With the BWO hatch starting or pretty close, I was curious about the smaller soft hackle bwo patterns (size 16 an down.) Does anyone have experience using these?

Yes, I tie and fish them. My son caught his first trout on a fly rod with a size 20 on spring creek when he was 11. What cha looking for?

Thats where I had them in mind for, I go to PSU, the small ones still swing them, do you fish them during the sporadic hatches? before? during? after?

Yes, you can swing the small ones they'll see em. During a sporadic hatch is a great time, when you see your riser get in position and cast to swing to that fish might take a couple of casts to find it's position but targeting specific rising fish works really well with soft hackles. Before and definitly after a hatch fish those guys they're always on the lookout for drowned and the last of the hatch.
you can fish them through a hatch, but most people can't stand it and switch to a dry.You can also high stick them, you have a nice spot in front of you cast up in the seam and drift it through, My son did that in front of then around to the back of a nice rock and picked some up. Hope this was what you were looking for. Jack

That helps, I'm looking to get into the soft hackles this year. With weight? without? Thanks Jack.

Generally they are fished without weight. Although if you had a mind to fish them dead drift like a nymph you could always add weight to the leader, putting any weight on the fly itself would inlarge it too much in my opinion. During a hatch if you go to a dry you could add a soft hackle as a dropper and double your hook up chances as well. You know I'm not far from campus at all, maybe we could hit spring some time.

Exactly what lv2 said. If the hatch is just starting or sporadic sometimes a small shot added and drifting thru the head of a riffle or run. Then let it swing around and up. If the hatch is in full swing then taking the small weight off works better for me. Sometimes I find soft hackles work well fishing to risers letting it swing up right in front of the rise.

lv2 I'd be great to meet up and fish spring, I have to admit, spring is still an enigma to me

Alright, we'll try and get together one of these days. Shoot me a pm with some times you think you'll be able to go. Weekends work the best for me. And once it's light out later some days during the week will start to work as well.

Weighting the line causes a grossly unatural speed up as the weight begins to swing and the fry has to race to catch up with it.

A sinking line, a sinking leader, or a weighted fly is the appropriate way to do this.

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+1 ^

Hey Gary,

I love hear details about fishing wets and what you've discovered since your conversion.

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Gary, I can see what you mean if you are you talking about swinging the fly, what I was saying was dead drifting it like a nymph. When swinging I don't add any weight.

If you're ffishing to Baetis, keep small Red Quill softies on hand too. If you want to get fancy, put egg sacs on them. Baetis females swim back underwater to do the ovidepositing. I don't ffish wet much, but I've thought this would be a good addition to the arsenal.

tl
les

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I use weight (typically micro shot) on a regular basis when fishing/swinging wet flies, especially in fast moving water.