Soft Hackle Flies-

Soft hackles are arguably the world’s oldest flies. After hundreds of years, these simple flies are still extremely effective.

Comprised of a simple abdomen, a thorax and a couple turns of a tiny game bird feather.

The term Soft Hackle refers to the soft feathers that breathe in a lifelike way in the water. Partridge is a good choice. Other options are hens feathers, quail, grouse, and starling.

There are a couple authors who have written some excellent books on the topic of soft hackles. The late Sylvester Nemes spent his retirement in Montana fishing soft hackles exclusively. His books revitalized the interest in soft hackles. Dave Hughes book Wet Flies is a great resource as well.

To fish soft hackles, you can fish them just like you would fish a dry fly. Allow them to sink just under the surface film. Trout take the vast majority of their food beneath the surface…and soft hackles look and act like food. Another technique is to cast across and down and allow the fly to swing around in the current. In some cases, the trout will slam the fly just as it is starting to lift in the current.

Here is a good article about Soft Hackles written by Sylvester Nemes

• Hook: Standard nymph hook # 12-18
• Tying thread: 70 denier
• Abdomen: Floss
• Thorax: Hares ear dubbing
• Hackle: a couple turns of partridge

There are countless variations on the Soft Hackle patterns. Here are a couple variations :

1. pheasant tail for the tail and abdomen, rib the abdomen with wire, use peacock for the thorax

2. Peacock body with a starling hackle in a small hook…18-20 wet fly hook….deadly Starling and Herl pattern

3. Floss abdomens are classic on soft hackled wet flies. Good colors are olive, orange, yellow. Try also a flash abdomen with a wire rib.

4. Thorax variations include ice dub instead of peacock. A hares ear dubbing with a mix of ice dub is an excellent choice.