Two Bit Soft Hackle

[Roadkill]

This fly was inspired two days ago by seeing Charlie Craven's beautiful nymph the Two Bit Hooker as a fly recommended for a Central Oregon river. After a previous day on the river, I wanted a slightly heavier SH pattern and Charlie's two bead thorax was the perfect solution. I wanted to tie up a more simple guide style fly, easy to tie and fish where you can lose it. I have tied up multiple bead stoneflies but never a soft hackle.

The Two Bit Soft Hackle came off my vise yesterday...
RIMG7246 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

Hook- Dai Riki 060 #16
2mm copper beads (I have no 1.5mm Tungsten yet)
Tail and Hackle-Natural India Hen Back
Thread body-Rust Brown Ultra 70
Rib-Fine gold wire

[tie2fish]

That should get down in a hurry, Bill. For some reason, it calls to mind a damsel or dragonfly nymph for me.

[DUBBN]

I have no doubt your Two Bit SH will produce. To me, it looks like a PMD Emerger.

It is difficult for me to not get inspiration from Charlie Craven.

[letumgo]

Excellent! The copper colored beads go very nicely with the rust colored body and brown mottled hackle. I will be adding several of these to my fly box soon. This looks like the ideal pattern for when I need to fish deeper in the water column.

Thanks for sharing!

[Mataura mayfly]

Looks like it could work.
And if you find they do not like it for whatever reason, you can tie a lighter soft hackle/spider/nymph off of the bend of that one and have two flies of different representations working at depth.
Thus you would be fishing my 80% of the time blind fishing rig.

[Roadkill]

Mm,

Add one more fly to the cast and you have my normal searching setup.I usually like my point fly the heaviest to prevent some tangles before I manage a Gordian Knot cast.

[DUBBN]

Mm,

Add one more fly to the cast and you have my normal searching setup.I usually like my point fly the heaviest to prevent some tangles before I manage a Gordian Knot cast.

Ditto.

[Roadkill]

Just a bump to add that this fly saved the day for me last week on the Crooked River after ronr and his fishing partner had headed home, and I found out that I did not have the required Pheasant tail nymph to drop shot down the river.

RIMG7231 by William Lovelace, on Flickr


Later afternoon the fish chose my Transitional PMD Flymph on the swing.

RIMG7232 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

[letumgo]

Lovely stretch of water. Looks like it was a very calm day. Had it been windy, it looks like good conditions to try drifting terrestrials.