Simple Charlie Craven Soft Hackle

FrankB2

FrankB2

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I saw this on Charlie's site, and it looked good to me. I used peacock herl
rather than muskrat for the thorax.
Hook: Mustad 3906
Thread: black 8/0
Body: Mylar and Orange Floss (One strand of floss picked out of 3 strands)
Thorax: Peacock Herl
Hackle: Hungarian Partridge

Charlie's method for hackling these flies makes my life much easier. He snips
a V section out of the top of the feather, ties in the hackle with two loose
wraps, and then draws out the feather until the hackle length is correct.
Charlie says he can use thread torque to spin the hackle around the hook,
but I usually need to tweak a little before tightening the wraps. No more searching for little feathers! :cool:

 
Jimmie

Jimmie

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Nice flies and many Thanks for the tutorial. Can't wait to give that a try. If it works for my ties then all of my soft hackles get kicked to the curb. They're all too long.
 
BigCliff

BigCliff

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Great looking fly.

I actually prefer a different method for hackling soft hackles, but the v-technique is quite effective for larger feathers- guinea for one.
 
FrankB2

FrankB2

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Hi Cliff,
I used to dig through feathers to find the small sizes, but Craven's method
(don't think he discovered it first) allows me to get a 2-3 flies out of one
feather, regardless of size.

Hi Kerry,
My wife finished her hair, and we went to a nearby stream. No luck, but she
said she wanted to get some casting practice in. She was a good catch!
 
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