Much like a dog seeking the perfect spot to nap, I turn in a circle and spy a place to sit down among the boulders edging this swift stream. Looking out over the flowing waters, where the rhythmic gyrations of mayflies dance in a ballroom of sun-filled air, I admire this amusing ballet. The small bodies pulse, bobbing up and down in an amorous swirl of winged eyes and tails. It’s lovely, and it’s wonderful.
Of course, the performance before me is short-lived and inevitably changes into a funeral ceremony. Soon, all the graceful insects will fall dead on the waters, many to be consumed by trout, which is the reason I’m wading this river with a fly rod and a box of my favorite mayfly imposters — soft-hackle flies — tucked into my breast pocket. Soft hackles can imitate many stages of a mayfly’s life, including the final one, the spinner. Today, I am like an undertaker who sells beautiful floral funeral arrangements. I take particular pleasure in creating good-looking flies and in their ability to deceive a hungry and opportunistic trout.
Soft-hackle creations are some of history’s earliest flies and are still favored by many of my friends — one in particular, Mike Knepp, artist and painter, woodworker and maker of classical guitars, whose own creative life on this wondrous earth recently and sadly came to an end. One of his favorite series of flies uses silk for the bodies in vibrant colors not unlike those from an artist’s box of paints, together with partridge hackle representing gossamer wings: the Partridge and Orange and the Partridge and Green, as well as many others that imitate the colors and life stages of mayflies. One of my favorites is the Partridge and Yellow, representing the Pale Morning Dun. Mike, too, was fond of this pattern. It would please him and makes me happy to share it with you. Here is how we tie it. First, insert a light-wire hook, size 12 through 18, into the vise.
Attach fine pale yellow silk or nylon thread a little behind the eye. Select a length of yellow silk or nylon floss and secure it to the shank three-quarters of the way up from the bend. Smoothly wrap this silk floss several times back to the bend, then forward to where you started, creating a tapered body. Snip away the excess floss. Create a small ball of pale yellow dubbing for the thorax. The ball should leave room to tie in the hackle. Choose a partridge hackle, tie it in, and wrap two turns with the concave side facing back. Whip finish, varnish the head, and you are done.
Like all soft hackles, the Partridge series is easily tied and very effective. It can be fished on as well as below the surface, and it represents aspects of the life cycle not just of the mayfly, but of many other aquatic insects. Head to your vise, tie some, and share them with your friends just as Mike shared them with me.
— Andy Guibord
