Thanks. Have you tried any flourescent material?

Wow! Do I have a new softhackle fly that should be outlawed before it is even used! I've fished it at nite, and just before the strike I sit up in bed in a cold sweat!

Been tying some "new and improved" :) softhackles. Had a very enjoyable experience on Friday. Ran my small jetboat upriver, and got out with my old fishing partner, and he fished a riffle upriver with a softhackle, and I went downriver, and fished a softhackle through a riffle. I caught one mid-sized brown trout. When I came back my partner had finished fishing his riffle, and caught 2 small trout. Out in the middle of his run was a windfall, a logjam, and I knew he hadn't waded far enough out to reach it. I got out to my waist, through one riffle flow, and into the next that had the windfall. Softhackle swung along the logs, and when it passed below there was one large swirl after the size #10 caddis/pupa hook softhackle, then another one, and the the 3rd swirl he took it...an 18" very large around brown trout. Made my day right off the getgo. I've been tying a new design. A small plastic bead head, and I get some wt. via medium sized wire. I tie some short tail fibers, then the wire is ribbed close up the abdomen, but I leave a small gap between the wire, as I wrap it up the shank. Then a feather is wrapped through the gaps...a feather prepared by pulling out the fibers, and trimming them close to the stem leaving about a 1/16 of an inch rt. angling out off the stem. The wire provides protection to the stem, and the fibers stick out like gills that can move in the current. The wire shows through. Then I bump up the thorax with peacock herl, or whatever you want to use, and then a longer soft hackle that extends all the way back. You can use whatever color scheme you want, but it sure does make for a good attractor softhackle when nothing specific is coming off the riffle, or you could make it specific to what has been coming off. The end of the day didn't end as anticipated. ON the run to the takeout we saw two older women stuck in a logjam with heavy current pressing against one of the women. I got out on the shallow side, was able to wade out far enough to throw them a rope, had them crawl one at a time up onto the logs, and then jump in off my side of the jam, and pulled them in to safety. They were totally exhausted, and had been in the jam for sometime. Both had rented a canoe!!!...and neither knew how to row! Incredible the ignorance I've seen on the river over time.

Seen it many times in my days on the river. Nice warm day, and total novices out floating a trecherous river in some bathtub like boat. Canoes are one of the most dangerous crafts. Good chance these gals were goners. Nearing nitefall, few would have seen them, and they were totally exhausted, and could barely climb up on top of the windfall/log jam.

Great stories about the canoes, but sad just the same. Most canoeists I've encountered have been both skilled and courteous. Re soft-hackles: it's tempting to wind the hackle as if tying a dryfly, and that's totally wrong. One to one-and-a-half winds, then tie it off. Another tip: to get the translucency in the body that you want, tie a strand of silver or gold tinsel over the hook shank first, then tie in the body material [I'm using Pearsall's silk,ordered online. Looking forward to fishing those new flies]. Another productive way to fish soft-hackles is with a small beadhead nymph as a dropper, and fish it in the tail of a riffle where the water starts to deepen. Tight lines!

I do not like it behind the hackle.The bead acts as the head, and it is much to the advantage of he tier, to wrap the hackle behind the bead. The feather is easily secured behind the bead, and protected. I can make several wraps with a feather of a somewhat shorter length, and then for effect either for color, or for a feather now wrapped over that one that has longer barbules, and again easily secured. I don't need a whip finish either. It is hard to describe, but it is Borger's twice under the wraps knot that is easy to tie off. I even like the bead farther forward than behind the feather. With the bead forward I have now finished the head right away! No crowding of the head, No varnish in the eye of the hook because I put some head cement behind the bead. And often I want the flash of the bead, or a black bead to appear as a bug head. Just tying in the feather by the tip makes securing the feather much easier. It gets pulled down behind the bead before wrapping, and doesn't come out as easily.