Soft hackles, especially variations of traditional soft hackles, have earned an important place in my small stream fly box.
They make for excellent searching patterns because they suggest a wide variety of food items that would be caught in the drift on most small streams. Think of small, drowned spiders, drowned midges, egg laying baetis mayflies etc.
A few years ago, I started using small soft hackles on a densely forested brown trout stream, where there are plenty of spiders, midges and a whole host of other insect species living and moving around in the dense vegetation overhanging the banks. I tied a variety of soft hackles in sizes #16 down to #20. One of the patterns I tied was an absolute winner, and the brownies would dash over the stream leaving a bow wave to hit this fly, compared to other patterns.
I had based the pattern on the classic Snipe and Purple, but added a few extra elements, including a silver lined, clear glass bead behind the soft hackle.
I had spoken to Ed Herbst about my success with the purple soft hackle with the clear bead. Purple colouration in flies seems to be a super attractant or trigger point to fish. Many of the streams in the Cape and the Southern Cape are tannin and peat stained and the purple colour seems to be enhanced by the golden colour of the water. That being said, a client of mine recently tried my purple soft hackle on the crystal-clear streams in the Drakensberg with similar experiences of trout dashing out of their lies to take this fly. A conclusive indication that purple is indeed a good trigger on a trout fly.
Ed also mentioned that egg laying baetis mayflies would dive down into the water column to deposit their eggs, and that there is usually air trapped between the mayfly's wings, which the silver lined clear bead would be good at representing. Tying the soft hackle in front of the bead instead of behind, also splays the soft hackle fibres out and slightly forward, rather than facing back at an angle, as in traditional soft hackle patterns. I believe this gives the fly more movement with the hackle fibres being more motile and more easily influenced by the water currents in the stream. This fly will always be in the top row of my fly box, as it has proven itself over and over on stream.
Here is the recipe and steps to tie this successful little fly.
Materials.
Hook: #16 - #20 caddis pupa style hook.
Thread: any fine thread will suffice, I used a white Hends thread which I coloured with a purple marker, but a fine denier purple thread will work perfectly.
Body: Semperfli Perdigon body in iridescent purple.
Rib: UTC x-small purple wire.
Thorax: Spirit river Diamond brite UV cinnamon.
Hackle: Grouse feather. (CDC can also be used as a variation).
Bead: Silver lined glass bead.
Step 1: Fit the bead to the hook and lay down a thread base starting about 2mm behind the bead. Tie in a strand of purple wire and also a strand of the Perdigon iridescent tinsel at a point about halfway around the hook bend. Now colour the thread base with the purple marker. (Alternatively, you could use a purple thread).
Step 2: Wrap the tinsel forward to a point about 2mm behind the bead. Rib the body to the same point with the purple wire. This step is important because you need to leave a space in front of the bead for the hackle, so remember to observe this 2 mm space on the body. Now apply a drop of UV resin to coat the body. This gives the body a translucent prism-like effect.
Step 3: Dub a tiny thorax with the diamond brite at the same point 2mm behind the bead. Tie off the fly here. Now push the bead back against the thorax leaving about 2mm open between the bead and the hook eye.
Step 4: Now tie your selected Grouse feather, in front of the bead. Two wraps of the feather are sufficient to give a sparse, leggy effect. Now dam up the thread in front of the hackle to form a head and tie off. In this process, you will force the hackle fibres against the bead causing them to stand out and slightly forward. This step is open to experimentation, you can play around with different length soft hackle fibres and even substitute CDC for the hackle, which is also a successful element to this pattern.
And here is the final product.
