The Soft Hackle - March 2022 Fly Of The Month

March 1, 2022 Panfish On The Fly

A buggy soft hackle tied with a dyed grouse body feather is a fly no panfish could resist. The soft, web fibers of the grouse feather provide a lot of action in the water.

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.

A pair of soft hackles tied with partridge feathers and bodies made from dubbing (left) and pheasant tail fibers (right).

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.

A skin from a hen chicken can provide you with a wide range of feathers perfect for soft hackles.

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.

A variety of soft hackles tied with a partridge feather but different body materials.

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.

Thread coated with UV resin makes an attractive, durable body on a soft hackle. A little dubbing for the thorax adds some contrast and provides support for the hackle fibers.

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.

A olive soft hackle with a peacock herl body with a copper wire rib. Wire ribs not only add segmentation and a little flash but also help protect delicate materials like peacock herl and pheasant tail.

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.