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March Brown Soft Hackle
Fly Materials
| Wing | Two matched slips from mottled hungarian partridge wing primaries. |
| Tail | Two mottled hungarian partridge tail feather barbs (tied long and divided). |
| Body | Fine yellow mohair and hare's ear fur mixed (dubbed thinly on the working thread). |
| Rib | Yellow silk. |
| Hackle | Brown hungarian partridge back feather (one turn only). |
Tying Instructions
| Instructions |
Notes: Like a lot of other tiers who hang around the VFS web site, I'm pretty enthusiastic about the old Yorkshire soft-hackle patterns, and I've slowly been working on a project to tie all of the flies illustrated in T. E. Pritt's North-Country Flies. This is one of four March Browns in the book; it's also illustrated in the reproductions of Mr. Pritt's plates in Syl Nemes' The Soft-Hackled Fly Addict. This fly is a little different from most of the soft hackles you see in American shops and catalogs: It's winged. It is also a good example of an old soft-hackle pattern designed as a specific imitation. I've been using this fly for a couple of years and have found it especially effective for early-season brook trout on some ponds here on the Maine coast. We have a stillwater mayfly of the right size, dirty brownish yellow in color, that matches up well with the colors of this fly One of the surprising thing I've learned from tying winged soft hackles is how well the quill segments from upland birds like Hungarian partridge and ruffed grouse behave, both at the vise and in the water. They don't hold together as well as stiffer duck and goose quills, and they look pretty ratty after a little fishing, but they can be preened back into shape and they have a lot more movement in the water than a stiffer quill. |
Fine yellow mohair and hare's ear fur mixed (dubbed thinly on the working thread).