Friday, December 18, 2009

Offseason Entry III: A Hero Dressed in Black

Looking ahead: in approximately two weeks, these become swingable. Lord knows the day can't come soon enough.



Various approximates of John Montana's Wilted Spinach. Catches anything, most anywhere. This iteration in particular though is designed to imitate the small midges (20-22) that will be around this winter. Soft hackle is a nice jumble of legs, in front of the soon-to-be-lost shuck. And as Dave Hughes said in Fishing the Four Seasons: [para-phrased] When you're swinging a soft hackle down and across, don't set the hook. The fish takes care of that for you. Looking forward to that taking-care-of. Yes indeed.

9 Comments:

Anonymous winonaflyfactory said...

Damn I am with you. I have it on good word that I am about to recieve a starling skin, I am hoping to attempt a few of what you got going down here it the hackles are small enough.

It is a goal of mine to add the down and across to my thought process. We will have to meet up so I can pick your brain about it.

5:48 PM  
Blogger Wendy Berrell said...

I picked up three packs of starling soft hackle at The Driftless Angler last year. Good material.

See you soon - on the river.

7:30 PM  
Anonymous Jonathon A. Waske - Fly Fishing Artist said...

Great article and the photo's are nice too. I can not wait to hit the stream this year!!!

10:36 AM  
Anonymous winonaflyfactory said...

What are you using directly behind the soft-hackle? How many turns of hackle? Just one? And last question: Do you have a reference for the tail length? Hookshank? or Gap? Thanks man.

9:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've got some woodcock wings and some grouse I can share with you and J if you're interested. I may need to make the trek down to the SE sometime this winter with you guys...

11:06 PM  
Blogger Wendy Berrell said...

Jonathon: sweet paintings. Really nice work.

WFF: sometimes I put an abdomen of whatever flashy dub I've got laying around. Not always though. Two turns of hackle usually. And for the shuck - I figure it should be about the size of the bug that just came out of it... So roughly the "whole fly" is the reference.

RF: any time - come down. There aren't 20-trout days to be had in winter... but it can be a great experience. I'd recommend March - those ~35 F late winter days can be outstanding.

10:27 PM  
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