Fly Tying

In my previous post, I covered the creation of a Strike-Indicator-Fly (SIF). I began developing a beetle pattern as a modification of the SIF. That is the topic of this article.

When we first heard of Nano Silk thread and the maker’s claims of amazing strength, we were confused. A super strong silk? Maybe spun by super silk worms born on Krypton and brought on Superman’s rocket in the 1940’s? No - turns out, this product is not silk at all but fine, stranded GSP thread from SemperFli in the U.K.

Guest Blogger: Mike Cline, Bozeman, MT The traditional soft hackle fly has been with us for a long time. Sylvester Nemes in his Two Centuries of Soft-Hackled Flies (2004) chronicles the history of this venerable pattern back to the year 1747. Even today, in the 21st century, the soft-hackle is a killer pattern that can be effective anywhere trout feed on aquatic insects. Unfortunately, many fly shops don’t carry them and even online retailers don’t offer the variety one would like to see. Additionally, it’s hard to justify paying $2 for a fly on a cheap hook that can be tied in less than a minute or so on a good one. Trout anglers should always have a good selection of soft hackles at the ready anytime they fish in insect rich waters (they are actually very effective for bluegill and other shallow water sunfish).  Using Soft Hackle Flies Understanding that trout are opportunistic feeders, anything that looks like food (an aquatic insect) is likely to draw strikes. The traditional soft hackle fly with its partridge or grouse feather hackle simulating legs and a short, segmented body looks like an aquatic insect. They can be fished in the surface film as an emerger, dead drifted deep or swung to simulate an insect rising up through the water column. They are exceptionally effective as trailers on small bugger and streamer patterns. Put a soft hackle anywhere near feeding fish and you are likely to get a strike. Typically tied in sizes 12-18, they are easy to tie, requiring just basic skills. Their constructions requires little else than forming a body, occasionally a tail, dubbing a tiny thorax and making one or two winds of hackle. I tie up hundreds every season for my own fishing and to give to friends and people I meet along the river. Here’s my list of essential soft hackle materials.  Tying Soft Hackle Flies Hooks and Hackle Far and away, my favorite soft hackle fly hook is the TMC 206BL. Occasionally I’ll tie soft-hackles on TMC 2487BL hooks or Dai-Riki #125 because somehow I got a good bargain on them. I think using barbless hooks on soft hackles, especially when swinging them improves hookups when fish attack the moving fly. Apart from a favorite hook, having high quality partridge or grouse feathers in the right sizes is essential. Small (sizes 18-14) flies require small feathers, those that are found mainly on the neck and head of the bird. Two dollar packages of partridge feathers rarely have sufficient small hackles to warrant the expense. Acquiring #1 grade, full partridge skins is the most effective way to ensure you have a good supply of high quality small feathers. High quality is essential, as soft hackle flies will take a beating on the river and a high quality feather is less likely to break while tying small flies. Other than a partridge skin, a quality starling skin is useful if you are tying the Starling and purple pattern.  Other Materials Hooks and feathers, that leaves body materials. Over the centuries, soft hackled flies have been given all sorts of names. The Partridge and Orange is probably the most recognized traditional soft hackled fly. But in reality, they are essentially Partridge and anything flies. My go to list of body materials are these.  Ovale Pure Silk Floss in orange, olive and purple-one spool of this silk will tie many 100s of flies because it acts as both thread and body material. Silk bodies become somewhat translucent and buggy when wet. If you don’t use the silk for the body, most can be tied with 8/0 olive thread. Goose quills in olive, natural pheasant tail feathers, turkey quills and peacock herl—these will cover the range of segmented bodies in olive, light to dark brown and the iridescence of peacock herl. A few strands of feather wound four or five turns around the hook make great looking segmented bodies. When I choose to dub a small thorax, I use rabbit fur in hare’s ear (light tan) or in olive. Lightly dubbed thoraxes provide a better base for one or two turns of hackle. One might think I’ve missed listing beads, but I don’t use them. They kill the action of the fly in the water, aren’t really necessary to get flies in front of fish, force the use of longer hooks and most of all are an unnecessary expense.The traditional soft hackle is a simple pattern to tie. It is also an easy and effective pattern to fish. Having a good selection of them in your fly box in olives, browns, and peacock, not to forget the venerable orange and purple versions, will provide the opportunity to catch more trout. But you have to fish them, because once you do, you’ll be tying more of them. 

Guest Blogger: Mike Cline, Bozeman MT Canadian Pine Squirrel has turned out to be a very versatile tying material. Where I fish in SW Montana, micro zonkers are very popular and are routinely tied with pine squirrel instead of rabbit fur. The fine fur is also useful for many types of nymph bodies and leech patterns. One of my go-to flies has always been the woolly bugger as I just thrive on striping streamers for Montana and Wyoming trout. Woolly bugger bodies are typically tied with some form of chenille or dubbing and palmered with a suitable hackle. The traditional go-to colors have always been shades of black, brown or olive, colors that pine squirrel skins are found in. A recent experience on the Missouri River prompted me to experiment with pine squirrel for woolly buggers. It was late April and the tail water flows were very high out of Holter Dam. Running in excess of 8000 CFS, the water was fast, deep and a bit discolored. Taking the advice of one of the local fly shop guys, I was using small, un-weighted pine squirrel zonkers with a lot of flash on a 200 grain sink tip with a very short, stout leader (OX, at less than 3’). Using an un-weighted fly in deep, fast water might seem to be the wrong way to get a fly deep and in front of trout, but it’s not. The un-weighted fly can be cast with much less effort, more accurately and longer than heavily weighted flies, especially in wind. It’s the short, stout leader on the heavy sink tip that gets the fly deep fast. 30 foot sink tips will rocket to the bottom, even in heavy water. In the slightly discolored water, the flash does a good job of attracting strikes. Although it wasn’t an epic day, I did land five rainbows and browns over 20” using this technique. After that experience, I began to think about adapting pine squirrel to woolly buggers for the same reason. My pine squirrel woolly buggers are tied on #6 hooks, typically Dai Riki 700, Daiichi 1850 or TMC 200R. These can be tied completely un-weighted or with a few turns of very light lead/tungsten wire at mid shank. Heavy weighting with beads or cones not required and actually help save wear and tear on the fly rods. The tailing is traditional woolly bugger with two levels of flash. Using bright orange thread (6/0), I first tie in four or five strands of Angel Hair (Crayfish or PMD) and keep doubling it. When completely tied in, the angel hair is trimmed to about two-thirds the hook shaft length. This provides a lot of flash and support for the marabou tail. A chunk of marabou is tied in over the angel hair, with the feather shafts extending almost to the hook eye. This builds up a nice base for the pine squirrel. On top of the marabou I tied 4 or 5 strands of some saltwater flashabou in mirage or other bright, silvery color. At this point, the body of the fly should be somewhat uniform in diameter up to just short of the hook eye. At this point, I tie in a section of fine copper wire or a nice saddle hackle of the appropriate color at the base of the marabou. Now for the pine squirrel. I take a strip of pine squirrel, tying it in skin side up at the base of the marabou. The fur should be facing away from the hook. Generally, I tie in about 1/16 – 3/32” of skin to secure the pine squirrel. Then using a gel based super glue, I put a small amount of glue on the hook shaft. The pine squirrel is then wrapped up the hook shank, taking care not to overlap the skin or get the fur sullied with the glue. The squirrel is tied off about 3/16” behind the eye. The hackle or wire is then palmered up the hook shank and tied off at the eye and a nice head is formed and cemented. This has proven to be a very durable fly, but I’ve found that eventually the hackle breaks after a lot of fish, whereas the wire doesn’t. On the wired flies, dozens of fish will generally wear down the fur to a nub, leaving the wire intact. These flies are proven very effective in deep fast water. They provide a flashy, high profile fly that give the impression of lots of bulk when suspended in the water, but the pine squirrel sheds water very well so casting the un-weighted flies all day is a joy. I’ve been using these flies in Yellowstone on the Firehole and Madison River this spring with great success. Note from J. Stockard: You can find all of the fly tying items (chenille, dubbing, hackle, thread, wire, flash, marabou) that Mike mentions in this post at J. Stockard. In particular, check out our pine squirrel .