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

Jiggy Buggers

This is just your basic wooly bugger tied on a jig hook with a slotted tungsten bead head. I decided to try these out on jig hooks to see if they snagged less while bouncing on the bottom. They might also be fun for ice fishing.

Hook: C400BL Barbless Jig Hook #10 or 12
Bead: 1/8" or 7/64" Slotted Tungsten Bead (3.3mm or 2.8mm)
Tail: Black Marabou
Body: Black Chenille
Hackle: Gray hackle

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."

Showshoe & UV Finish Emergers

The flies above are the result of some experimentation I've done with #16 Klinkhamer hooks and snowshoe hare's feet wings. Both bodies were finished using Loon's Clear UV Finish - Thin. On the left, I spiral-wrapped dun WonderWrap with UV Pearl Flashabou wrapped between the WonderWrap spirals. On the right, I used a grizzly hackle quill. The idea is that the bodies will easily sink below the surface, with the super-boyant showshoe hare keeping them afloat in the surface film.

Griffith's Gnat

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