Tying in Softhackle

[LT]

Anyone have tips or references they can point me to for tying in the hackle on softhackle flies? I can get the job done it just look the best and I know there has to be a couple tricks or tips that can make my flies look better. Thanks, Ryan

[Old Man]

If I was you I would stop buy one of the local shops and just ask them how it is done. That's what I do when ever I run across something that I don't understand about tying flies. They all seem happy to help out. At least the ones I go to do. It is easier to learn hands on that someone trying to explain it to you in a letter or email.

Jim

[halcyon]

This tutorial explains it as done by a guy who really knows his softhackles.
http://www.danica.com/flytier/steps/poe/poe.htm

Regards,

[Kent Lufkin]

The soft hackled fly has been around almost as long as flyfishing itself. Check out any of the wonderful books by Sylvester Nemes for an excellet history as well as patterns, some more than a century old.

K

[Tim Cottage]

This tutorial explains it as done by a guy who really knows his softhackles.
http://www.danica.com/flytier/steps/poe/poe.htm

Some of the most important points made in the tutorial are:

Hackle
1. Use only one or two turns of hackle.
2. Wrapping the hackle in front of the thread and wrapping the hackle from the front to the back. This pretty much guarantees a small neat head.

Body
1. Sparse body. Dusting the thread by touching a waxed thread with a clump of dubbing. "A fuzzy looking thread will result. Do not try to twist/rub into a rope.
2. Ribbing. "Make sure to keep the spaces between turns even and the angles identical. Uneven ribbing destroys the look of a fly".

Possibly the most important point
"The fish may not notice but it takes as much time to tie a neat fly as it does a sloppy one".

TC

[Flyn'dutchman]

The tutorial is good and provides one way to tie it in. I have the best luck by removing the fluff from the base and tying the feather in by the tip and then wrapping forward. Easier to hold on the the larger stem with hackle pliers than the fragile tip. Works well with phesant rump as well as partridge or grouse.

[Tim Cottage]

Although I have never used the hackle wrapping method described in the tutorial, I thought it was interesting and perhaps a good way to help make a neater head. Sometimes with small soft hackles, finding just the right feather for the hackle can be difficult and you end up using a feather with a larger center shaft, which makes a small head difficult, due to the bulk created when tying off the shaft. The reverse wrap might help in that situation.

TC

[Kent Lufkin]

. . . Sometimes with small soft hackles, finding just the right feather for the hackle can be difficult and you end up using a feather with a larger center shaft, which makes a small head difficult, due to the bulk created when tying off the shaft. The reverse wrap might help in that situation . . .

Tim ties some of the most beautiful soft hackles I've ever seen. Both an artist and a craftsman at the vice, anyone interested in tying true north country flies would do well to pay attention to his suggestions.

Tim, maybe you could elaborate on some of the less-traditional feathers you've used for hackles?

K

[Tim Cottage]

I think soft hackles present the tier with a wonderful opportunity to expand and explore.
They are simple flies with only the most basic elements present. This presents two significant challenges.

1. Technique. Every wrap is visible and important. Every extra or misplaced wrap creates a bump in the wrong place. This applies to wraps of tying thread, body materials and hackles. Two wraps of hackle look a lot different then one. Seven wraps of tinsel or wire look a lot different then five.
2. Material selection. Because soft hackles have so few elements, every material choice you make has a larger impact on the rest of the materials and on the fly as a whole. Subtle shifts in color, pattern and texture become more significant.

Ideally, the materials we choose and how we apply them, on any given fly, should be chosen because, out of all the stuff you have available and all the different ways you can apply them, it looks and feels like the best choice at the time. Tying the same fly tomorrow, or an hour later may result in a different choice.

Attached is a word .doc with the recipes for some flies that I traded with Kent for some tickets to a baseball game. All the materials were chosen, because they seemed like a good idea at the time.
As far as being true north country flies, I can only attest to them being true north of Carnation and Fall City.

TC

[Nooksack Mac]

I used to have problems with the soft hackle feather (partridge, grouse, mallard, etc.) pulling loose or breaking near the tip when I tied it in after doing the body and ribbing. Then I found that there's no good reason not to tie the hackle in first. Short feathers like this are easy to work around. Spread most of the barbules out, leaving the tip as a small fan, which you then tie to the hook shank. For a neater finished hackle, strip away some of the barbules from what will be the inner curve of the hackle stem, about enough for one turn.

[Kent Lufkin]

I think soft hackles present the tier with a wonderful opportunity to expand and explore . . .

The recipe below perfectly illustrates Tim's comment:

Hook - Alec Jackson’s Soft Hackle Trout Fly Hook # 13
Body – Pearsall’s Gossamer silk, yellow
Hackle - Small brown songbird breast, left on porch, by Lillie, the cat

K

[Tim Cottage]

In the past, we have discussed the value of road kill for tying supplies. Cats can also supply some useful materials. I am fortunate to have a cat named Lillie who is an avid and effective killer.

I understand that this is terribly non PC but I'll be damned if I am going to declaw her or any cat for following thier instincts.
We did have one homeless, declawed cat live with us for about two years until this spring, when she disapeared. I strongly suspect that she was taken by the coyote who visited our compost bins almost every evening. It takes alot of food to keep those growing pups fed.

Every year Lillie and the other cats supply me a variety of with Squirrels, Chipmunks, moles, small birds and an occasional rabbit. The biggest advantage to cat kill vs road kill is that the cat kills are all neatly lined up on the porch in the morning for your inspection.
If I had saved all the mice, voles and shrews, I could easily have put together a shrew skin coat by now and maybe some nice vole socks for winter fishing.

The point is to always keep your mind open to feathers and fur not often found in fly shops. It takes but a few minutes to pluck a small bird and a few seconds to pull the tail off a fresh squirrel.

TC

[Kent Lufkin]

I think Tim's comments about being open to using 'found' materials are spot on. I've used a variety of feathers including some I plucked from a mourning dove my mother in law's cat dispatched one morning in Boise that made wonderful pale-grey soft hackles.

But since I'm not a hunter, I've been a bit reluctant to gather and store entire skins or even squirrel tails without knowing how to properly remove them from the carcass and prepare for storage. What's the best way to skin and preserve small birds or does their small size make them not worth the trouble? How does one preserve squirrel tails?

K

[Don Johnson]

Birds:
Clip the wings off the carcass and hang them to dry then pluck the breast and saddle feathers and store them in a ziplock baggie.

Squirrel/chipmunk tails:
Whack the tail off and hang to dry; sometimes helpful to dip the cut area in silica gel, salt or borax.

Skins:
Once seperated from th carcass, stretch it out on a board, tack it down and cover with salt or borax for a while.

Probably best to do this in the shed or garage. Although I've never had anything make a huge stink it's not worth the spousal grief you'll be subjected to if someone finds this sort of stuff hanging in the house.

Be careful storing this stuff next to materials you have paid $$$ for because the liklihood of it having/attracting bugs is much greater.

[Nooksack Mac]

Re Tim and Don's suggestions: I once came upon a handsome blacktail buck, freshly roadkilled beside the road. I'd been wanting one, so I cut off its tail, placed it under my car's hood in a secure place next to the engine, and let its heat dry the tail out. No odor in transit or afterwards.

[Dirk Pitt]

Important headache prevention: don't leave the garage door open while drying animal hair with salt on it! Skinned a rabbit once, took my time, all nice and neat, salted it and tacked it to a board to dry overnight. Went to take a look, and found nothing but little hair tufts and salt chunks scattered everywhere! Who knows what got to it, but close the darn garage door!!

[Randy Diefert]

I use sodium Sulfate (drying agent)rhat is sold in Pharmacys on all of our Roosters that we kill and skinout for flytying. I also use it on calf tail,rabbit,and deer hide. After skinning the varmit out , I strech it on a piece of Plywood sprinkle the Sodium sulfate on it and hang it from the rafters in my barn so barn cats, dogs and the like can't reach it. One thing to remember when you're fleshing out and animal is try to get as much of the fat off of the skin/hide.I use ordinary thumb tacks to hold the skin during the drying process.
BTw, sorry that this thread got so far off topic... Thought I'd say that BEFORE someone bit my head off... :rolleyes:

[Smalma]

Ihave used soft hackle flies for decades and have discovered that they are a wondeful successful and fishy group of flies. As a avid upland and waterfowl hunter I have used a wide variety of feathers for hackle. That said I find that the easiest way for me to tie with the hackle is tie the feather (stripped on one side -usually prepared ahead of time) in by the tip after tie the portions of the fly behind the hackle. Tie the tip in pointing towards the eye, after several wraps I fold the tip back towards the tail and wrap over several times. this creates a solid tie in that doesn't slip. I then wrap the hackle forward with each wrap placed carefully in front of the previous wrap; tie off with a couple turns of thread and whip finish. With this method I seem to have less problems with the hackle, end up with a neat head with minimal tying time.

Regarding free ranging domestic cats - they are huge predators of our wildlife. There was a study out of Wisconsin 15 or 20 years ago by I believe a researcher named Temple. As I recalled it was estimated in that state alone the cats were kill nearly 40 million song birds a year. If one is concern with our wildlife and envirnoment it is irresponsible to allow that un-necessary kill of our wildlife by allowing pets to roam freely.

Tight lines
Curt

[TheShadKing]

Some of the most important points made in the tutorial are:

Hackle
1. Use only one or two turns of hackle.


One or two turns of hackle is the most commonly suggested number of turns I've seen.

However, the flies I've tied with just a little bit of hackle don't seem to work anywhere near as well as the ones with more. They sure look sharp, though!

Sylvester Nemes at his recent expo said three turns of tackle, and don't bother building up the body.

YMMV, it's what the fish you're fishing to wants, unless you're showing them off to your buddies, then we all agree less hackle is better. :-)

One other point; before tying in the hackle, Sylvester squares up the hackle that will remain on the fly and separates it from the end fibers that will be clipped off. I do this too; it seems to help a bit when tying it in.


Rolland

[Tim Cottage]

With fish being the fickle and impenetrable creatures that they often are, I typically align my priorities on pleasing myself first and the fish second. My reasoning is that, if I am happy with the fly I will fish it better with more confidence.
It seems to be working so far.

TC

[Don Johnson]

Here's a concise, little blurb on the way I do it anyway, for what it's worth.

http://www.geocities.com/salmn8r/softhackleinstruction.html

[hhuntington2]

Hi, I don't want to spam this forum but I noticed a few references to Sylvester Nemes and thought I'd throw out there that he has an instructional DVD out. I know this b/c I made it with him. He's quite a character and I wish I could have gotten all of his stories on tape. Anyway, those interested can find it at customflix.com/videoshop (he gets a bigger cut from that site) or on Amazon. Its called Sylvester Nemes' Softhackles: the life, times, and flies of a remarkable man. It has about 10 patterns with variations.
Again, I don't normally spam, but thought it was pertinent to this thread.

Happy tying.

[Rory McMahon]

well, i know a few things about tying soft hackles, hopefully this will help you. Always tie the feathers in perpendicular to the hook shank, make sure its tied in so that the barbs will have a slight curve back instead of up. After you wound the feather and tied it off, wind your thread through the barbs to reincforce them, this adds alot of durablility.