This category of fly evolved at least 200 years ago on the rivers of northern England and southern Scotland. They were first catalogued by T. E. Pritt (Yorkshire Wet Flies, 1885), later by Harfield H. Edmonds and Norman N. Lee (Brook and River Trouting, 1916) and by W. S. Roger Fogg (The Art of the Wet Fly, 1979). That these ancient flies travel well is borne out by three books about them by the American writer Sylvester Nemes: The Soft-Hackled Fly (1975), The Soft-Hackled Fly Addict (1981) and Two Centuries of Soft-hackled Flies (2004).
These are very simple flies to tie, many having a body of only tying thread (use a round thread – not flat thread, nor floss silk); if using real silk thread (e.g. Pearsall’s Gossamer), wax the thread with solid tying wax. As one name for these flies indicates, the hackle is a soft one, usually from a game-bird, sometimes a hen barnyard fowl. Game-bird hackles usually have a very thick stalk, so they are tied in by the feather tip (stroke the hackle fibres back to expose the tip). The hackle should be sparse: two or two-and-a-half turns at most.
Hooks: wet fly, sizes 13–4, unless otherwise stated.
They are still very effective flies to use, in both rivers and lakes anywhere in the world, when trout, char, grayling or other fish are feeding on flies or emergers at, or close to the water surface. There are many recorded instances when these have out-fished more precise imitations of what the fish were eating. In rivers fish ‘dead-drift’, in lakes cast out and tweak or work back slowly.
SIMPLE HACKLE PATTERNS
In these the body consists of tying thread, wound from behind the hook eye to the end of the hook shank and then back to behind the hook eye in touching turns. Sometimes there is a rib, or a rib is optional.
GOLDEN PLOVER & ORANGE
Thread: Orange.
Hackle: Golden plover upperwing covert, with gold markings.
ORANGE PARTRIDGE
Thread: Orange (traditionally a plain orange, though recently hot orange has been used).
Rib: Fine gold wire (optional).
Hackle: Brown speckled feather from the neck of a grey (English) partridge.
Probably the most famous of these flies, the ORANGE PARTRIDGE is a great catcher of fish and has even been known to catch salmon!
GREENWELL’S GLORY (SPIDER VERSION)
Thread: Yellow waxed with dark cobbler’s wax.
Rib: Fine gold wire.
Hackle: Furnace or coch-y-bonddu hen (black centred with natural red sides).
The original GREENWELL’S GLORY, tied by James Wright for Canon William Greenwell in May 1854, had an upright wing of hen blackbird secondary feather fibres. It fishes better without the wing.
The Greenwell’s Glory also makes a splendid dry fly for fishing during hatches of olive duns. Add tails (a few fibres from a cock furnace hackle) and use several turns of cock hackle instead of the 2½ turns of hen hackle.
The following five patterns are summer patterns, for when light-coloured flies are on the water.
YELLOW PARTRIDGE
Thread: Yellow.
Rib: Fine silver wire (optional).
Hackle: Grey speckled feather from the lower part of the neck of a grey (English) partridge.
LIGHT SNIPE
Thread: Primrose.
Hackle: Snipe underwing covert.
SNIPE BLOA
Thread: Straw.
Hackle: Snipe underwing covert.
POULT BLOA
Thread: Yellow.
Hackle: Grey underwing covert of a young (= poult) red grouse.
LIGHT WOODCOCK
Thread: Yellow.
Hackle: Woodcock underwing covert.
The following four flies are outstanding during a hatch of black midges or smuts, or during a fall of black land-bred flies such as black gnats.
BLACK GNAT
Thread: Black, brown, grey or olive.
Hackle: Feather from the neck or back of the starling.
BLACK SPIDER
Thread: Black or red.
Hackle: Black hen.
