Soft Hackle

This is one reason many people give up on such spiders, which is a shame, as
they are quite deadly. Although there is plenty of information about cock
and hen hackles floating around, there is actually very little about some
other materials. Starling being a case in point.

Old time dressers selected their feathers and furs very carefully indeed for
spiders, and some materials were very highly prized. This is also why some
of the flies tied with them were so effective. Using anything else also
results in a inferior fly. There are no substitutes for many of these
hackles either. Using soft hen hackles is not the same at all. Apart from
which, it grieves me more than somewhat that people think soft hackles are
"generic" patterns, This is not the case, most were originally tied to
represent specific insects, and this they did, far better than some of the
"modern" stuff.

However this may be, it does not matter really, only to those who care, and
is none of my affair in any case.

TL
MC

Mike Connor wrote:

This is one reason many people give up on such spiders, which is a shame, as
they are quite deadly. Although there is plenty of information about cock
and hen hackles floating around, there is actually very little about some
other materials. Starling being a case in point.

In the States, the Hungarian Partridge is the standard for soft hackles.
They are very useful but aren't suited to tying smaller flies. However,
there are many species of grouse, partridge, and quail that are hunted
across the Country and they provide some great soft hackle, hackles.
These can provide a range of feathers sizes and a wide range of colors.



Old time dressers selected their feathers and furs very carefully indeed for
spiders, and some materials were very highly prized. This is also why some
of the flies tied with them were so effective. Using anything else also
results in a inferior fly. There are no substitutes for many of these
hackles either. Using soft hen hackles is not the same at all.


I agree a soft hackle tied with a hen hackle is very different.


Apart from
which, it grieves me more than somewhat that people think soft hackles are
"generic" patterns, This is not the case, most were originally tied to
represent specific insects, and this they did, far better than some of the
"modern" stuff.



Although these ties may have originated to represent specific insects,
these insects were English insects which are going to differ from those
in the US. Here in the US, these original patterns function more as a
"generic" pattern. I think of soft hackles as a style of fly. They can
be tied and used effectively as "generic" attractor patterns and can
also be modified to be very effective for fishing specific hatches.
They're definitely an under used fly in the US.


Willi

Willi wrote:


...
Although these ties may have originated to represent specific insects,
these insects were English insects which are going to differ from those
in the US. Here in the US, these original patterns function more as a
"generic" pattern. I think of soft hackles as a style of fly. They can
be tied and used effectively as "generic" attractor patterns and can
also be modified to be very effective for fishing specific hatches.
They're definitely an under used fly in the US.


Willi

Willi

there has been serious work done here on imitative soft hackles. See
Sylvester Nemes' book "Soft Hackled Fly Imitations". Unfortunately I
don't know of anyone who has followed up much it, at least in print.

One comment I'll make on overdressed soft hackles is that they don't
tend to stay that way in use, they wear down, but when the fish are on
them, I have seen them keep working all the way down to that last fiber.

Mike

"Mike Connor" wrote in message
...


The colours are right, but it sounds like you have a young bird skin, a
female, or one in which the bird was not in full plumage. Although two
turns is enough for collar hackles, you really need a couple more for the
Stewart style flies. There is not much you can do about it really. The
hackles from younger birds are also very fragile and can be frustrating to
tie with.

This is unfortunately a very common problem, as these birds are not
selected
for their feathers, but are the result of relatively indiscriminate
killing,
as they are major pests in many places. Normally, if you get a good skin,
you can use virtually every feather on the bird.

I can easily palmer a whole size fourteen hook from the throat feathers
on
the skins I have.

Can´t be of much help to you there I´m afraid. If the feathers really are
too short, the only solution is to obtain another skin.


I tried tying a SH with a starling hackle from the skin that I have, using
the smallest hook I have, a size 14.

These hackles are way too small for that. Maybe a size 20 or smaller. If I
get to the store any time soon, I'll pick up some size 20 hooks and try
tying one with these small hackles. (Like I'm even going to be able to see a
size 20 hook. :-) )

If anything, they may make halfway decent eyes for very small streamers.
That tan spot on the ends may just work. Almost, but not anywhere near
looking like, a jungle cock eye.

"Hooked" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
SNIP
I tried tying a SH with a starling hackle from the skin that I have, using
the smallest hook I have, a size 14.

These hackles are way too small for that. Maybe a size 20 or smaller. If I
get to the store any time soon, I'll pick up some size 20 hooks and try
tying one with these small hackles. (Like I'm even going to be able to see
a
size 20 hook. :-) )

If anything, they may make halfway decent eyes for very small streamers.
That tan spot on the ends may just work. Almost, but not anywhere near
looking like, a jungle cock eye.



Well, you definitely got a bad skin. The small soft hackles can also be
deadly, but I never go below an 18. I have tried smaller ones, years ago,
but I did not land many reasonable sized fish on them, I had problems even
getting tippet through the eyes, so I gave up using them. I don´t like using
very fine tippet anyway.

You can make a jungle cock substitute using starling hackles, They were
quite popular for a while. One merely paints the correct coloured dots on
the feather.

TL
MC