What’s your go to, soft hackle wet fly?

[Little Fork]

This thread is a shameless ripoff of mcswny’s attractor post but as someone who’s new to fly fishing/tying, threads like that are full of an incredible amount of information and I learn a ton from them.
So, what’s your go to soft hackle?
Mine have been a partridge and orange and a partridge and pheasant they’ve both been productive in the stream near my house the past couple weeks.

 

[kmudgn]

Partridge and purple

 

[Mossback]

Partridge and Orange...sz 16
Works everywhere I have tried it for over 40 years.
Next is Partridge and Olive...sz 18
Works great for BWO's

 

[Zak]

Nice flies! My favorite is this one:


Or its more natural cousin, the Endrick spider:

 

[Wetswinger]

On my favorite local lake it's a dark wet pheasant tail or a wet peacock. On my secondary lake, they prefer a wet hares ear..
If there's a midge hatch and the fish are sipping and looking up, the hares ear works well..

 

[mcswny]

Nice flies! My favorite is this one:


Or its more natural cousin, the Endrick spider:
View attachment 117492

Plus one on this!

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Triple-threat caddis:

 

[Zak]

Also the Drowned Ant starling and herl:

Fly tying video: Steve Culton’s Drowned Ant Soft Hackle

By popular demand: You can find my original currentseams write-up on the Drowned Ant here.

currentseams.com

I frequently fish this as a dropper behind an easier to see fly.

 

[SurfnFish]

fan of the Carey Special...a tuber did better than the rest of us last week on a Carey he tied with red wire, now next on my tie list.

 

[Old406Kid]

Morrish's Dirty Bird in various colors.

 

[RCF]

fan of the Carey Special...a tuber did better than the rest of us last week on a Carey he tied with red wire, now next on my tie list.

Carey Specials are a favorite of mine also. There is reason why they have been a go to fly for over 100 years. And so many variants...

 

[Divad]

My favorite hands down is a wire body “timber” wetfly with partridge. It’s my goto swung fly from Montana to Washington, and probably any trout stream and lake (even tenkara fishing ).


Then come late summer/fall as these guys show up,

I pretty much swing an October Caddis wetfly from Sept to early November. This is my favorite,

But these bushy ones have also been extremely good and have coaxed quite a few head and surprisingly coho.


I love wetflys!

 

[Wayne Kohan]

No doubt, an Olive Willy. I have caught the multiple types of trouts, as well as multiple types of bass and panfish by varying the size.

 

[RCF]

I have caught perch, bass, crappie, trout and a catfish on the exact same fly on one pass around a small lake.

Using a Carey Special that mimics a dragonfly nymph, improves your chances too...

 

[Tom Butler]

For many years it was a March Brown. Now it's a Gold Ribbed Hares Ear. To me, basically the same fly, the MB has a feather tail whereas the GRHE has a mask hair tail.
https://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/the-march-brown-legacy

 

[Little Fork]

My favorite hands down is a wire body “timber” wetfly with partridge. It’s my goto swung fly from Montana to Washington, and probably any trout stream and lake (even tenkara fishing ).
View attachment 117593
View attachment 117594
Then come late summer/fall as these guys show up,
View attachment 117601
I pretty much swing an October Caddis wetfly from Sept to early November. This is my favorite,
View attachment 117614
But these bushy ones have also been extremely good and have coaxed quite a few head and surprisingly coho.
View attachment 117615

I love wetflys!

Gorgeous flies! I’ll definitely tie and fish a version of that October caddis late summer/early fall.
What do you mean by “timber” wet fly?

 

[Dogsnfish]

Wow, some really nice flies! Starling and herl for me.

 

[troutstalker]

Mosquito and Purple Haze.

 

[John Svahn]

Another starling and herl fan.

 

[Divad]

Gorgeous flies! I’ll definitely tie and fish a version of that October caddis late summer/early fall.
What do you mean by “timber” wet fly?

A friend in Montana a few years ago called this brown yarn body and partridge soft hackle a timber. He passed away and now I call any similar, brown/copper body + partridge a timber variant.