Sharpies Work

"Midge feeders are notoriously hard nuts to crack. A popular fly pattern is the simple Griffith's Gnat.
This fly is simply a palmered version of the venerable Grey Hackle - a peacock herl body with a grizzly hackle wound palmer style through the herl. Apart from being a great all around pattern, in
small sizes the Griffith's Gnat has proven to work on very difficult trout during a midge hatch."  - Bob Wyatt, What Trout Want

I love Sharpies because they give me the color that I want and they do a good job of getting rid of the color that I don't want. Even though I go through many full partridge skins a year tying those venerable soft hackles I will always run short of the correct size in the full color that I want. A good example are the beautiful brown toned feathers, always in the size 12 to 14 range that have that annoying light tan stripe running along the stem.  Maybe the trout don't care but I do - I hate that stripe!! The photo above shows two of them. My remedy is this: pull a feather from the skin and run a brown sharpie down the stem.

The next photo shows one of the feathers WITH NO TAN STRIPE!!! This color resists water and will last a long time until you put the fly in a tree or give it to a trout.

As you see, the pictured fly has no tan mass near its thorax which you would have if you didn't color it and now you will have more hackles that are usable. In fact, you can take a light grey hackle and color it any color you want and it will work fine. (Note - sorry for the fat head on that SH. I think my fingers are cold!!)

Sharpies spruce up streamer patterns by giving you lateral lines and parr markings which have been neglected for decades on most baitfish pattern.

Today we get a blizzard and the next two days may be the coldest of the season. Maybe more snow early next week but a warming trend sets in and let's hope it lasts. We need to fish!!!!!

Ken