Crappie Kebari & Soft Hackles

With spring right around the corner, it is time to restock some warm water fly boxes.  Every year, the first fly box worked on is the one that contains my favorite crappie flies.  Bright, colorful soft hackles are my favorite flies for early season crappie.  I discovered these flies by accident several years ago.  My son, who was seven years old at the time and just getting started in fly tying, had tied some soft hackles with the most colorful materials I had on my tying bench.  One of his creations found its way into my panfish fly box.   In desperation, I tied his colorful wet fly on the end of my leader when nothing else was working and was rewarded with a fish on the first cast.  This was followed by  another,  and several more after that.  What had been a slow day on the water turned into one of the best days I have ever had for early season crappies.  I have tied and fished these colorful soft hackles ever since.  I have played around with colors a bit but I have had the most success with chartreuse bodies and pink, blue or orange thoraxes.  For the hackle -  hen pheasant, grouse or partridge will do the trick.  Throw a wire rib on or leave it off, it is your preference, the fish don't seem to have one.  Since using a tenkara rod is one of my favorite ways to pursue these fish, I have added a kebari version to the box as well.  I'm not convinced that the reverse hackled kebari is any more effective than a standard soft hackle, but it feels like the right thing to do.

Damsel Fly Nymph

Since all of my warm water haunts are not so warm this time of year, most of the blog posts over the next few months will be focused on fly tying.  One of my favorite fly patterns for panfish are damsel fly nymphs.  Damsel fly nymphs are probably some of the most productive nymph patterns I use on a regular basis.  They can be tied ornate or extremely simple.  For bluegill and other panfish I lean towards simple versions.  The adult insects pictured above are an important food source but fish are in contact with nymphs in various stages year round.  As an added benefit, they are the perfect pattern to present to fish when fishing from the shore.  Damsel flies spend the majority of there lives under water.  When they are ready to molt the nymphs will actively swim towards shore where they will crawl onto lakeside vegetation.  This shore bound migration is easily imitated when retrieving a cast fly back to shore.

  Once on dry land they split their exoskeleton, climb out of the shuck and emerge as an adult damsel fly.  After a short waiting period, as their wings dry,  they take to the air.  They will live for several weeks before returning to the water to mate and deposit their eggs on the stems of aquatic plants.  They are voracious predators in both the nymphal and adult forms.

Damsel fly emerging from nymphal stage (image from dkfindout.com)

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Spent shucks on lake side vegetation.

The pattern I am highlighting in this post is a simple one, only three materials if you don't count the hook its tied on.  Marabou in a color matching the nymph, a piece of wire for segmentation and a bead to provide weight and a proper silhouette in the water.  There are no wing buds, legs or mono eyes.  Very simple, very quick to tie and very effective.

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Marabou Damsel Fly Nymph

Step by Step Instructions:

Mount bead on hook

Attach thread

Wrap back to a point over the hook eye

Tie in gold wire

Tie in the marabou feather for a tail leaving the waste end attched

Wrap the waste end of the feather up the hook shank and tie off behind the bead

Counter wrap gold wire, tie off and whip finish