Fly lines

I met Sylvester Nemes once. He was guest speaker for the very first Oregon Trout banquet. While he was in the state, arrangements were made for him to fish the Metolius. I was privileged to be selected as his guide.

At the time I didn't know much about Syl Nemes or the soft hackle approach to flyfishing.

Soft hackle is an extremely old form of fly fishing. It originated in England and hearkens back to the wet fly days before modern nymphs or dry flies were even invented.

As newer approaches have come into fashion, the older soft hackle methods have fallen into disuse. Today it is a rather obscure approach to fly fishing. Some anglers may have heard of it, but not many actually practice it.

It is only through Nemes writings that these fishing methods have been kept alive at all.

The soft hackle approach uses its own flies and has its own technique. The flies, which give the method its name, consist of nothing more than colored thread on the hook shank, with a soft, webby hackle at the head. Occasionally there is a small tuft of dubbing behind the hackle, but that is not required.

The finished fly is ridiculously simple. Modern anglers are often skeptical that something so simple could be so effective.

It is the hackles that make the fly work. They are most commonly taken from the breast area of a grouse or partridge, but sometimes, on larger flies, pheasant, duck or even English starling may be used. In all cases, proper hackles are thick, soft and webby, not at all like the stiff , resilient rooster hackles used on a modern dry fly. These softer hackle fibers, once in the water, move and flow with the current giving the fly a very life-like appearance.

When choosing among the various soft hackle flies, there are no special patterns to match specific hatches. You simply choose a fly that is roughly the size and color of the dominant hatch. Even though these flies don't look much like the insects they imitate, the soft hackles give them enough movement to make them attractive to the trout.

The fly is cast quartering downstream and then allowed to swing across the current. The angler mends the line upstream once or twice to slow the speed swing. In this way you walk the fly slowly across the current lanes.

Steelheaders will recognize this downstream cast and swing as the greased line method.

The two styles of fishing, steelhead and soft hackle, are so similar I often train my reactions for the larger fish by practicing a little soft hackling on the smaller trout just before the season arrives.

Fish take the soft hackle fly hard and fast. Because it is swinging across the current on a tight line, no indicators are needed. You'll feel every touch. In fact, you have to be careful not to break fish off by overreacting.

The natural inclination when a fish takes is to set the hook. In this case, because of the tight line, the fish hook themselves. They are either on or they are gone. Any reaction from you, is too late and more likely to cost you the fish than to help you hook it. You have to learn a soft touch when you soft hackle.

The best time to fish soft hackles is during hatches of swimming insects. The down-and-across movement of the fly as it swings is much like the movement of emerging caddis. In the evenings, when dry flies are nearly impossible to see, you can swing a soft hackle and catch fish entirely by feel.