Hare's Ear Soft Hackle Tying Instructions |
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Hare's Ear Soft Hackle, Olive  |
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BH Hare's Ear Soft Hackle, Olive  |
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Beaded Hare's Ear Soft Hackle, Olive |
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Green Butt Hare's Ear Soft Hackle  |
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The Hare's Ear Soft Hackle is a very old pattern coming from the Izaak Walton era of 1653.Walton wrote of this pattern in his book, The Compleat Angler. Soft Hackles are basically a floss or dubbed body with a soft, webby hackle of Partridge or Grouse, or even Hen Saddle Hackle. The Hare's Ear Soft Hackle is often categorized as a Flymph due to the spikiness of the dubbing. This spikiness means that the pattern can catch air bubbles that simulates an emerging caddis or mayfly. They are meant to be fished subsurface, usually with a wet fly swing technique. The main focal point of the fly is the hackle, which should be tied sparsely with the hackle fibers in a swept upright position. Often, many soft hackles bought commercially are too heavily hackled and forcibly swept back with thread wraps. This actually negates many of the positive features of the fly since it limits the hackle action during the swing. Often, the fly is used as a wet fly swing where the fly is cast slightly downstream and across. An upstream mend is
applied and the fly is allowed to drift downstream. The line tension causes the fly to sweep across the stream and rise until it
is directly below you. This presentation represents either mayfly or caddis emergers. You can cover quite a bit of water with
this technique. After the sweep, move downstream a couple of feet and do it again. Setting the hook can be a challenge since the
instinct is to lift the rod but often you just pull the fly out of the trout's mouth. A better method is to do a side arm set
toward the bank which will hook the trout in the corner of the jaw. Another presentation for this fly is to cast upstream and
letting the fly sink. Strip the line in as it approaches and lift the rod slowly once the fly is downstream of you. The fly will rise off the bottom in a vertical
manner and strikes are usually during this rise. The technique is called a Leisenring Lift. Another technique emphasized by Pete Hidy is mending the line during swing as this will slow the speed of the fly for a more natural presentation. The hook, TMC 9300, is a standard
wet fly hook that is excellent within stillwaters. If you are fishing streams, you might consider switching to
the TMC 3761 or TMC 3769 which is twice as heavy.