Soft Hackle Streamers

[dc410]

I have been researching some of Jack Gartside's original patterns over the past few weeks and came across the Soft Hackle Streamer. Everything that I have read about this pattern lends it to having a great profile and really good movement to imitate almost any kind of baitfish. The color combinations of flash and marabou are endless leaving much to the imagination of the tyer. The original soft hackle streamer pattern only calls for two materials: a few strands of flash (krystalflash or flashabou type of material) and marabou feathers in your choice of color. One of the most important things to do is to use the upper end of the marabou feather where the stem is very thin. The marabou feather is then tied in by the butt end and wrapped soft hackle style around the hook, stroking the fibers back on each turn to try to avoid trapping the fibers under the stem. This is a very simple tie!. I tied these on standard heavy wire wet fly hooks (size 6). The idea behind the shorter hook is to allow the materials to provide the maximum movement imitating the natural baitfish. I am planning on using this pattern primarily as a smallmouth pattern, thinking that short strikes could be an issue with trout on the shorter hooks.

Here are a few photos of some of the variations of the Soft Hackle Streamer.

(1) Three original Gartside Soft Hackle Streamers (Red/White, Yellow/White and Chartruese/White)

(2) Brown/Olive with a Wood Duck collar

(3) A pheasant Soft Hackle Streamer using pheasant marabou, blue/green pheasant back feather and a few turns of a long fibered pheasant aftershaft feather for a collar. I really like the way this one turned out. Can't wait to give it a try out for smallies this Spring!

 

[blueheron]

I tie them in fry colors for trout, they work as good as they look .

 

[RonB]

They Look really good.

 

[lv2nymph]

John those are some sweet looking streamers!

 

[delta_dog]

I love the way these look when tying them but I've never had any luck fishing them. John make sure you let us know how you do on them. I have a box full of them around here somewhere. Maybe I'll give them another shot one of these days.

 

[Murph]

Hey dc I'm really liking the look of these, especially the one in the third photo. I don't know a lot about the methodology behind tying these but that third one (when wet) will imitate the natural minnows i see in the streams very well. I appreciate any fly i see that mainly uses pheasant feathers. They're my favorite game to hunt and the color variation as well as the size/texture differences in their feathers seem to open up a lot of creative opportunities for a fly tyer.

 

[Fishidiot]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that smallmouth bass will love 'em.

 

[lv2nymph]

Agreed.^

 

[dc410]

Thanks guys. These streamers are fun to tie.

Dan, yeah I have never fished this pattern so the jury is definitely still out for me. I'm gonna give them a good work out hopefully this pre-spawn season.

Murph- this pheasant pattern is much easier to tie than the Sparrow nymph that you watched me tie at the tying jam. However, it uses the exact same feathers as the Sparrow. There are several decent you tube videos showing the technique used for tying the marabou in soft hackle style. I do really love tying with pheasant feathers, so many options. Thanks again for the feathers. The pheasant soft hackle streamer was tied totally out of the feathers you gave me that day. Keep tyin'!

 

[GenCon]

They look really nice. Good job. I tie a similar fly which is a variation of a moto's minnow. Large and SM bass love them Trout like the as well.

Very nice ties,

GenCon