# Any soft hackle lovers out there?



## wclark5 (Mar 6, 2004)

Wanting to tie up some soft hackles for spring season. Looking for suggestions and tying patterns. Size recommendations would be great as well. Anyone interested?


----------



## WILDCATWICK (Mar 11, 2002)

Soft Hackles are great. I've been using soft hackles on many traditional patterns with often better success than the original patterns. An example would be a soft hackle P.T. nymph. 

One of my favorite searching patterns is the soft hackle wooly worm. This pattern cuts an awesome silhouette and there is no incorrect way to fish it. Works great in lakes or rivers as it imitates a wide array of insects. Great on pan fish and I can't begin to imagine how many trout I've caught on this pattern. Very easy to tie. http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns4.asp?page=19

Unweighted soft hackles can be killer just before, during, and just after a hatch. It can net more fish and get the larger tougher ones. Fish just in or barely below the surface.


----------



## Ray Adams (Feb 17, 2006)

I agree with all this. With soft hackles, you get the visual benefit of fishing dries, but the fish aren't near as reluctant to take them. I love these things. 

My go-to soft hackle patterns is a #16 P.T. for searching, but I'll often fish a #18 sulfur soft hackle with a bit of a twitch before the hatch comes off. Same goes for hendricksons and brown drakes. Never did this for hex, but I'm sure it would work the same way. 

Ray


----------



## Jackster1 (Aug 17, 2001)

Soft hackles have always saved the day for me when trout fishing. Some rivers I fish meant walking against the current one way and with the current to get back to where I started.
In cases like this I fished dries mostly heading upstream then swung soft hackles heading back down.
I tie them in the usual green, orange and yellow with partridge collars but also have other colors in my box, especially a few shades of brown.
I don't add weight to the fly but prefer to add weight when needed to the tippet.
I'll fish them most times on a tight line, casting either perpendicular to the current or quartering more or less downstream. Mend downstream to speed the fly up in too slow water and upstream in fast current to keep it from racing too fast. You can cover a whole lot of water completely by extending each cast a bit and starting all over with short casts after taking a step or two downstream. Always hang on for a while after the drift because the fly will lift in the current and entice strikes by acting like an emerger. Keep the fly there for a bit once it skates up in the current and add a small twitch or two to tease a fish into eating. Many fish are caught at the end of the drift. Many.
Soft hackles are some powerful medicine and very easy to tie and to fish.


----------



## flyrodder46 (Dec 31, 2011)

One of the best soft hackle fly fishers and tiers that I have ever met was Dick Walle. He was a master at fishing his soft hackles and loved to pass his knowledge of tying and fishing them on to others. Dick passed away a couple of years ago, and I am sure that his presence on and around the rivers of northern Michigan will be missed by many. I have a box of his tied fly's that I have had for several years and treasure them greatly. Every year I pull that box out and attempt to duplicate his ties, most of the time I can come close, and my flies do catch fish, but there is nothing better than a Dick Walle Soft Hackle.

D


----------



## gunrod (Jan 16, 2001)

My best soft hackle is a piece of tinsel wrapped on the hook. A small ball of tan dubbing for an abdomen and a white piece of cdc tied forward for a wing. Fish it in fast water on bright, sunny days. 

Don't forget mallard flank and starling for soft hackle too. I've also used bigger flies with floss bodies, gold or silver ribbed with a dubbed thorax and mallard flank palmered at the top. I tie them with and without metal beads for weight. I usually will fish the weighted one at the top with an unweighted at the bottom. I've used the weighted under an indicator for pan fish too. It will take the fish that won't come to the top for a spider or popper.


----------



## StonedFly (Feb 24, 2012)

When I lived in Colorado my go to fly when fishing pressured fish was a thread body soft hackle. It was dynamite. I spent about 2 months fishing these big rainbows on a small stillwater and they would humble me day on and day out with refusals. Tied up a #18 soft hackle, twitched it in the film, and whammy!

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


----------



## StonedFly (Feb 24, 2012)

Victim of the soft hackle.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


----------



## kawigreen (Mar 28, 2013)

Any pictures would really help us noobs? Do you dead drift, swing, or strip, or twich these

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


----------



## FishmastaZERO (May 29, 2012)

You can fish softies all kinds of ways

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


----------



## wclark5 (Mar 6, 2004)

WOW, what a stir of interest, it makes me feel like "what the heck have I been missing?" I especially appreciate jackster1 comments about river technique. That is un-believablely helpful, and Flyrodder46 reference to Dick, I belonged to the NBB Trout Club in Toledo for several years, and did have a chance to spend time with him, (unfortunately not any time with him on the water) and he did share his passion for soft hackles, and I believe midges as well. His absence to the sport will be greatly missed. Too digress, there's been to many names inducted into the Fly-Fishermans hall of fame in the last few years. Rusty, comes to mind as well. Thanks for all of the input. I am going to see if I can print all of these comments off, and then get to the vise. Tight lines everyone.


----------



## Ray Adams (Feb 17, 2006)

I cast quartering downstream and hand-twist it as it swings around. Violent strikes are common and the fish set the hook into their own mouths.


----------



## PERCHGILL (Feb 19, 2012)

1. Where can I purchase quality, in stock, soft hackle flies?

2. Where can I purchase quality, custom-made, soft hackle flies?

I'm a relatively-noobie trout pursuer. Two trips to the Ausable last year. Caught a total of six, small browns. All were caught with tiny black stoneyfly. None caught on dries. Will be heading up again in May. Intend to primarily use wets & nymphs. 
Tight lines.:help:


----------



## jd4223 (Feb 12, 2012)

Any soft hackle fly I tied always had peacock herl for the body/thorax and a snip of a red feather for a tail.


----------



## flyrodder46 (Dec 31, 2011)

Any quality fly shop in your area should have some Soft Hackles in their stock. If you are close to the MFFC location this weekend you will find some there I am sure. If you are not able to locate any, send me a PM and I will tie some of Dick's favorites for the AuSable for you and get them in the mail.

D


----------



## ramjet (Dec 19, 2003)

Great thread.

In addition to the ways mentioned above, I fish them below dry flies during the PMD hatch out west. No fancy ties, I'd wrap some gold/straw/chartreuse wire on the hook for the body which gets them through the film quickly. Watch for anything unusual below the fly. I'd say it was 5 on the subsurface fly to 1 on the top.

I've also had success during PMD/Sulfur/Olive hatches fishing them in pools below fast/riffle water, where fish might be expected to line up to dine on the bugs that didn't make it through the hatch and drowned. Ditto for right behind a tree in the flow that both creates enough surface turbulence to push slow-emerging mayflies back under and makes a current break for fish to hold in and feed.

For the soft hackle itself, I've used: CDC, partridge, hen (often tied backwards first or stripped and clipped to get the right length), and starling. Anybody using synthetics?


----------



## quack head (Oct 23, 2007)

What is the correct measurement for tying in the hackle? From eye to bend?


----------



## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

Tons of good advice here. They are definitely an action fly, meaning you will get action on them and adding a little action is often a good thing. Great way to hone your skills for mending to keep the fly where you want it, whether dead drift or moving. My best night ever for numbers of fish on the Au Sable came thanks to partridge and orange soft hackles. I was waiting out a sulfur spinner fall when a thunderstorm blew in from nowhere and knocked down all the bugs that were heading upstream. I put on that soft hackle and caught so many fish I lost count, big ones, little ones, all of 'em were going crazy. It actually got so out of hand that I was surprised not to hook up on a drift. It ended when I ran out of flies. Drowned flies are easy pickin's.

If you have access to any woodcock shoulders I recommend them for the smaller sizes of darker flies. They fall into that 16 and smaller range really nicely and are a good match for mahoganies, stones, olives and some of the darker caddis. Don't forget about size 12 in July though. The isonychias are swimming around right through the month and the fish love them.


----------



## flyrodder46 (Dec 31, 2011)

quack head said:


> What is the correct measurement for tying in the hackle? From eye to bend?


I generally tie in the hackle (tip first) 3 hookeyes back from the eye, and make 2-3 wraps forward, this leaves about 1 hookeye of room to finish off the fly.

D


----------



## Brown duck (Dec 16, 2005)

Any time I hit a stream, I invariably reach for the fancy-looking, fun to tie files first. When I get frustrated with those, I put on the soft-hackle and start catching fish. Great flies - easy to tie, catch fish - what more can be said?


----------

