Soft Hackle Streamers

One of the nicest compliments a fly-fisher will ever hear is when the person he or she is fishing with says, "What are you getting them on?"

This question generally follows a period of good luck for you and lousy luck for your partner, and it shows that of the two of you, you're the one who's figured out what fly will work on the fish.

I was delighted to be asked that question once by a man named John Prokorym, of Albany, N.Y. John's a rod-builder, commercial fly-tier, designer of fly patterns, and a richly experienced, well-traveled angler.

John and I were wade-fishing for smallmouth bass on the wide pocket water of the lower Mohawk River, near its confluence with the Hudson just north of Albany. I'd gotten three or four straight hook-ups; John had gone a stretch without a touch. "What are you getting them on?" he asked. "Black Soft-Hackle Streamer," I answered. Ideally, this story would end with John borrowing one of my black Soft-Hackles, catching a mess of fish, slapping my back in gratitude and calling me a genius. But as I recall, he stuck with the soft white bucktail he'd designed for these very fish, one that imitates the herring fry they eat, and eventually did just fine, including catching the biggest fish of the morning.

The point is, the black Soft-Hackle performed well enough to impress an expert angler. I had great luck with this pattern that day on the Mohawk, as I had many days before and have many times since. Invented by Jack Gartside of Boston in the early 1990s, the Soft-Hackle is the most life-like streamer I've ever seen, and has caught far more trout and bass for me than any other forage-fish pattern.

Dressing flies to look like minnows instead of insects began in a serious way in the U.S. in the early 20th century. Until then, flies were just that – lures designed to look like aquatic insects. The development of flies that deliberately imitate baitfish reached its height in Maine in the 1920's and 30's. Anglers in pursuit of the region's brook trout and landlocked salmon invented pretty and effective patterns on long hooks, with two- or three-inch-long tips of hackle feathers imitating the sleek bodies of forage fish. Among the patterns invented then and still in wide use today are the Ghosts, Gray and Black; the Edson Light Tiger; and the Supervisor.

Around the same time, the Muddler Minnow was beginning a career that would fool fish consistently for the next 70 years. Simple bucktail flies, like the Mickey Finn and the Black-Nosed Dace devised by the Catskills' Art Flick, soon became standard equipment for the versatile fly-fisher. The Woolly Bugger is a modern variation of an ancient pattern, the Woolly Worm, with the main difference being the addition of a big tail of soft marabou. The Zonker series of streamers employed a material more often found in insect-imitating flies: rabbit fur. A thin strip of rabbit hide lashed to, and trailing behind, the hook makes a wiggly body that may be taken for a leech as well as a fish, but certainly looks to a fish like something good to eat.

The hackle-feather streamers and bucktails rely for their effectiveness on their ability to look like a fish. Woolly Buggers and Zonkers, on the other hand, act like fish. The Stevens style of flies, though cleverly imitative of the colors of smelt and other baitfish, look most like a fish when viewed broadside. From above, below or behind, they're thinner than the real thing and don't move very enticingly. With flies made of marabou, rabbit fur strips or other wavy materials, movement and action is much more important than color.

"Most streamer flies look like prey species of one sort or another," writes John Merwin in "Streamer Flies," published by The Lyons Press. "If the fly behaves in that fashion near a trout, most of the time the trout will try to eat it and be caught. Thus, given the right fly, which is no small matter, successful streamer fishing is a matter of making your fly behave in a lifelike manner."

That's the secret of the Soft-Hackle Streamer's success. It's made almost entirely of marabou, the soft, sinuous feather that undulates in the water with the least of movements. You can just let it hang still, even in the gentlest currents, and it will swim and sway gracefully, looking for all the world like a little lost minnow wondering where to go next.

The Soft-Hackle Streamer gets its ethereal quality from its sparse construction. It's nothing more than one or two marabou feathers palmered on the front end of the hook, with a turn of duck flank feather for stripes and a little flash tied along the otherwise bare hook shank. It's virtually weightless, but it will sink; you may, however, need a little weight on the leader or a sink-tip line to really get down deep.

It can be tied in any color of marabou you can find. Using two feathers in complimentary colors – one olive or purple and one black, for example – gives a nice effect. Its range of sizes, however, is somewhat limited. The length of the fly will be the length of the marabou feather fibers, and they all tend to be around two inches long. It's not difficult to tie, once you get the hang. Here's how I do it.

Hook: Streamer, sizes 2-8
Thread: 6/0, color contrasting with wing
Wing: One or two marabou feathers, webby lower fibers stripped off
Flash: Two strands of Flashabou or 3-5 strands of Krystal Flash
Stripes: One wood duck or dyed mallard flank feather, fuzz stripped off, fibers stroked perpendicular to stem

1. Tie on behind the eye and wind back to about one-third of the way down the shank.
2. Tie on the first marabou feather, tips forward. Trim excess stem.
3. Wind thread back toward the bend about one hook-eye length behind the first feather. Tie in the second marabou, also tips forward, so that the bindings stop where those of the forward feather begin. Trim excess. The fibers of the second, or rear, feather will be underneath those of the first, or forward, feather when the fly is finished.
4. Wind back to behind the rear feather and tie the flash material over its bindings. Then wind the thread forward to the tie-off point of the rear feather (the front edge of the bindings of the forward feather.)
5. Now wrap the rear feather on, over the bindings of the forward feather, keeping fibers splayed collar-style as you go. Three turns is usually enough. Tie off and clip excess. Advance the thread to the tie-off point for the forward feather.
6. Wrap the forward feather on the same way as the rear one. Tie off and clip excess. Holding the fibers back with your fingers, wrap the thread back over the marabou about two hook-eye's length so the fibers lie down. You should now have about the first one-third of the hook shank covered in palmered marabou, fibers bound down streamer-style, with 1/8 inch or so of room for the head.
7. Tie on the wood duck or mallard feather at the back edge of the bindings that lay the marabou down. Tie it on with the tips pointing to the rear, concave side down, and trim excess stem behind hook eye. Take one or two turns, tie off and trim excess. Try to get the fibers to lay right down on top of the marabou.
8. Build a neat head, whip finish and cement. Keep the glue from getting in the marabou; it will affect the fly's performance.

It's okay if the marabou fibers tend to flare out from the hook shank rather than lying back flat. As the fly is pulled through the water, they'll sweep backward just fine. In fact, it may not even be necessary to bind the hackle fibers down and make them lay flat. I do it because it looks nice and streamer-like in the vise.

The flash should be trimmed so that it's a little shorter than the marabou. I prefer the old-school Flashabou for this fly; it makes a neat, shiny lateral line. If you opt for Krystal Flash, go easy – use only two or three strands.

As for colors, I've had the most success with plain old black, with an orange head and blue Flashabou. But use the colors that prevail in the fishing where you are. White, yellow, black, olive and brown are the colors historically proven effective on most freshwater fish. Still, orange, red, pink, purple and chartreuse all have their place. Red and yellow will give you a soft-hackle Mickey Finn. Orange may be just the thing for landlocked salmon; then again, pink and gray can suggest smelt, in some places a staple of the landlocked's diet. A purple soft-hackle streamer has much in common with the classic Spey steelhead patterns of the Pacific Northwest. Use your imagination and your knowledge of the preferences of your local fish.

Match-the-hatch fishing with insect-imitating flies is a great game, one that's fun and interesting and absorbing on many levels. And it will, sometimes, produce big fish. But as a general rule, streamer flies have a better chance of catching the big fish than bug flies. The Soft-Hackle Streamer will hook you up with big fish as well as any other style – and maybe better than most.