The great Sylvester Nemes was the godfather of the soft hackle fly. Now, I said "godfather" and not the "creator" of the soft hackle. That distinction goes back centuries to who knows who (too many to name here) but Nemes brought the fly back from the dead and showed us all how to fish it. He also lived long enough to see what we did to this fly - we gave it a metal helmet which it never needed and called it a beadhead!!!!
His wife was pretty vocal about this concoction and said more than once that Sylvester did not consider it to really be flyfishing. An old fishing buddy (Jim Bowker) of Sylvester's said that Nemes would chew his butt off when he saw him fishing a beadhead.
I have written on this blog how I think that the BH stretches the definition of flyfishing by showing anyone who was interested that a trout will grab a bead that has been glued to a hook and doesn't really look like trout food. Thomas Ames, Jr., who wrote the great book, Hatch Guide For New England Streams, really couldn't say what the bead was supposed to represent. I think it's just an attractor that sinks unnaturally fast and that's that!!!!!
In the past 25 years the vast majority of my sunken fly trout have been caught on soft hackles. Most of the time I use no weight but when I do it's with drop shot. I get hung up enough to know that I'm fishing in the zone. If I see surface activity it's very easy to pull off the shot and go at it.
BTW, I fish subsurface on the Swift with nothing smaller that 5X and my 5X gets me down quick enough and I believe I've never had a refusal on the Swift because of 5X tippet.
Ken
6 comments:
Hey Ken has the Millers been fishable this year? Cheers,Chet
Chet,
It hasn't been the best year as far as the flow is concerned. It's been high which is different from the past few years.
Ken
To each his own. If you wish to fish near the bottom you need weight on the line or in the fly. I fish weighted attractor flys and unweighted imitations as the situation requires. However, the most fly fishing fun is from a foot below the surface to the surface and that's where the soft hackles come into play and can't be beat as emergers or drowned duns.
Dear Ken,
Although I (mostly) share your antipathy for bead-head patterns, I find it hard to imagine fishing Northeast streams and stillwaters without the Zebra Midge, an elegant pattern whose bead perfectly complements its curved-shank hook, tapered abdomen, and wire rib. It excels everywhere and belongs in every angler's fly box.
-Mike
Mike,
I tie Zebra Midges but without the metal helmet. I use plastic seed beads in either olive or black. They add little weight and NO FLASH but give the fly just the right shape and profile.
Ken
Dean,
You fish like I fish
Post a Comment