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EntomanOctober 29th, 2011, 12:34 am
Northern CA & ID

Posts: 2604		Adirman -

Here's that Antron bodied Soft hackle I mentioned above. It has a large brown head to simulate the look of the caddis and the antron is rather tightly dubbed. I normally like my pupa fuzzier, but there are times when this guy really works. As I mentioned above, they should be lightly weighted to stay below the surface when under tension in the stronger currents of the western streams for which it was designed. Ralph Cutter posted awhile back with the comment that not all species of pupa carry a lot of excess gas that makes them look sparkly. Perhaps that's why this simple fly so often outperforms them. This is not my design. It's properly attributed to a good friend from days of yore, Mike Munroe. He's a great fisherman as well as a creative and meticulous tier who learned his craft as a protege' of Andy Puyans. Using the techniques I learned from watching both men tie countless flies, the picture below is a pretty close approximation.

Directions:

Hook: Mustad 3906B (any 1X long nymph hook can be substituted)
Weight: Thorax weighted with 1 amp fuse wire (non-toxic can be substituted)
Thread: Dark brown Danville 6/0 (dark brown Uni 8/0 can be substituted)
Body: Olive antron dubbing tightly spun Puyans rope style.
Hackle: Brown Game Hen barbules placed and torqued around the hook, not wound.

Comments: Mike also tied this fly with a pheasant tail body. both were tied in sizes 12 to 16. he also tied a large burnt orange number to tackle the Dicosmoecus(October Caddis) hatches.

Munroe Soft-hackle
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
SayfuOctober 29th, 2011, 10:14 am
Posts: 560
Entomen..my kinda fly that I have boxes of because I am always "tweaking" them! Wish I were a photo tech guy, and could show you some of mine. I bead head the fly with everything from the buggy looking plastic beads from Xsmall that fit the very small hooks to somewhat bigger plastics, to the metals from black to silver, and in between to sometimes the tungstens. What it enables me to do is apply the feather. I cut out the tip of a feather, and angle the hackles down that I want to use, and then several soft loops in behind the bead, and onto the bumped up thorax, and it angles them out away from the body. I don't care that none of the hackles may be underneath, because the fly fishes above fish, and I want the fish to see the body, and the moving hackles out to the side for the most part. I can even size the feather by pulling on the stem when I loop the fibers in if they appear to long making the tying of soft hackles possible on small hooks using a partridge skin. What I also successfully accomplished was to tie bigger soft hackles on # 8, or # 6 9672 hook, using longer game bird feathers such as the pheasant rump feathers, or various grouse, or duck flank feathers. What I was after was a bigger, higher caloric valued fly in deeper water off the riffles that would get down more using the metal bead, or tungsten bead for fish that were close by, but not feeding in shallower riffle water on a hatch. I tied one that I thought suggested a golden stone nymph, or sunken adult that were around much of the summer, and it worked very well. I doubt whether the fish took them for a golden, but it satisfied me. The fly had the resemblance of the old Carey fly so popular years ago on WestCoast, and Canadian lakes.
EntomanOctober 29th, 2011, 11:41 am
Northern CA & ID

Posts: 2604		Yes, the Carey special is one of my favorites as well, though I use it in lakes and ponds.. Peacock body and flowing P.T. Rump hackle is hard to beat. We tyers are tweakers like you said. I once experimented with making the hackles shorter to more closely match dragonfly nymphs. They were a bust.:) There's something about those long sparse hackles that pulse as you strip them through the water... I do put blackened key chain on for eyes, though. Looks more dragonflyish to me. I can't say the fish care one wit, but it makes me more confident and I like the look.
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
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