In this week’s “How to Tie” feature, Cheech with Fly Fish Food shows us three effective ways to use soft hackles in fly tying, each offering a unique approach for making the most of your materials behind the vise.
Learn this Technique:
Difficulty: Intermediate
When it comes to natural materials, there may be none as versatile and fishy as soft hackle. Typically, they come in at moderate pricing and quantity, which makes it important to make the best use of every feather. This video explores different ways to do exactly that, and is worth the watch, read, and testing yourself. Although we don’t have a pattern this week, learning to tie with soft hackle is more valuable than one independent fly alone.
Cheech’s first method focuses on clumping soft hackles together to fit the correct proportions for the fly you are tying. This technique is helpful as it allows larger feathers to fit smaller flies and is the most efficient use of your materials. The second method involves creating a dubbing loop, which will also allow you to adjust the length of feather you’re tying and create an incredibly buggy profile with some added difficulty. The most common technique for tying soft hackles is the third, as it involves simply wrapping the feather around the hook shank. Depending on feather size, quality of your materials, and skill of the tyer, all three of these styles can be used interchangeably for a wide variety of patterns.
Soft hackles create some of the fishiest flies on the market today. Whether you are tying weightless classic flies or European nymphing tungsten beaded bombs, this material thrives. Additionally, swing style flies often implement soft hackles as they add effortless movement and profile, without sacrificing performance. Learning all three techniques described by Cheech in this video will ease tying pains, material waste, and increase productivity on the water, which is well worth the short watch.
Ingredients:
- Soft Hackle: Partridge Feathers
Now you know how to tie Soft Hackles!
Video courtesy of Fly Fish Food.
