The Fly Of The Month for March is more of a style of fly than a particular pattern. March is usually the month when I start fly fishing for panfish in earnest. While the water is still cold and fish can be difficult to locate, some quality fish are caught early in the season. To catch fish right after ice-out, you need to pick your days and fishing locations carefully. You can read more about cold-weather fishing here or click the button below. I will generally fish smaller bodies of water that tend to warm up quicker. Subsurface flies are the norm this time of year, and wet flies, particularly soft hackles, are my go-to patterns.
I fish various soft-hackle wet flies in early spring in sizes ranging from 8 - 14. Some of these flies will have drab natural colors, and others will have a bit of flash and fluorescence. I experiment with size and color until I discover what the fish prefer on that particular day. In general, darker patterns do better on cloudy days, and the brighter flies seem to do better when the sun is shining, although it is not a hard and fast rule.
You can tie soft hackle wet flies with various feathers and body materials. When selecting feathers for soft hackle wet flies, I look for feathers with soft fibers that will move enticingly in the water. I avoid stiff rooster hackles, leaning instead towards feathers from hen chickens and game birds like partridge, grouse, and pheasant. You can tie your soft hackles with very sparse collars or tie them thick and webby.
One challenge novice fly tiers often face when tying soft hackles is selecting the proper-sized feathers. Generally speaking, the tips of the swept-back hackle should extend even with or just past the bend of the hook. Unfortunately, these smaller feathers often get used up quickly on most bird skins. Fear not, as you can use the entire skin for tying soft hackles. However, you need to use different methods to tie in the larger feathers. A friend and fellow fly tier, Nicole March, has done a better job explaining the techniques used when using larger feathers than I can ever hope to do. Her blog The Quilted Tyer has several articles on soft hackle tying techniques that explain the process perfectly, along with exquisite step-by-step photographs. I have included a few links to her work below. I encourage you to check them out.
You have a wide range of body materials to choose from for constructing your panfish wet flies. You can use peacock herl, pheasant tail, yarns, floss, and dubbing to create bodies on soft hackle patterns. You can even use your tying thread alone to build a tapered body. A thread body works exceptionally well if you coat it with UV resin.
If desired, you can rib the bodies on your soft hackles with tinsel or wire. The body can be hairy and buggy or trim and neat. Tails on your soft hackle flies are optional. Build your soft hackle wet flies with tails or leave them off. Each style can be effective at times, so it pays to have a variety of flies on hand - some buggy, some neat, some with tails, and some without.
I have included a few recipes for some of my favorite panfish soft hackles but feel free to experiment with materials you have on hand.
The Golden Grouse
Pattern Recipe:
Hook: Firehole 633, 609 or 637 Size 14-8
Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed 8/0 red
Tail: Yellow dyed sharptailed grouse feather fibers
Body: Semperfli Semperseal Subs Dubbing golden olive
Thorax: Semperfli Semperseal Subs Dubbing red
Collar: Sharptailed grouse body feather dyed yellow
Head Treatment: Solarez Bone Dry Plus
Soft Hackle & Flash
Pattern Recipe:
Hook: Firehole 633, 637 or 609 Size 14-8
Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed 8/0 black
Body: Holographic Tinsel
Thorax: Variegated chenille chartreuse/black
Collar: Grizzly hen feather in color of choice (chartreuse shown in image)
Head & Body Treatment: Solarez Bone Dry Plus
Thread Body Soft Hackle
Pattern Recipe:
Hook: Wet fly hook Size 14-8
Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed 6/0 in the color of choice (yellow shown in image)
Rib: Semperfli Classic Waxed 3/0 in a contrasting color to body
Body: Tapered body of tying thread in the color of choice (yellow shown in image)
Collar: Grizzly hen feather in the color of choice (chartreuse shown in image)
Head & Body Treatment: Solarez Bone Dry Plus
Hot Spot Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle
Pattern Recipe:
Hook: Firehole 633, 637 or 609 Size 14-8
Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed 8/0 rust
Rib: Fine gold or copper wire
Body: Pheasant tail fibers
Thorax: Brightly colored dubbing in your color of choice
Collar: Partridge body feather
Head Treatment: Solarez Bone Dry Plus
Pattern Recipe:
Hook: Firehole 633, 637 or 609 Size 14-8
Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed 8/0 fluoro green
Hot Spot : Semperfli Classic Waxed Thread 6/0 fluoro green, coated with Solarez Bone Dry
Body: Hare’s Ear dubbing
Rib: Gold tinsel
Collar: Partridge body feather
Head Treatment: Solarez Bone Dry Plus
Hot Butt Olive
Pattern Recipe:
Hook: Firehole 633, 637 or 609 Size 14-8
Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed 8/0 olive
Hot Spot : Semperfli Classic Waxed Thread 6/0 fluoro green, coated with Solarez Bone Dry
Body: Rabbit dubbing olive
Collar: Hen body feather dyed olive
Head Treatment: Solarez Bone Dry Plus
The Partridge and Hare
Pattern Recipe:
Hook: Mustad 3906 Size 8-14
Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed 8/0 black
Body: Dark Hare’s Ear Dubbing
Collar: Partridge body feather
Rib: Semperfli 3/0 Classic Waxed Thread - yellow or yellow wire
Head Treatment: Solarez Bone Dry Plus