In the summer, once the water levels drop down, I do most of my trout fishing on foot. Last weekend, I made my first trip to one of my summer wading spots — the mouth of Salmon Creek on the Middle Fork Willamette. I wouldn’t normally give a spot like this away online, but it’s been wiped out. The mouth of Salmon Creek has shifted downstream about a quarter mile. The slow, rocky current near the north bank leading down to Salmon Creek now speeds along the high gravel bar that’s formed up where the mouth used to be. And the entire section of Salmon Creek all the way up above the 58 bridge is different. Photo below — the new mouth of Salmon Creek:
The Langtry Stone is, in my opinion, the precursor to the Stimulator series of flies that were so popularized by Randall Kaufmann in an uncountable combination of sizes and colors. Here is a little about the background of this fly, and it is surely not the whole story.
The Deschutes River is famous for the “stonefly hatch,” usually expected to begin sometime in May around Maupin and proceed upstream to Warm springs by mid June. Fly anglers and guides descend on the river this time of year, expecting a chance to find voracious trout taking big dry flies, sometimes all day long, and hoping to find some of the largest fish of the year looking up rather than down, for their daily ration.
Not many Deschutes fly fishers make formal distinctions between the Giant Salmonfly (Pteronarcys californica), versus the Golden Stonefly, which is a smaller species of stonefly. Both are important food sources on the Deschutes, and each can be keyed-on by trout depending on the day of the season. The Giant Salmonfly tends to make its emergence earlier than the Golden Stone, and is a much larger bug. Being a non-entomologist, I suspect that “bug” makes Rick Hafele cringe, so please forgive me Rick. One would tend to imitate the Giant Salmonfly with a dry fly as large as size #4 up to a #6. The Sofa Pillow is the fly we fished in the 1960s and 70s to imitatet the Giant Salmonflies on the Deschutes.
Toward the middle of the Pteronarcys hatch, the Golden Stones usually start showing up in increasing number. These are smaller, lighter color stoneflies, and if Deschutes rainbow start to key on these flies, the larger dry flies will usually be ignored. This is when the Langtry Stone shines. Originally tied on #8 Mustad 3xl forged wire, bronze fly hooks, these flies have a much lighter color and at times will seize the day, out-fishing any other fly by a wide margin.
The fly was developed, more or less, by Oregon Supreme Court Judge Virgil Langtry. Tim, a reader of fishingwithjay, noted that Judge Langtry was on the Oregon Supreme Court during 1969-76, appointed by Governor Tom McCall, and most likely fished the Deschutes with the right honorable Gov.
The Langtry Stone, as tied in the mod 1970s and sold by the wheelbarrow-full at Doughton hardware, in Salem Oregon, was tied as follows. Tail: Mule Deer stacked in a hand-made stacker (aluminum cigar tube). Body: baby yellow Anton yarn, small, twisted tightly to make the body segmented and resistant to absorbing water. Body hackle: brown Chinese neck feather, tied in by butt and wound forward. Wing: oregon Mule Deer. Head, bright Orange Antron yarn. Head hackle: brown Chinese neck feather. Thread: orange Nymo. Hook: Mustad #8, 3xl. By today’s standards, these were crude flies, but oh-my they were effective.
Lou, my Deschutes River resource, reports that this fly is not at all useful these days. Nope, he NEVER EVER catches Deschutes rainbow on the Langrty Stone. So, Lou says, don’t bother tying any of this fly and especially DO NOT fish them on the Deschutes. Or on the Metolius. Or on the Upper McKenzie. Or anywhere, for that matter. Thanks for the tip, Lou.
Here is a recipe for a decent version of today’s Langrty Stone:
Summertime, finally, and we are faced with so many possibilities of where to fish that it is mind boggling, at best. Sturgeon, Carp, Smallmouth bass, High Lakes trout, Willamette summer steelhead, McKenzie Redsides, Chinook (nah, none of those around here in Oregon). And finally, the humble but lives almost everywhere coastal cutthroat trout.
Oncorhynchus Clarki – the coastal cutthroat trout – is taxonomically grouped with the Pacific Salmon. This fish is really cool. the coastal cutthroat does not achieve the size of steelhead or salmon, but it makes up for size with its bold nature and the fact that this fish inhabits many more rivers than the rainbow/steelhead fishes. The extremely wide distribution of coastal cutthroat means that we have ample reason to go fishing somewhere close or far from home here in Oregon during a huge part of the year.
Cutthroat trout will be found in virtually every watershed in the coast range, and many of these fish are capable of expressing an anadromous life history, of becoming sea-runs. Cutts are equally well distributed in the headwaters of Willamette Valley watersheds and some of these fish express an in-basin migration referred to as potadromy.
Cutthroat trout in the Lower McKenzie, for example, probably spawned in the Mohawk river, may have reared there as juveniles for a few years, and then migrated to the McKenzie or Willamette mainstem, where they will live, feed, grow, and then migrate back into the McKenzie to spawn. Historically, migrations like this occurred into the upper reaches of the Long Tom River. Most places where cutthroat exist in the Willamette Valley will see cutthroat making in-river seasonal migrations that allow them to take optimum advantage of spawning and feeding conditions throughout the year. In coastal rivers, the cutthroat’s migration may take it to the estuary or out into the ocean, or the fish may only migrate within the river.
Point is, coastal cutthroat are in just about all of the Willamette valley streams at one time of year or another, just as they are in coastal rivers. Because they become sexually mature at younger ages than rainbow trout, cutthroat are usually a smaller fish, but cutts in the lower McKenzie, Willamette, and the Black Canyon area of the Willamette above Lookout Point Reservoir can reach the 20″ range, just like sea run cutthroat do.
Ok, enough rambling about fish biology. Cutthroat trout are bold feeders, and when they aren’t selectively feeding on little caddis or BWOs they like chunky food. They like buggers, muddlers fished wet, streamers, and they like brightly colored modest sized wet flies too. The style of fly featured in this video is tied with resident or river-bound cutthroat in mind, but it works well for sea run cutts as well. The philosophy of this fly series is simple and retro: provide a bright colored body, dark wing, collar hackle, a hint of flash and a dab of contrasting color on top of the wing.
These flies attract Cutthroat in virtually all of the range where O. clarki swim, so tie up a few, throw ’em in your vest, and hit the river. Oh yes, please pinch those barbs, because you are likely to encounter many feisty little 6-9″ cutthroat for every 12-14″ fish, and the barbless hooks are much easier on the fish.
Fishing remains very good with a variety of tactics and imitations. Cloudy weather has had fish looking up particularly well the past couple of days. Important bugs for the McKenzie, lower Willamette, and Middle Fork of the Willamette include Green Drakes, Green McKenzie Caddis, Pale Morning Duns, small Caddis patterns, soft hackles and of course the standard Mega Prince and Possie Bugger. Prime June fishing came late this year but it’s likely to last for a while.
Colleen and Andrew Shipman bring us a nice report from the lower McKenzie River. Continue reading →
This is another nice pattern in our latest series of tying videos focussing on Soft Hackle trout and steelhead flies. Greenish caddis flies are ubiquitous across the Western United States and the planet earth. This is based on a sweeping statement yet to be verified but possibly true. The key issue here is the great versatility of this family of green soft hackles. Take s look at the photo of this fly and the video. This depicts a simple slim green soft hackle with nicely webbed grizzly hackle from a Metz Hen Cape.
Switch things up with this fly by tying it with Partridge hackle twice as wide as the hackle shown in this video and you will have a fly with more wiggle and a bolder presence. Tie and fish it as a size #10 with a full hackle of Caddis Green Partridge or Whiting Brahma Hen Saddle to imitate the Green McKenzie Caddis – and hang on.
If you fish the Deschutes anytime from right now through September, you are likely to find Caddis flies rocking the river. Tie yourself a variation of this soft hackle using a hook in the #14 – #16 range, make the body green, and dub a modest size head of black Hareline Ice Dub – making the perfect impression of an emerging green caddis fly. These little green caddis can make up for a whole day of fishy inactivity by enticing many fine wild Deschutes Rainbow to your tippet at last light.
Walking down the street I overhear individuals muttering to themselves, small groups of Greenpeace folks chattering away about climate change. In New York’s Northeast Marine Environment, I have experienced some of the strangest and most irregular weather patterns this year, which has translated into seemingly erratic behavior of the fish I pursue.
Having studied the sea surface temperature charts religiously for the last three months, I have witnessed the Gulf Stream reach the Hudson Canyon a month early, and 70 degree water temperatures only 4 miles from the dock when most people would expect to see water temps in the high 50’s.
There is a recipe for success in nature, and angling, and that is “ADAPTABILITY”.
An urgent request from Native Fish Society, Wild Steelhead Coalition and Moldy Chum.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will soon be making a decision regarding the future of the Snider Creek hatchery on the Olympic Peninsula’s Sol Duc River. This decision will be driven in great part by the comment process so please read the alert from the Wild Steelhead Coalition and take action for Wild Steelhead.
A recent trip to explore fishing for hatchery trout growing robust in Diamond Lake proved that these cagey trout are tough to hook, even more difficult to land, but are well worth the effort. Stocked as fingerlings only a few inches long, these rainbow trout grow to monstrous sizes. If one finds the right fly and is willing to fish for days-on-end, it is possible, though rare, to actually hook one of the leviathans.
My recent venture to the lake started by testing some likely fly patterns by tossing a handful of candidates on the floor of the den and seeing which, if any, my young cat, Boomer, preferred. His choice was clear and consistent, as shown here by his interest in this Purple Intruder.
Purple Western Soft Hackle – Tying instructions and more….
This article is going to coversome key points about tying and fishing Soft Hackle flies for trout and steelhead. I will ramble on about names of Soft hackle flies, best fly sizes, how to fish the little (and big) flies, weighting issues, application of Soft Hackle flies to your favorite steelhead stream, and a basic tying video.
How many soft hackle fly patterns are there? I don’t know. The Partridge and Yellow may just be the most famous. Substitute green for yellow, orange for green, scarlet for orange, or …. Get the idea? Soft hackles are tied in many variations with and without names. The naming convention helps label the bins in our fly shops, and helps us fly fishers communicate with each other when we are reporting the hot Soft Hackle of the day.
As in – “I was having great success on a size 12 Partridge and Yellow;” when in fact, the truth is that a size #16 Peacock and Grizzly Soft Hackle was the savior of the evening fishing. Not that trout fly fishers ever resort to low-life tactics of mis-information like salmon fly fishers may practice.
Some of the Soft Hackles you should think about fishing and tying include the following flies: Partridge and Yellow Soft hackle; Partridge and Green; McKenzie Green and Peacock Soft Hackle; Western Purple Soft Hackle; Scarlet and Grizzly Soft Hackle; Scarlet and Brown Soft Hackle; Grey Hackle – Yellow tail Peacock Soft Hackle: Black Peacock Soft Hackle; Black Pheasant Soft Hackle; Peacock and Partridge Soft Hackle; Carey Special soft Hackle; Pheasant Tail soft hackle; Peacock and Starling Soft hackle.
Soft hackle fly sizes? The question as to best size fly when tying and fishing soft hackles is one of those, well, it depends on where, when and so on issues. Big Soft Hackles represent the largest caddis flies, the smaller soft hackles cover smaller mayflies, caddis and such. I tie soft hackles down to #18, not easily mind you, but the sub size #12 are the heart of my soft hackle arsenal. It is not entirely critical to match hackle size with hook size with Soft Hackle flies, at least not as much so as it is with dry flies. One may compensate for a little over-size hackle on a #16 hook by using only one turn of hackle, and the fly will fish very effectively.
Partridge and Grouse feathers are two feathers that are traditionally associated with Soft Hackle flies. That said, I far prefer Partridge, Grizzly Hen capes, Whiting Brahma Hen saddles, Starling skins, and Whiting Hen capes in various colors – as compared to Grouse. But given my state of learning as time marches on, I could change my mind and come to love Grouse too. Who knows? Starling Skins are my newest discovery and really offer a nice range of dull hued very small feathers for my smallest Soft Hackles.
Impressionist rather than imitative. Yeah. Soft hackle style flies are what I would refer to as impressionist flies, as I think that they can be taken by trout as a general, close enough, just might be a such-and-such insect. Sometimes we fish a dry stonefly or an October Caddis. In these cases if a trout takes our fly, the fish probably thought it was about to eat a great big juicy caddis fly. When a trout slurps a size 13 or 15 sparsely dressed soft hackle, swinging just under the surface in glassy or riffled water, the fish could be thinking … Caddis! On the other hand, the fish could be thinking … Mayfly! Again, more often than not, when there are many insects hatching, the fish could simply be thinking …. Bug (food)!
How to fish Soft Hackle flies? Start fishing dead drift with slight upstream cast, and even sometimes straight upstream to feeding fish. Cross and downstream presentation will deliver a swing rate based on current speed from slow to brisk.
Most of my soft hackle experience has been on the Deschutes, McKenzie and Willamette. The Metolius is a place where I have never ever, been successful fishing soft hackles on the swing. Anyone who can explain this gets one free soft hackle in the mail. Really.
Traditional soft hackles are tied un-weighted, and this makes sense, because they are intended to be presented to the fish just under the surface. Now, if one looks at a Carey Special for lake fishing, or at a big October Caddis Emerger as soft hackles, then one could indeed weight these depending on the depth of water and current speed.
Soft Hackles for steelhead? Absolutely. I have not managed this feat myself, but a close friend has had days on the upper Deschutes when summer steelhead rose deliberately and repeatedly to #14 and #16 Partridge and Green Soft Hackles. This was a many fish, many hour experience, not a one fish deal. Another friend has had similar experiences on the Upper Rogue anytime from July through September, and again, this involved many fish and many days. The Klamath is another place I have not fished, but where I have friends who regularly catch summer steelhead on what we consider trout-size Soft Hackles. And here is one final example: the North Umpqua. A fish biologist friend swears by a #12 pale olive and Partridge soft hackle in the months of July and August when fishing pressure is high and water is crystal clear. Quite different from traditional steelhead wet flies, leech style steelhead flies, and splashy dry flies, but think about this alternative next time you head to the North Umpqua.
Soft Hackle Trout Flies Part 2 – Hooks, Thread, and Body Materials
Following on our recent post on selection of feathers to hackle Soft Hackles (a mouthful to be sure), this is a short article on hooks and body materials that are best suited to tying Soft Hackle flies.
But first – to capitalize Soft Hackle or to not capitalize soft hackle? RR would have an answer, as would any worth-his (or her)-salt editor, but I refuse to either consult these persons or to conform to their dictates. So I will proceed to capitalize or not, and to do so somewhat randomly, just for fun. Thanks for your patience on this quirk, just one of many I assure you.
Hooks? Let’s get down to it. I prefer wet fly hooks with enough wire heft to keep the lightly-hackled, squishy little fly under the surface when it is swinging across and down. My personal preference is to un-forged, round wire hooks, but the Alec Jackson hook has caught my eye and now has a secure place on my fly bench. This is the absolute truth, within the context that nowadays, my preoccupation with salmon and steelhead flies on larger shanked hooks and on tubes takes up a lot of space on my bench. That said, I still have a neat little corner, densely packed with my soft hackle hooks. There. Confessed.
Favorite hooks for tying soft hackles are as follows: TMC 2488 this is a sleeper hook worth considering for Soft Hackles. Straight eye, 3x wide gape, 2x short, curved wire, fine wire. This allows one to use a smaller size hook with greater hooking ability TMC 3761 – this is the gold standard: round wire, Sproat bend, wet fly and nymph hook, in a 2x heavy, 1x long version. This is the hook I would choose if I wanted to tie a Soft Hackle for summer steelhead. TMC 3769 – Just like the TMC 3761 without the extra length. Great standard nymph and Soft Hackle fly hook. Thread: Daiichi 1560 – very nice Sproat bend, round wire, bronze finish standard wire and length hook. Oddly, perhaps, but this is my personal favorite for soft hackles. Have no idea why.
Alec Jackson North Country Trout Hook – an elegant and exquisite wet fly hook especially suited to tying Soft Hackle flies. This is what I would call a Limerick Bend, lightly forged at the bend, 2x short needle point with mini barb. These Alec Jackson hooks are made by Daiichi at Alec’s specifications and are beautiful and functional hooks. These are a nickel silver finish that adds a little sparkle to the fly. Nice touch. There is a 1x fine wire Alec Jackson Crystal North Country hook offered also.
Thread and body materials for Soft Hackles? I have become fond of using Pearsall’s gossamer silk thread and marabou silk floss. Frankly, I had zero experience with these two materials before Marcos Vergara at Hareline Dubbin nudged me to try them recently. I did my homework, read up on the Pearsall’s thread and floss, tied with the materials, wrote about them, and am a full-on supporter of Pearsall’s silk threads and flosses now.
Other body materials for Soft hackles? These include all the usual suspects, like Ice Dub, Hareline Sparkle Dub, Pheasant tail fibers, peacock herl, and the like. My advice, for what it is worth, is to keep body materials relatively slim, unless of course if you are imitating a big juicy October caddis or dragon fly, in which case you could use good old tried and true chenille!
I hope these ideas and the videos help you sort out some of the mystery and get down to the fun of tying and fishing soft hackle trout and steelhead flies.
Our next related post will be tying an actual Soft hackle fly, the Purple Western Soft hackle. Fun.
From the Clackamas Bull Trout working group: In the past, bull trout were abundant and widely distributed in the Willamette Basin, including the Clackamas River. They were a historical component of the river’s native fish assemblage that evolved over thousands of years. Currently, bull trout are extirpated from the Clackamas River Subbasin; there have been no documented sightings of bull trout in the Clackamas River since 1963. The bull trout was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1998. Efforts to recover the species are underway, including restoring the species to areas from which it has been lost.
Years of planning by many agencies and organizations will culminate next week with the initial transfers of bull trout from the Metolius to the Clackamas River. Transfers of fish will continue through July this year and will continue annually for likely the next 7 years. All bull trout will be released in the Clackamas and tributaries upstream of the Collawash/Clackamas River confluence. All bull trout released in the Clackamas will be listed as threatened under the ESA but will be designated a “nonessential experimental population”, a designation allowed under Section 10(j) of the ESA that allows for more flexible management of the population and without the stringent protections typically afforded a federally listed species.
Left Eugene at 3:15am for the North Coast, cow country estuary. Sand dunes, spring chinook, Sitka Spruce, scrub grass, seals, starfish, sea stacks, surf shops, shitty coffee, surly locals. Stepped out of the car at 5:30am into the misting then pouring rain. Pulled on my Gore-Tex, hood down around my face, tunnel vision. Rain pooling up to our ankles in the bottom of the boat. The tide pulling the river into the ocean, surf rasping against the beach, a red buoy two miles away clanging in the wind. Sunless grey sky, casting across the hole, stripping in on a slow diagonal swing. We’ve formed a circle around the pool full of shifting water, out pops a big dorsal, lead-colored back, a white belly, silver gill plate, up and down again. The rain breathes through the clothes, smears down my arms, under my collar. Captain Jeff hooks a salmon on a RR special, it tears around the entire pool just below the surface before coming to the net. Rob looks at me, says catch something so we can get the hell out of the rain. We don’t. Instead, we call in a chowder and coffee order and row under the bridge to eat it like fishless trolls.
Soft hackles are an often overlooked but always an important element of our trout fly fishing tackle complement. Here is a short video where I review some of the best soft hackle feather materials that we all have access to these days, with soft hackle flies as our search image.
Each of the feather types featured here offers excellent qualities for creating soft hackle flies, and yes, there are times when small soft hackles are just what summer steelhead want to eat. Fish the upper Deschutes, Upper Rogue, the Rogue Canyon, or the North Umpqua, and Klamath – if you put your time to good use, you are likely to find evenings when a size #10 to #16 soft hackle will be taken with confidence by summer steelhead anywhere from July through October.
Browse this video and my notes below about these great feathers. Hope this tutorial helps you tie your best soft hackle trout and steelhead flies ever.
Hungarian Partridge (full skin): this is possibly the best source of soft hackle hackles ever. Domestically bred and raised birds are perfection, and available in natural and dyed colors. I use feathers from the tip of the skin for #16s down to feathers over the back for #10s. Feathers at the tip and sides of the skin are black and white barred, feathers straight down the back are brown/bronze striped. The bars are fine and the fish love the look of flies tied with partridge as much as we love their traditional look. Zero waste and the feathers are sorted for us on the skin by size. Partridge feathers are relatively short, so I find I must be quite slow and easy winding them
Metz Grizzly Hen Capes: these are another amazingly versatile source of soft webby feathers, easy to tie with, and we can use these Metz hen cape feathers for our smallest soft hackles and our steelhead Silver Hiltons also. Oh yes, the tips of these feathers allow us to create wings on dry and wet flies from tiny to steelhead size. These hen cape feathers are long enough that it is fairly easy to wind one to four wraps of hackle and still have plenty of feather to hang on to. Zero waste, wide range of flies, and ease of use are major advantages.
Starling Skins: I had always wondered about this product and who was using starling feathers for what. Well, now I know. These are apparently used as cheeks on traditional streamers and Atlantic Salmon flies, but they also shine if we want to tie small soft hackles with dark grey hues. These starling skins offer very low price, very fine feathers and zero waste. The feathers are short and fine, they wind nicely, but I had to be very careful with my nubby salmon fly tying fingers and handle these feathers with a delicate touch. Too short to tie with fingers only, these will require you to pull out and apply your hackle pliers. One or two turns of these feathers and your soft hackle is ready to swim.
Whiting Brahma Hen Saddle: This is my preferred hackle for larger soft hackles, lake wet flies in the #8 & #10 range, and similar size summer steelhead wet flies. Zero waste, size graded on the skin, and nice barring. The feathers are denser than partridge but the overall barring is very similar.
Whiting Hen cape: these have all the properties as the Metz Hen Capes discussed above, but are available in browns and duns. Easy to work with, exquisite fine feather stems that wind marvelously, and never any waste. Soft hackles, wings, and collars on all manner of wet flies, streamers, and nymphs.
Wapsi India Hen capes: these are a more colorful analogy to starling skins, beautifully marked, easy to tie soft hackles, wings, beards and collars on all manner of small trout flies. Hummmmm. Bluegill would take these flies too, methinks. These also call for a delicate hand, like the Partridge and Starling feathers, but the care is worthwhile when you see the finished fly.
Soft hackle flies can imitate emerging Mayflies, Caddis flies, midges, and just plain old trout food. Sometimes we think we know what we are imitating, but I think sometimes trout and steelhead just take these little wisps of a fly because they look interesting and sort of like food. My personal preference for tying soft hackles is to use from one to three turns of hackle. In other words, I like to make soft hackle flies fairly sparse. Three turns of starling is about as dense as two turns of Metz or Whiting hen hackle, because the Starling is a finer fiber feather. The Whiting Brahma Hen Saddle is perhaps the most dense fibered feather of the ones reviewed here, and I prefer these for flies in the Carey Special family to imitate big juicy lumbering caddis struggling to the surface to emerge. Keep in mind, also, that most of these feathers make great collars on nymphs like the Prince and our good old standard wet flies like the Royal Coachman, Leadwing Coachman, and oh yes, I almost forgot …
Remember how effective a Grey Hackle Peacock with red or yellow tail was in years gone by? Let’s be clear. These flies, tied with a Metz Grizzly Hen Cape in sizes #12 – #16 are still deadly for trout, and in sizes #4-#8 are wonderful summer steelhead flies too.
After watching the recent episode of Finding Bigfoot on Animal Planet, I can finally say that I’ve had my fifteen minutes of fame. Bob Welch wrote up a column on the show in the Register-Guard, friends sent me photos of me on their TV screens, and people I hadn’t talked to in ages came out of the woodwork on Facebook, freaking out.
If you missed it last night, I suspect Animal Planet will replay the show. Or you can check out this bootleg version we found on YouTube:
Stay tuned for Caddis Fly Squatch gear coming soon.
-MS
