Tails on soft hackles - does it matter?

[PaScoGi]

Most videos I see of soft hackles or spiders dont have tails. I am talking about partrige & orange, partridge & yellow, etc. The simple patterns that are just thread, partridge collar, and for some tyers a peacock thorax. But I have never seen any tyer use a coq de leon tail or anything.

Is it because these patterns arent really imitating an emerging bug and are more of an "attractor" style fly? I love swinging these flies but I might start tying in some tails just to see if it matters.

Probably doesn't, just wanted to ask the old timers on here why these patterns never seem to be tied with any type of tail.

 

[Bamboozle]

Because they just aren't traditionally tied with tails nor do they need tails.

The beauty of soft hackles or spiders is they are attractor patterns that can imitate several different insects at different life stages so you catch fish, you can pretend the fish took it for whatever you want...

In regards to the necessity of tails; I have no science to back it up but IMHO tails are the most insignificant part of a fly in regards to triggering strikes.

If you want to add them to your soft hackles, go for it but I doubt it will make any or much of a difference to the fish.

 

[jifigz]

I tie certain soft hackle patterns with tails, and so do some other folks. Soft hackle pheasant tails I will often put a tail on. Tightline Video's sulphur soft hackle has a tail, and man, that pattern has caught me a lot of fish over the years.

I am talking about the pattern that has a wire body of either yellow or orange, a pheasant tail tail, and a partridge feather. Dang good pattern.

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Videos? What the heck are videos? Don’t believe everything you see on videos. They’re just fairy tails.

Here’s some wet flys that were sold long before videos, before computers, before TV’s.

Seriously, flies change over time. What’s popular one day, isn’t as popular the next day. But they will all catch fish. If you want to put a tail on a popular wet fly that doesn’t have a tail on it, by all means put one on it. It’ll probably catch as many fish as a fly that doesn’t have a tail.

 

[jifigz]

Videos? What the heck are videos? Don’t believe everything you see on videos. They’re just fairy tails.

Here’s some wet flys that were sold long before videos, before computers, before TV’s.

View attachment 1641241228

Seriously, flies change over time. What’s popular one day, isn’t as popular the next day. But they will all catch fish. If you want to put a tail on a popular wet fly that doesn’t have a tail on it, by all means put one on it. It’ll probably catch as many fish as a fly that doesn’t have a tail.

Whoa, whoa! Hold yer' horses, John. "wet flies" and "soft hackles" are definitely not the same type of flies. Are they similar and related, yes, but they are different.

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Whoa, whoa! Hold yer' horses, John. "wet flies" and "soft hackles" are definitely not the same type of flies. Are they similar and related, yes, but they are different.

Ah, c’mon, Josh. That’s a pretty fine line. You’d think you’re an English teacher distinguishing between the two. 😃

You want to really understand what wet flies are, consider reading this book.

 

[Bamboozle]

Ah, c’mon, Josh. That’s a pretty fine line. You’d think you’re an English teacher distinguishing between the two. 😃

You want to really understand what wet flies are, consider reading this book.

View attachment 1641241231

Page 11...

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Most videos I see of soft hackles or spiders dont have tails. I am talking about partrige & orange, partridge & yellow, etc. The simple patterns that are just thread, partridge collar, and for some tyers a peacock thorax. But I have never seen any tyer use a coq de leon tail or anything.

An invasive maybe?

 

[Tups]

Yes, a British Invasion.
OP: Soft hackle flies developed in the borderlands between north England and the Scottish lowlands. Before they were known as soft hackles, they were generally called North Country flies, and before that Spiders. A few patterns have tails, but most do not. The Brits who first tied them wanted a fly which fished just below the surfaced. G.E.M. Skues, a prominent south country fly fisher and writer, surmised that a tail-less fly resulted in a quick entry into the water, making a subsurface posture more likely.

 

[nfrechet]

a little tail never hurt anybody 😁😁

 

[Tups]

Page 11...

To Hell with Fishing. P. 11

 

[Bamboozle]

Still funny after 80 years after it was published...

 

[mt_flyfisher]

When does a spider become a wet fly and when does a wet fly become a soft hackle? During the time that an Orange Partridge became a Partridge and Orange?

Read the entire article (not only the part included in this picture): https://www.flyanglersonline.com/oldsite/features/oldflies/part374.php