Soft Hackles are a forgotten and underrated fly pattern in Alaska. They shouldn’t be. Soft hackles are divided into two categories; Buzz flies, which are tied with palmered hackle to represent an insect in motion, or winged flies, where the hackles are often a throat then a collar with wings set to imitate an insect in rest.
Typical water you look for would be, choppy riffles, fast runs, and brief pools. The original method to fishing a soft hackle is to fish upstream and across with a natural drift down and around. They also work with a down and across swing as well.
These flies are super simple to tie and you can be creative with a variety materials. Most importantly you can have a lot of fun fishing them.
Originator: Sylvester Nemes
Tied by: Brian Davenport
Material List:
- Hook: Daiichi 1510 Sz 10 (use can use size 16-10)
- Body: Veevus 8/0 Orange Thread
- Thorax: Ice Dub Olive Brown
- Collar: Partridge Feather
- Thread: Veevus 8/0 Orange
Step 1. Start your thread appx 2 hook eye widths back.
Step 2. Wrap your thread down the shank of the hook, I like to wrap down a little bit on the bend, then back forward to the start.
Step 3. Using a small amount of dubbing, wrap a small ball, to create the thorax.
Step 4. Pick out a partridge feather, you want the quills to be the length of the hook shank. Prep the feather so that you have no more than three turns of quills the same length. Tie in the feather at the tip end of the stem.
Step 5. Wrap rap the partridge feather with touching turns, 2-3 turns. Build a small head and whip finish.
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