Half-Pounders on the A

[Pvillarr]

My favorite soft hackle is orange and grouse or orange and partridge.

I need to try that one. I am a sucker for a wet fly hares ear.

[PV_Premier]

I have a purple soft hackle I really like that catches the hell out of fish. It looks like this:

https://www.lundsflyshop.com/NEW_TRI...LE_p/ntpsh.htm

[Troutsource]

That's interesting. It's kind of like a spruced up version of this traditional Snipe & Purple soft hackle:

https://www.theslidingstream.net/sni...le-spider/amp/

I bought this book to get more patterns and learn more about the history of soft hackles (cheaper on ebay.uk):

https://www.amazon.com/North-Country.../dp/1904784658

The author says, while it's an attractive fly, he doesn't use it much.

I tied a few but haven't used them yet (I substituted for snipe since it's pretty much impossible to get). I'll try them now, or maybe tie the one you posted.

PS my brother and I fished mid-river Sunday morning. It was slow, and the few fish we caught were small, but the top producing fly was an orange and partridge. Of all things, it was catching fish during a trico hatch while we swung through porpoising fish.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

At some point I just started telling the "new to Half-pounder fishing" on the "A" to use the #12 nymph or wet fly of your choice.

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In the 1960s my brother Dick and I heard of these large Rainbow trout or small Steelhead that were in the lower American river.

I think we heard it from someone at "Ed's TV, Liquor and Sporting Goods" near the river.

We heard they would take dry flies like a trout. We ended up above Watt Avenue Bridge.

I think we were wet wading in Septembers with our funky little trout fly rods.

Dick was fishing a Coachman dry fly and we noticed that they were rising very inconsistently.

The fish would rise once and then seem to disappear on that particular afternoon, it was all new to us.

He just kept drifting that dry fly over that spot, over and over again until one finally came up and ate it.

It was a "classic 16 incher" that ran and jumped which for us was a huge event.


I think that Dick caught the only fish but we decided that we were going to give up our night crawlers and switch to fly fishing.

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Some times you have to actually "match the hatch" when they really key in on something.

In the 1070s my brother Dick took two outfits at times, one with a caddis emerger and one with a caddis dry.




In the Fall we use to go in the morning before work and after work in the evenings, Monday through Friday.

I use to have some felt sole boot foot neoprene waders I kept in my vehicle with the top rolled down like the fire fighters.

Our rods we already strung up with a fly tied on them. We were on the river fishing in a matter of minutes.


Weekends we went to the mountains......

[Pvillarr]

I had an unexpected surprise while swinging for half-pounders after work yesterday...I was using the Thomas and Thomas 1086 #6 fly rod, OPST 225 grain Commando Head, and the Airflo 14' Intermediate Polyleader with a #12 caddis pupa fly, and 8lb fluoro while swinging. After a great fight that took me down the river, I was so surprised to see that a striper was at the end of my line. You can see the fly in one of the pics.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

That is kind of a new one..........or at least not too common.

Nice photo of you and the beautiful Striper.

Can imagine it was quit a battle.

We get small (3-5#) fresh King salmon on the lower Klamath river in the early Fall.






As a teenager I used nightcrawlers for half-pounders in the Fall on the American.

We would hook Stripers on the night crawlers.......