Soft Hackle

By Frank Yaun

To Soft Hackle or not, THAT is the question, right? Well, maybe the real question is what in heck am I talking about—what’s a Soft Hackle (SH)? I’m so glad you asked, or at least the voices in my head asked.

SH’s are a type of wet fly, that’s fished sub-surface and imitates a recently emerged bug trying to make its way out of the water, where it flies up, lands in the bushes, chills and watches Netflix, or whatever bugs do. It imitates an aquatic insect at arguably it’s most vulnerable stage, and trout like easy meals. They don’t have drive-thrus due to a labor shortage, I hear.

SH’s are the oldest known fly used, going back to the 1400s. Evidently monks used the Partridge and Orange SH to catch fish in England, thus the start of the British staple food, Fish & Chips. Maybe. They’re easy to fish, simple to tie, very effective, and arguably the most under-used fly in today’s fishing world, in my opinion.

Sure, Skinny Jean (Euro) Nymphing is the most effective way to get a nymph in the grill of a feeding trout, but the most efficient way doesn’t necessarily mean the most enjoyable. Swinging a SH scratches the itch of making long casts, which is very gratifying, but the hook up is also most excellent as the line is tight. You’ll feel the full pull when the trout puts a smack down on the soft hackle fly, and they pretty much hook themselves. To answer my own question in the title, definitely SH!

Let’s talk some about aquatic insects and what the SH fly imitates. The trout diet consists of aquatic insects, primarily Mayfly, Stonefly and

Caddis. All of these insects are hatched from an egg under the water, they then enter the pupa stage, where they live under rocks in the bottom of the stream. At some point in their life cycle, they hatch into an adult, complete with wings. They try and make their way to the surface to dry their wings, then fly away. Before they reach the surface, this is what the SH represents, and it’s when they’re very vulnerable, as they’re not good swimmers.

The SH on the body of the fly is usually a soft bird feather (hackle), usually from a hen (not a rooster dressed up like a hen) chicken, or other materials like CDC (duck butt feather—I kid you not) or Starling wing. This feather is wrapped around the hook, not too far behind the eye of the hook, and when it’s in the current, the fibers of the feather undulate, imitating the legs, wings, or antennae of the emerging bug, and this movement usually triggers the trout to eat the fly, then, game on!

Fishing a SH is EZPZ, even a politician could figure it out, well, maybe. A 2-5 weight fly rod, with a floating fly line, and a 9’ leader with 5x tippet works well. To fish a SH, I try and position myself where the main current is on my left or right and preferably a nice seam where the current meets softer or slower water. I then quarter my cast downstream, right into the teeth of the main current, and then let the fly line undulate with the current, tracking the end of the fly line with the rod tip. The line, then the SH will eventually make its way thru the current, to the seam I

Continued, see SOFT HACKLE Page 17