Soft Wing Style Spiders

[Otter]

Soft Wings

Have you ever experienced a situation where you have been told about a style of fly, you tied up a few , working slightly blind as you have never seen any. You interpet the information you have been given, the fly takes shape at the vice and as you cut the thread after the final whip finish you gasp, sit back mouth agape and stare at the fly in wonder.

I experienced this quite recently when I was given a style by a very experienced and generous angler who rates this style as been extremely effective for some specific imitations and also works well on some patterns as a general imitation.

When I first looked at my first attempt on the vice it simply screamed back at me "deadly" - off course like all flys they are not a universal panacea and will only be effective when fished with skill and stealth.

This is one example of this style, and I believe was intended as a March Brown imitation but works well as a general pattern.

This seemingly simple style I believe ticks all the right boxes and I can find nothing in it that negates against it being a superb design for upstream fishing and nothing that would put a trout on guard.


Wing is Partridge Soft Hackles.




Try tying a couple in this style, try a Greenwells with Waterhen coverts/undercoverts you wont be disappointed.

[Hans Weilenmann]

Otter,

It looks a lot like the interpretations on some of the patterns described in the Treatise (or Boke of St Albans, 1486).

In more modern terms what you depicted is close to some of the winged Clyde and Tummel patterns.

They worked then, they stood the test of time, they work fine today

As to your question - I had documented the method I use for the body/barbs on the CDC&Elk. A friend in the US used my instructions and ended up with the IOBO pattern, which,eh, bore little resemblance to CDC&Elk

Cheers,
Hans W

[mvendon]

Hi Otter,

That fly is very buggy looking. I would be really surprised if it wasn't eaten by a lot of fish! As to your question, one of my most effective catching patterns that I tie and use for both trout and bass, I've never seen a picture of. It's a Heartwells Hellgrammite. I read about it in a Field and Stream article around 7 or 8 years ago. There was just a rough painted pic of what the thing looked like. I asked if anyone knew the dressing on the old VFS forum back then too, and have what's supposed to go where. It never really jumped out at me after I tied some up, but fish love it. I tie it large for bass and smaller for trout, but it's one of the first flies that I tie on and use no matter what time of the year if I'm on a stream. I'm sure that I'd be surprised on how the original actually looks to my interpretation of it.

Regards,
Mark

[letumgo]

That looks like a "capital killer" as the used to say. Could you describe your tying steps? I am specifically interested in how you dubbed the body, when and how you tyed in the wing and the list of materials. I am inspired by this pattern and would like to tye some up. Is there a wire rib? What model and size hook did you use?

I remember having the same experience with a streamer fly I tyedbased on a simple writtten recipe. The materials listed caught my eye, and I had to go to my vice to tye it up to see what it looked like. I loved sitting back and seeing the finished fly.

Thanks for sharing! This looks like a very special pattern.

[Soft-hackle]

I really like the look of this fly. I think it'd do very well.





Mark

[Otter]

Wing: Waterhen Coverts

Soft hackle is key to this style, choose number of wing fibres to suit type of insect you are imitating. Waterhen/Moorhen is a very suitable material for this style. Also your waterhen will last a lot longer

[Otter]

Dark Watchett Soft Wing.

Hook: Drennan Carbon Specimen
Wing: Jackdaw Throat
Silk: Orange & Purple , twisted and lighly dubbed with mole.
Thorax: Small pinch Dark Hares Ear around base on wing, lightly velcroed.
Important to keep the wing sparse for Iron blues.




Have any of you ever tied or fished this style.

[Otter]

That looks like a "capital killer" as the used to say. Could you describe your tying steps? I am specifically interested in how you dubbed the body, when and how you tyed in the wing and the list of materials. I am inspired by this pattern and would like to tye some up. Is there a wire rib? What model and size hook did you use?

I remember having the same experience with a streamer fly I tyedbased on a simple writtten recipe. The materials listed caught my eye, and I had to go to my vice to tye it up to see what it looked like. I loved sitting back and seeing the finished fly.

Thanks for sharing! This looks like a very special pattern.

I'll put up some info to-morrow - I too believe that this style could well be worth careful consideration. This is primarily designed for upstream work.

[Otter]

Soft Wing - March Brown

Yellow silk, lightly dubbed with a hares ear mixture which looks tan, but mix light medium and dark hair to achieve this. Fine copper wire rib, ( use lacquered wire for this, or it turns green quickly when wetted). Tie in a sparse bunch wing of brown partridge fibres from a brown coloured brown partridge hackle. Dub some darker hare fur on the thread, wind around the hook at the back and front of the wing. finish the fly and velcro the dubbing at the sides and below.

Soft Wing - Greenwells

Dress a "greenwell", with waxed yellow silk ( turns to olive),and fine gold wire rib but dont put any hackle on it. Tie in your sparse bunch wing of waterhen fibres, ( or you can o this first if you want before you make the body).You can use any of the dark blue/brown fibres but they should be soft fibres, not stiff fibres from the wing feathers. I don't split it. Just an upright bunch. Now dub a little bit of dark hare's ear on your thread. Wind this around the hook at the base of the wing, a little in front and a little behind, so that is basically looks like a small lump at the wing base. Finish the fly, and then scrub the dubbing below and at the sides of the hook for legs.

[letumgo]

Thanks Otter!