Soft Hackles
- This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated Nov 29, 2005 at 12:18 am by
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Very general question:
Soft Hackles always get included on any list of essential flies, but I never have very good results with them.
My comments may not be correct, but are based on my results with a soft.
BD, First thing is rid youself of the no Drag notion when using a soft. This will be hard for you since your a hard core nymph and indicator fisherman.
I like to swing them to a pod of rising fish in long gravel runs like the one below Betty’s or just about any feeding lane. I cast out across the stream and let the current form a belly in the line. How much belly I guess depends on current speed, experiment a little. When the current starts to straiten the line is where some of the hits come from. I guess the fly is rising to the surface and this draws a strike. Also I like to just let it swing for a while before casting again, sometimes giving small jerks to impart some action if the current is real slow. I have caught most of my fish on a soft while just letting it dance in the current directly downstream in a pod of fish. This is a fun method because you can target a particular fish when they are taking the soft. I also like to anchor it sometimes with a heavier fly like a Tellico or just some shot, again experiment.
There is really no need to see the fly because you’ll feel every smell you get from a Trout and hits are usually very abrupt. Just watch the area where you think the fly should be. One of my favorite 3wt rigs on the Caney is a Cream soft, peacock soft, and a Tellico about 10“ apart. It can be challenging to cast but it usually produces fish. I add the Tellico when there’s caddis on the water. We need to get an underwater shot of this fly to see exactly what it looks like to a Trout. There must be some kind of relation to the Caddis, I don’t buy the corn idea anymore.
Bottom line (at least for me) is, the soft is a very easy fly to tie and fish, and it works pretty good throughout the year.
Mike is exactly right. I will add the theoretical entomology.
The soft hackle supposedly represents an emerging caddis, which as I understand it tends to puff out its shellback as it rises and sometimes traps air to use as a float. I have absolutely slain stocked rainbows on the Little Red in Arkansas with the Red Ass, a peacock-bodied grizzly softhackle with a red tag of thread at its butt. We usually strip them through a swing like a wooly bugger, with takes typically occurring as the fly swings through a feeding channel.
Most of mine I tie in #14, but they come both smaller and larger. Many classic salmon flies are just big soft hackles.
Zach
Whenever I have tried to swing nymphs, streamers, or pretty much anything, I’m terrible about breaking fish off. With dead-drift nymphing, I get so used to hooksets on a little slack line that when a trout hits a tight line at the bottom of the swing, I react with way too much force. I need to work on my gentle strip strike, I guess. It can be tough sometimes, coming from a background of plastic worm fishing for bass…
bd
The current 3wt I have has a very parabolic action and this helps the breaking off problem.
This rod will be for sale cheap soon. It’s a custom cabelas PT (progressive taper) 9’ 3wt 2 pc. It’s a very fun rod for this type of fishing. I would part with it for $70 if anyone is interested.
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