"Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously."
— Hunter S. Thompson
Partridge and Olive
A fellow I know once offered to show me the soft hackle fly collection that he had worked up. I think I must of let go with a slight wince as I looked upon a pile of mismatched hackles all lathered onto hooks. He was particularly proud of the number of hackle turns he could get onto a hook. All of this tying gymnastics were a wasted exercise because the game with creating soft hackles is a less is more proposition. The less material the better. What you don't want is the squashed butterfly effect- way too much material.
Partridge and Yellow
First, your hackles should not be so thick and big as to hide the slim body. Two turns is enough. If your sh fly has a thread body and a thorax then you should be able to see them easily. Also keep your dubbed bodies slim too.
The best soft hackles to use across the board are partridge hackles. They are the thinnest and finest of the soft hackles and a partridge cape will give you three distinct feather colors whereas hen and starling (both good feathers) basically come in one color unless you're into bleaching them which I'm not! Another good hackle is from the woodcock!
The Swift And It's Brookies
So far the Brook Trout are not on their redds as of yet. Is this late for them? Well not according to last year where my 10/28/20 post announced that the BT had just arrived and when they do arrive the browns and the bows will be following the brook trout.
Right now all of the rivers on the Fall list (that I care about) have been stocked at least once. Go get them!!
Book Me
I still have open dates and the rivers are fine. Don't wait too long.
Ken
11 comments:
Good points. Stewart's Spiders had multiple windings spaced out along the thread body but that's about it. Still could see the body!
Most commercial tiers must think that the customers would feel cheated if they didn't over dress the flys!
Thin is in!
Ken,
While I enjoy fishing for the stocked trout in the fall and appreciate catching them, my favorite times are when I connect with trout that have been in the river for a good while prior to stocking. One trout will make my night, and that includes a brook trout.
Best, Sam
Sam,
Brookies in the Swift are very special. They were born there.
Ken
"Once you have given up the idea of the exact imitation and peeled away all the distracting elements, all frustration over the fly disappears and you can concentrate on the presentation".
~ Gunnar Johnson
Ken
I thought this quote from a Scandinavian flympf flyfisher is fitting for your subject.
Mike
I fished the Gorge the other day and got 2 nice sized rainbows way past Les's pool. 1 on a orange soft hackle and 1 on a bugger.
Ken great point on the sparse hackle. I usually don't palmer my hackle anymore especially in 18 or smaller (I tie down to size 20) but instead tie a small tuft (3 to 5 barbs) of partridge or starling on the top and bottom of the thorax and use my fingers to kind of splay them out a bit around the thorax. But a slim sparse profile tends to fish better then the bushy store bought soft hackle flies for sure.
You are so right, Ken. Every time I hook a brookie I am glad I use barbless hooks. A week ago I caught one that had to be hatched this year it was so small. Hook slipped right out and off it went, no worse for wear I trust.
Best, Sam
A few good hours at the Chesterfield Gorge today. Plenty of water in the EB, it looked more like April or May flows. Got a couple of (probably) recently stocked bows, and a couple of really nice browns - one was a good 15", deep yellow-orange with bright red spots the colors of the fall leaves, looked like it had been in there a while. All came on one sort of soft hackle or another - partridge and orange, bird of prey caddis, and red fox squirrel nymph all pretty big #12-14. Such a beautiful place this time of year.
Mike from Pittsfield
Good to see that everyone is catching trout and enjoying the best weather of the season!!!!!!
Ken
Could be one of my weirder days at the Swift. I only had a few hours so I stopped by and I was the only person??? I saw one other guy during almost 3 hours? On top of that, there were fish everywhere under the bridge. I learned they stocked recently. I left the bridge and had the whole upper stretch to myself. I got zip. Nothing. The wind was blowing and there was a lot of debris on the water, but I struck out in the bubbler, where I saw very few fish. I had the Y pool to myself, nothing, no rising fish, but plenty there. Feeling dejected I ended at the rte 9 bridge where I had a wolf pack of followers to my Little BT streamer,..and my purple bugger, and my black bugger , and my Black Ghost. No bites. It’s the fist time since Covid there hasn’t been a crowd, and after a recent stocking too, on a nice day??? It must be the zombie apocalypse or something. :) Still always a better day in the river then out of it!
Falsecast,
HAD THE SAME EXPERIENCE A FEW TIMES AT THE PIPE THIS SUMMER BUT ABOVE ROUTE 9? THAT IS WEIRD.
kEN
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