Spider Fishing

[Editor]

Source: GAIA Members Articles

Spider fishing

Spider fishing’s tradition goes back centuries. The origins of the simple north country spider wet fly pattern – often referred to as the ‘soft hackle’ fly – can be traced back to early 19th Century Yorkshire, when descriptions appeared in an 1807 manuscript by Ilkley farmer John Swarbrick. But it wasn’t until around a hundred years later that the document was eventually published. Shortly after the fly came to prominence in Thomas Evan Pritt’s 1885 publication of the classic “Yorkshire Trout Flies”, later renamed “North Country Flies”. The book gained instant popularity by providing fly patterns for each month through the season, how to fish them and when.

The history behind the method needs to be treated with respect and a “chuck it and chance it” approach will be largely unproductive. When executed properly spider fishing is a method both satisfying and effective in equal measure.

Fly rod and leader set up are all important in any one of these methods. Fly selection and presentation are key to targeting your quarry. A GAIA Instructor can help optimise your learning of these methods by eliminating bad habits before they take hold.

Learning good technique means you understand what’s going wrong and why, resulting in the abilty to self correct with ease.

If you would like a GAIA Instructor to help you put theory into practice, use Find An Instructor*to get in touch with your local GAIA instructor and have a chat about your requirements.

Source Article...

 

[Walter1023]

and you left out my favorite method of all..........dead drifting soft hackles in place of a traditional dry fly on slow clear pools to rising trout.....DEADLY.

 

[scotty macfly]

I love fishing spiders, and using them at the head of a pool below a run, or casting upstream, short casts, almost tenkara style, is deadly.

Oliver Edwards has a fine video on you tube on fishing spiders.

Thanks for posting this topic, because I personally believe spider fishing is slowly making a comeback. I would like to see more people get into this method.

YouTube

 

[dennyk]

Editor, thanks for sharing the info! I haven't fished spiders much but do have some in my fly box. Thanks for the reminder.

Denny

 

[sjkirkpa]

Haha.. when I read the title I thought this was what the thread was going to be about:

This Terrifying Spider Hunts Fish Underwater | Smithsonian

Those things are just creepy!

I've always like the looks of soft hackle flies. But I've never fished them much. I think I need to learn how. I used to have some success with reverse spider flies for sea-run cutts when in lived in the PWN, though.

 

[JoJer]

I've been intrigued by these flies and have tied a couple of dozen (approximations). I've never fished them.

 

[stenacron]

I love tying and fishing soft hackles and what a great history associated with these flies… from Skues and Stewart, to the leap “across the pond” to Leisenring and Hidy, then spreading west through Nemes and Hughes.

In today’s world of gimmick flies with sexy names promising anglers the code for cracking caddis hatches… NONE of them even come close to being as effective as a well tied and fished soft hackle. Growing up fishing the Lehigh Valley and Pocono Plateau region of Pennsylvania I have a strong connection to this style of fishing and a tremendous respect for the art of tying these flies.

I have strong opinions on this subject and some will not be popular…

-1) An angler must tie these flies for themselves if they want them tied correctly. I have yet to see a commercial tier that constructs them correctly (for good reason) and yet to see any of the (few) patterns in fly shop bins displaying the necessary sparse hackle appearance.

-2) I never weight these flies… if I want a heavier fly, I tie it on a heavier hook. Never any weight on the fly, and no added weight on the leader/tippet.

-3) No beads. Respect the pattern, the art, and the system. Beads add unnatural weight, balance, and bulk to the fly.

-4) The Art of Tying the Wet Fly & Fishing the Flymph (Leisenring/Hidy) is the bible for soft hackle fly design and construction IMO… but Wet Flies (Hughes) is the best book I have seen on the subject.

I prefer to fish them “down and across” as described in the OP. I would invite anyone (JoJer?) to tie on a pair of these flies – Hare’s Ear on a heavy hook 4X dropper, Partridge & Yellow on light wire hook 5X tag 24” back – and fish these flies down and across the last hour of sunlight and you will be a believer as you walk back to your vehicle with a wide grin.

Sparse is key… I cannot stress this enough. When you look at a properly tied soft hackle you should be able to count the hackle barbs. If it seems like an impossible task… the hackle is too dense. Here’s a picture that I like to use when touting the imitative qualities of soft hackle flies…. Note how the thread color bleeds through the wetted, dubbed body… killer!

 

[sparsegraystubble]

I have many of the same preferences fishing soft hackles as Stenacron. And I particularly Agee with the idea that Dave Hughes book Wet Flies is the best tying instruction that I have seen.

In fact his method of reinforcing hackles makes fishing soft hackles much more enjoyable because the flies hold up so much better. I tend to prefer those flies on regular wet fly hooks just to keep them well below the surface when fishing them on the swing.

And I almost always tie and fish them in size 14. They seem to work that way and 16s and smaller don’t seem to have the same magic.

Like Stenachron, I’m originally from Pennsylvania, but learned my early fly rod lessons primarily in Central Pa.

I went away from soft hackles for several years, but got back to them living in Oregon, partially because of Hughes, but also because swinging those is very similar to greased line fishing for steelhead. Always a fun way to fish.

Don

 

[ivory arrow]

I like spider fly patterns a lot. I have been fishing and tying them heavily over the past year.

I am going to go against the grain here and say most of the stuff I have read in books about soft hackles hasn’t been great info IMHO. I know I read Sylvester Nemes book, and a few others on the topic. Both modern and old books. Can’t remember if I read Hughes.

I think the spider fly is a victim of its history. Rather than look at what makes them a successful pattern, many anglers get caught up in the history of it. They end up using bigger flies than natural, swinging downstream, etc. Bad advice if you ask me. Advice originating from ancient fishing books that date before a time that people had a thorough understanding of hatches or the ability to craft tiny hooks to imitate them anyway.

The spider is just another fly style. Works well to imitate a variety of bugs. For drowned, hatching, or cripple bugs. Use it in the same sizes and colors as what is hatching. Fish it like any other fly. Dead drift or as a dropper under a dry fly.

My .02 is don’t go swinging a size 14 downstream where you would normally dead drift a size 18. The idea that they have to be swung is why I don’t think people use them. They work best in my opinion, simply fished as any other fly. They work great and I encourage folks to try them.

Wild turkey and hares ear Caddis. Size 18.

Cream and grey midge. Size 22

Wild turkey spider. Size 18

Black midge size 22

Starling and Herl. Ancient pattern, but still effective. I use dubbing and wire for durability.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sparsegraystubble]

I agree with you, Ivory, that by limiting some approaches to fishing various flies that I am losing some of their potential effectiveness. Heck I seldom use an indicator and only use a dropper off a dry fly when I have to because of problems seeing a little spinner on the water.

And I certainly agree that I never gained much from reading Nemes’ or even in the one conversation I had with him. But Hughes’ book would be well worth your while.

For instance, on your very nice starling hackled pattern, you may be experiencing short fly life because of stems breaking when hit by a trout. I know that I used to struggle with that. Hughes shows how to tie in a hackle at the eye of the hook and then wrap it backward down the hook shank to tie off. He then uses the thread to wrap forward effectively reinforcing the weak hackle stem with the thread. You may have figured this out on your own, but his book has a bunch of fine points like that.

If you get a chance you really ought to take a look at Hughes’ “Wet Flies” and see what you think.

Best wishes,

Don

 

[stenacron]

Gents,

It is great to see and read all these different takes on soft hackled (spider) patterns. :thumbsupu

For those that may be tuning in here and have yet to try this approach... one of the great things about fishing these flies is that you actually get to look around a bit while fishing as the takes will often be quite aggressive and you won't necessarily need to be visually focused as you would with a floating dry or strike indicator. In some cases you can even walk the river while fishing these flies.

Here are the two flies I mentioned earlier that represent my favorite summer evening tandem. Many, many fish duped by this combo... and as mentioned by others, if you tie them right, they are extremely durable flies.

Egg-laying Caddis

Partridge & Yellow

 

[ivory arrow]

SG-Stubble thanks for the tying tip. I never would have thought of that on my own.

I don’t usually use the traditional wound feather method anymore. I have personally found the “distribution wrap” to work best for me. I prefer the feathers to lay back limply over the fly. The traditional wound feather made the hackle flare too much for my taste.

The distribution wrap also allows me to use a huge variety of feathers without having to size them to the hook. That is the main reason that I use that method.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jonbo]

If your "distribution wrap" is the method I think it is where you end up with no stem at all in there with the hackle fibers, what I've found when I tie that way is that most of the hackle fibers will pull out before very long. Do you have a secret for getting them to "stick" better?

 

[ivory arrow]

Do you have a secret for getting them to "stick" better?

I haven’t had that problem. I secure the feathers to the shank, and then build up a pretty decent head of thread before I tie off.

Perhaps you are tying the feathers down with dubbing between the shank and the feather fibers? That might not make a secure tie down point.

But I don’t know, I haven’t had that issue. The individual fibers break sometimes, but I haven’t lost any from slippage. I find them pretty durable. Since there is no central stem holding all the fibers, there is no stem to come un-wound.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jonbo]

Thanks! I Mostly like that way of attaching hackle, except for what I described and that I have a little trouble making the fibers distribute evenly. But you get to make the legs exactly as long as you want them to be, and you don't have the hackle stem adding bulk to a fairly small fly.

 

[greenheadz]

Great read!!!! and I'm enjoying the different views. I even tied one up at lunch today and plan to tie a few more this evening!

 

[bumble54]

If your "distribution wrap" is the method I think it is where you end up with no stem at all in there with the hackle fibers, what I've found when I tie that way is that most of the hackle fibers will pull out before very long. Do you have a secret for getting them to "stick" better?

Start with a bare hook, catch in the thread, strip the feather fibre's from the quill and align the tips, tie in the hackle fibre's pointing over the eye, add more if you want a bulkier hackle. You can make the hackle as short or as long as you wish because that is controlled by you, not the size of the feather. Finish the body, fold the hackle fibre's back and secure by forming the head of the fly, varnish the head if you do not wax the thread, no need to varnish if the thread is waxed.
You can control the amount of hackle flair by the number of turns of thread when forming the head, you can also use feather fibre's that would be too long by normal standards.
Old feathers break easily so the fresher the better, it's false economy to use that packet of feathers you've had since 1972.
This technique was use by Richard Walker for securing squirrel hair which has a propensity for pulling out.

 

[jonbo]

Interesting. Thanks! I'll try that.