Have you ever wished there was an easy way to get into fly tying and fly fishing for trout? There is: fishing soft hackle flies.
Soft hackle flies are simple wet flies, consisting at their most basic of only three or four parts: a wet fly hook, a body of silk floss, a small dubbed thorax (optional but recommended) and a partridge hackle. A beadhead is another option.
This is an old approach. This fly can be found in “The Treatise on Fishing with An Angle” by Dame Juliana Berners — written in 1496. Wet flies were the basic staple of fly fishing until the dry fly ethic developed early this century.
Syl Nemes “rediscovered” the soft hackle versions in his 1975 book, “The Soft-Hackle Fly.” (Legendary Pennsylvania anglers James Leisenring and Pete Hildy were advocating these techniques in 1941.) When I came across Nemes’ book, I realized it was a good way to learn trout fishing.
Syl and others evolved from the original patterns, which still work, to more realistic patterns, listed in his 1991 book, “Soft-Hackle Fly Imitations.” Soft hackles can be bought in fly shops and through catalogs, but these are great flies for the beginning fly tier.
Fishing techniques are similarly simple. Any trout rod will do, but the ideal rod is 8-9 feet long, medium action, rated for a 4-6 weight floating line. Use a tapered leader about 8 feet long and tie a double surgeon’s loop at the end. Add 2-3 feet of 4x tippet material, make another double surgeons loop attach to the leader with a loop-to-loop connection. At the end, tie on a soft hackle fly with an improved clinch knot or, better, a 100% loop knot.
Nemes’ basic patterns are slim size 14 to 16 floss-bodied flies in orange, yellow or olive. I would add two more patterns, a pheasant tail soft hackle, with or without a dark beadhead and a sulphur soft hackle fly size 14, 16 and 18.
Soft hackles are riffle flies; they are not effective in quiet pools ordinarily. The classic technique is to cast the soft hackles across the current and let them swing with the current until they are directly downstream. At least 90% of the time, no action should be given to the flies on the swing. At the end of the swing, lift the flies slightly and release the line. This technique, the classic Leisenring Lift, often triggers strikes.
When there is no strike, pick up the line, pivot smoothly during the backcast and cast again. This “change of direction” cast is quite easy. Keep your casts smooth and minimize the strokes. I usually use one backcast and never more than two. This approach keeps the flies untangled when using multi-fly rigs and lets you concentrate on fishing, not knot tying and untangling. The experienced fly caster needs to remember to keep the loop slightly open; the beginner tends to do this naturally.
I like to approach the riffle from more than a cast above, aiming the cast as much as 45 degrees (three-quarters) above me upstream to that much or more downstream depending on the strength of the current and how deep I want the flies to run. The idea is to swing the flies past mini pockets and eddies in the current, alongside and over rocks, logs, under overhanging trees and along undercut banks, etc. that provide holding areas for trout. Take a step or two downstream and repeat until you work your way well into the pool below the riffle.
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Sometimes I walk right down the middle of the stream, casting to either side until I work the whole riffle. This is a particularly good technique where the riffle is mostly uniform. “Mending the line” can help in uneven currents. If you want to swing the fly along the bank and there is a swifter current between you and the bank, simply lift your rod and roll the belly of the line upstream (upstream mend) to allow a more uniform swing of the fly. If the area where you are swinging your fly is slower, simply mend the line downstream.
Strikes can come at any time during the course of the swing from touch down to Leisenring Lift, and you’ll sometimes find large trout in very skinny water, especially in low light conditions. Since the soft hackles usually ride just a few inches under the surface, almost all strikes are visible, if only as a flash or boil under the fly. Since you’re fishing mostly with a tight line, a simple tug with the line hand or lift of the rod is all that’s needed to set the hook. If you miss the strike, keep fishing; this gentle strike rarely disturbs the trout.
All of this becomes very simple and natural with a little application. The idea is to let the flies swim naturally with the current with the soft hackles imparting a lifelike motion.
In some situations, especially in fishing small streams or undercut banks, an upstream approach can be more effective. Keep your cast short and retrieve the line at the same speed as the current or slightly faster. A single fly is more controllable than two with this approach, and you must strike more quickly.
I often fish a tandem rig. The simplest method is to tie a 1-foot section of finer tippet material to the bend of the hook of the first fly with a clinch knot then tie on a second fly with a 100% loop knot. A favorite pair is a sulphur soft hackle top fly and dark beadhead pheasant tail soft hackle as the bottom fly.
There are numerous variations, and I have used soft hackles to take white perch in the Susquehanna River and smallmouth in the Potomac River. I have taken trout in eastern and western states with basic soft hackle/nymph rigs.
But start with the basic rig. It’s simple, it’s easy and it works.
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