interesting, but useless

[rckrego]

My daughter wanted a bottle at 4:30 this morning, so I took the opportunity to get a little reading in. I just started Sylvester Nemes book on soft hackles. Quite well written for a fly fishing book. Decent syntax and grammar, but that's off point. Anyway, in his section on the history of the soft hackle, Nemes quotes an english fly fishing book published in 1832. The author of that book relates a astory about fishing the susquehanna and juniata rivers and catching 1 1/2 to 3 lb. trout. Must have all been brookies too because if I'm not mistaken, brown trout didn't arrive til the 1880's and rainbows were limited to the west coast until the advent of the transcontinental railroad in the 1870's. When was the last time someone caught a wild brookie that was 3 lbs.? Would be kinda cool.

[Defeatist]

Question...whats useless about the text? A quote from history though maybe not relevant to today can be helpful. Sylvester Nemes books are filled with great goodies, wet flies are a thing of the past and utilized by few nowadays. I will let the cat out of the bag here, but my personal best patterns that I fish before a hatch (and also never shown to the sites "great master Jasper") are in fact soft hackle and wet fly imitations. Though dated, the information found within those pages is very beneficial. Dont be so critical.

[AaronJasper]

haha funny rich... what people don't know is that i have been tying soft hackle imitations for the correct species in stealth mode.... i had to break the silence!!! even though you are the best fly tier i know ... i still figure out somethings about fly tying on my own every now and then. i am sure this is making you smirk and laugh a bit?!

[FK]

Secret fly? Well here we go again,,,,,many years ago (about 35 give or take) my old time fishing mentor told me about his secret fly for the Housatonic. In fact he was shown this fly by an old timer when he was very young. It was and old English fly with a sparce body and one turn of Partridge hackle. Body color to match the insect hatching.

Several hours proir to a caddis hatch, we would grease the fly and cast them upstream for a dead drift,,,,,fantastic results,,,,and this was much earlier than anyone had read about emergers or soft hackle flies. When the hatch was heavy on the surface,,,,they still worked,,,,later it was reinvented and called a stillborn.

He had me tie the flies on both wet fly hooks 3906 and dry fly hooks 94833 for use with flotant.

I remember one trip to northern New Mexico,,,,trout all over and I could not buy a fish,,,then in the corner of the box,,,,soft hackles,,,they worked great when all else failed.

Regards,
FK

[AaronJasper]

all i am doing is incorporating soft hackle in various colors to my nymphs.. nothing too secret. its been done before

[Defeatist]

;D
The fun of this post is it sparked aarons interest. There arent any secrets here, just the simple fact that soft hackles and wets work, and are just another little piece of the angling puzzle. The more tricks you have, the more complete a fisherman you become. But hey, its interesting but useless...... 8)

[rckrego]

I wasn't being critical. I love using wets. had a great day the other day on wet hare's ears. Another day on partridge and green. In my opinion they're the most versatile flies around. Can be fished from surface to bottom, and their impressionistic nature gives them great versatility in the species they imitate and the stage of life they imitate. Going to try out some starling and herls on saturday.

[Nymphmeister]

Ya gotta give Nemes credit, he singlehandedly brought these deadly flies out of obscurity and into the limelight. If it weren't for him, I don't know if many people would even know about them today, much less fish them.

[alanb_ct]

I agree there are few secrets, in fact Dave Hughes' book "Handbook of Hatches" covers the use of soft hackles for caddis events thoroughly. His favorite is the March Brown spider, which is effectively an unweighted, sparse gold-ribbed Hare's Ear with a turn of partridge. At times I have found it tricky to locate the right partridge for these flies, as oftentimes the fibers are too long for a size 16 wet fly hook.

Also, we should never neglect the presentation skills of an angler; the right fly can get you only so far.

[Gregorygob]

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