Composite Soft Hackle, Size 14 - OPST
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Tying soft hackles can be tough. The feathers are short, it can be hard to find the right sized feather, and the stems can break. Cutting off the tips of feathers, adding dubbing and sculpin wool, and spinning them all together in a dubbing loop solves all of these problems and creates a unique look, even on flies size 14 and smaller. In this video Ben Paull from OPST ties a composite caddis, one of the flies that has us really excited about trout season this year. The materials are:
Hook: Size 14 nymph
Thread: Veevus, Olive 6/0
Rib: 10/0 mono thread
Abdomen: Shrimp Pink Ice Dub
Composite Hackle: Tan sculpin wool, natural Lady Amherst and UV Light Gray Ice Dub
This is rad. I've been using composite loops for larger spey patterns, but can't wait to whip up some soft hackles. Thanks, Ben.
👍👏👏👏🎣🐟🛶🤝 Merry Christmas, Ben, and a Happy New Year!
Nice use of this OPST original technique.....well done.Thanks Ben
Very nice and simple tie which should catch a few Kiwi trout, Thanks from down under.
John shand thank you, John
Fantastic as always Ben! You have an innate ability to find that one material that I don't have, lol!
Thank you! And sorry about that!
Neat technique. Thank you for demonstrating the composite loop technique. I plan to give this a try.
Really nice tie... ill give it a go... Love softhackles but some materials is hard to tie...
Thanks! I enjoy split thread loops and this inspired new ideas! Great video!
Cool. The fly looks awesome. It must catch fish indeed! Thnx.
Cracking wee pattern m8 from Scotland 🖒🖒🖒
Great tie Ben love the way that these composite loops can be made in so many different sizes. If you have a chance I would love to see you tie a shrimp using a composite. Keep up the great vids enjoying immensely.
Thank you! Thinking about working on a ghost/sand shrimp for Puget Sound- stay tuned.
Great fly! Where has Jerry French been? Love watching him work too. All the best, Sean
Thanks Sean. Jerry has moved on to work with Aqua Flies, Pieroway Rods and Einarsson Reels. Jerry has had a huge influence on the fly tying world and on my own tying and I really enjoy adapting his techniques to different fly styles.
March Brown fly
Great job Ben. Should have lots of mouvement. What is the rule of thumbs for the length of the loop?
Mad skills! Been trying my hand at it. Work in progress but getting there. Any other color combinations you like or would recommend? Thanks!
I would say olive and black, and grey would be good places to start :)
And thanks!
Hello Ben. Great tie. I fish soft hackles frequently for steelhead in the Great Lakes. I was wondering what hook you use to tie this.
I can't remember exactly but I think it was just a standard size 14 nymph hook, really any hook will do.
Hi Ben, really nice pattern! It sort of looks like a flymph "gone wild"! How much smaller is that soft hackle compared to a micro intruder? I've used long feather fibers as a collar by reverse tying and distributing 360° with thread torque behind the hook eye, tied the remainder of the fly tail to thorax, then pull back the collar fibers, tie them back against the thorax then tie off. Also hair hackle collars in a loop. But by using a composite loop you put thorax, long hackle and flash all at once. 👍 Cool! I like it a lot! Thanks, I learned more about composite loops and how to use them! (the horns a were nice classic touch)
Thanks Joe. It is a lot smaller, with the micro intruder being about 1.5 inches long and this just being a rather full size 14.
can i just use lazer dub or something instead of sculpin wool, want to try some of your flies tonight?
sweet I already made two supplies trips today, stoked to try some mini intruders and set up a commando single hand rig, Im sold. Cheers from BC
Why don't I see anyone tying large soft hackles like this on say size 8 or 10 hooks? Couldn't you swing them on a floating line just like you would this smaller soft hackle?
That's a good idea. I guess this method of tying is somewhat new, so not all of the possibilities have been explored yet. Thanks for your interest.
Thanks for your videos they've been super helpful for me in learning this versatile technique.