Bodkin / Patterns

Soft Hackle

Wet Fly · Trout · Grayling · Intermediate · 3 versions

Soft Hackle fly

Classic Recipe

  • Hook Standard wet fly, 12-16
  • Thread Yellow or orange 8/0

Materials

  • Body Floss or dubbing (slender)
  • Hackle Partridge or hen hackle (1-2 wraps only)
  • Rib Fine gold wire (optional)

How to tie it

  1. Mount hook, lay a thread base.
  2. Wrap a slender floss or lightly dubbed body from the bend to the 80% mark. Thread-thin. The body is a suggestion, not a statement.
  3. Optional: counter-wrap fine gold wire in 4 turns.
  4. Select a partridge or hen feather with fibers about one and a half shank lengths, long enough to fold and pulse. Tie in by the tip, shiny side forward.
  5. Wrap 1-2 turns only. You should be able to count every fiber. Sweep them back, lock with two thread wraps.
  6. Small head, whip finish.

Substitutions

  • Hackle instead of Partridge or hen hackle: Starling body feather — Very soft, great movement, traditional; Brahma hen — Natural barring, soft; CDC feathers — Very soft movement, traps air bubbles; Grouse feather — Beautiful natural mottling
  • Body instead of Floss or dubbing: Silk floss — Traditional, becomes translucent when wet; Hare's ear dubbing — Buggier, more texture; Pheasant tail fibers — Segmented body variant; Peacock herl — Adds iridescence, very effective

Other versions

2 more in the app: Fly Fish Food Tie, Beadhead.

Tying videos

← All fly patterns