Soft Hackle Patters for swinging on the American

[Bluegrass Bill]

Hi Folks, In an effort to hook some of the spring run half pounders swinging here on the American I have been working on some soft hackle patterns and found one called an orange soft hackle that looks really good to me. I hope the fish think so as well. I would love to see what other soft hackle patterns folks out there swear by. Thanks and tight lines.

[Mark Kranhold]

That's all you need right there Bill! You could even do the same tie in olive and add a bead head. Nice job!

[Bluegrass Bill]

Mark, thanks so much for your response! I had in mind to tie some of those in olive as well and the bead head sounds like a great idea to add into the variety. I was planning on tying in sizes 10 through 14 and wondered if you had a favorite size you liked to use? I have spent a lot of time on the American, had some success nymphing but just have not been able to break through getting any steelhead swinging. I am determined however :)

Also I read your post with your steelhead fry pattern and that pattern looks awesome! Do you have a 'recipe" for that?

Thanks Mark, really apprecaite your help and advice.

[hwchubb]

The old traditional partridge and peacock, tied traditionally or with a green glass bead on the head, is my go- to on the American as well as anyplace else caddis are on the menu. A soft hackle hares ear with a gold or gold glass bead comes in second. My $0.02.

[Mr F]

Lookin' good Bill. A natural hair's ear is my #1, but I go into colors (green, olive, orange, black, purple) and carry Ice Dub'd versions for when the water has a stain. I carry with and without beads.

I've tried the classic thread-bodied patterns, and experimented with stretch tubing bodies, but nothing works as well as a hair's ear w/ partridge. I'm curious about quill bodies--I may have to give that shot this summer.

[Bluegrass Bill]

Hi folks, thanks for the suggestions and I look forward to trying them all. For now I tied a few more like I did before but with the olive body. I used copper wire ribbing for all of mine as it seemed to give it a more interesting body plus helped me hold the shape I wanted. I am sure it will be more durable as well.

One of the things I love about this pattern is how simple it is to tie :) Here are a couple more pics. I hope to get out on the water sometime this next week so I will let you know how things go.

Thanks again and Tight Lines.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

For that last half hour, when the fish are feeding in the surface, I would tie one on a #12 dry fly hook, with an olive body, soft partridge hackle and then a small deer hair wing so it will float in the surface.

A #12 caddis dry will work very late when you see fish feeding on top.

.

[Darian]

Good job on the flies. They'd look great in one of jbirds wooden fly boxes.... :cool:

[Bluegrass Bill]

They do look great in my wooden box i got from Jbird for a christmas present :)

Here is another pattern, the "dirty bird" a friend turned me on to that looks like a great one :)

[Jeff C.]

Bill, Here's my variation of the Dirty Bird. Andy calls it the Swinging Ching!

[Bluegrass Bill]

Jeff, thats a good one, thanks for sharing. I can see the variations on this fly are almost endless. :)