Soft hackle flies

[Bluegrass Bill]

Hi folks, I have done reasonably well the last few years nymphing to catch steelhead on valley rivers but yearn to become successful tying and fishing soft hackle flies on the swing. It seems half pounders in particular can be enticed with smaller soft hackle flies (at least that is what I hear! ). I would love to have some recommendations on the best soft hackle materials to use, and recommendations on soft hackle fly patterns to tie, ideally with some photos. Thanks in advance!

[Larry S]

Bill,
Sylvester Nemes wrote several books about the soft hackle.
Best,
Larry S

[Darian]

Ditto what Larry posted. Also, many Steelhead patterns are, basically, soft hackle flies. A good soft hackle pattern that crosses over from Trout to Steelhead is the Breadcrust. Check out the link:

http://www.trinityflyshop.com/tfs_fly_bench.html

There're many others to explore.

[Bluegrass Bill]

Thanks Larry and Darian, just the kind of leads I was looking for!

[John Sv]

I tie a small, low water Brindle Bug with really small wings and oversized soft hackle. Swims just right!

[golfish]

Some ideas here... http://www.kiene.com/forums/showthre...-Klamath/page2

[Larry S]

Bill,
Sending you a PM.
Larry S

[JD]

Inevitably somone will recommend Neme's books, but they are a bit dated, contains limited illustrations, and while historically important, not the my first choice for books on soft-hackles for beginners. I'd recommend you look at Dave Hughes' "Wet Flies" or Allen McGee's "Tying & Fishing Soft-Hackled Nymphs" for much more modern and accessible treatments.

And to answer your original question, any soft feather is used for soft hackles. Different birds are used for different size flies (e.g. starling for small flies, guinea for large) but the most common feather used would be Hungarian Partridge, followed by hen. If you decide to buy some Partridge, do not bother with the little packets of loose feathers, invest in a skin.

[Bluegrass Bill]

Thanks again for all the feedback everybody. JD, you are sure right about investing in a partridge skin. I wanted to buy one at Kiene's but they did not have one. So i bought one of their small packets of loose feathers and found very little usable material in it. I will definitely check out those books.

[JasonB]

Far from an expert here myself, but I've had some favorable experiences with soft hackles for both trout and steelhead (and especially HP steelies). While I'm not sure that they fit the technical definition of "soft hackles" I use all kinds of hackle material for various flies, mostly just depending on what kinds of water I envision fishing them in:
slow, froggy water= partridge, hen back, marabou, blue eared pheasant, etc. longer whispier fibers that will move more, but tend to flatten in faster water
faster water= schlappen, ringneck pheasant rump, guinea, etc. basically stiffer fibers for faster waters

Then you can also get creative by varying how sparse or densely you hackle, making support for the hackle to prop them partially up, or to use mulitple types of hackle so that the stiffer ones will create a bit of a vortex that the softer hackle fibers will undulate in, etc, etc.

Since you asked for specifics, and speaking of steelhead: here are a few that have been working well for me currently

Both are really simple patterns, and could easily be varied tremendously. Both are quick easy ties and as you might notice have been chewed a bit

For half pounders, this pattern (as close as I could get to it anyways) called "fools gold" was extremely popular with the Rogue river HP this september:

Hope those are useful to get the creative juices going, inventing flies is half the fun!
JB