land a couple of small browns, one on a mahogany dun and another on a light cahill, in the fast water and had at least one nice fish throw my fly. The prize of the night came at dark when a 17" brown gently slurped my cahill from a current seam leading into a large, slow eddy. At first it swam right towards me and I thought it was a smallish chub, but once it got a look at me, the fight was on. Thanks to JBP for manning the net and helping me land it. You shall have your reward, grilled with Lawry season and bacon!