Description

This is one of the flies that everyone should carry for catching trout. It works well in small streams, big rivers and in lakes and ponds. It can be fished dead drift at the surface during a hatch or below a strike indicator with split shot to get it down deep in the current. In lakes it can also be fished below an indicator and just let it sit and bob up and down with the waves or stripped back to look like a swimming bug. Make sure you tie some of these and take them with you on your next trip to the water.

Materials

Hook: Tiemco 760 SP, Size 8-16

Thread: Ultra Thread Brown70 Denier

Tail: Whiting Brahma Hen Neck Fibers or Similar Material

Ribbing: Ultra Wire Gold Small

Body: Medium Hare's Mask Dubbing with Gaurd Hairs

Hackle: Whiting Brahma Hen, Dyed Golden Brown or Brown Hungarian Partridge

Step 1

Place the hook in the jaws of the vise.

Step 2

Start the tying thread on the hook just behind the eye of the hook and take several wraps of thread towards the hook bend.

Step 3

Capture the tip of the fine gold wire ribbing with three or four thread wraps.

Step 4

Pull back slowly on the wire to slide the wire under the thread wraps so the tag end is right at the tie in point. This will eliminate having to trip the excess wire. Then continue wrapping the thread towards the bend of the hook until you reach the starting point. This is the point where the bend of the hook starts.

Step 5

Select one of the larger hen neck feathers. Pull all the soft fluffy material off the base of the stem until it is stripped up to the consistent mottled brown color fibers. Then pull a small amount of fibers so they are at a right angle to the stem. You can see that this makes all the tip ends even to make the tail of the fly. You can experiment with different amounts of fibers for the tail. I like to pick an amount of fibers that are about the same diameter as the hook wire when they are all compressed together. This makes it easy to get the right proportion as you tie on different size hooks.

Step 6

Tie the tail in on the top of the hook shank and wrap forward over the fibers towards the hook eye.

Step 7

Continue wrapping forward and stop wrapping over them when you are approximately three quarters of the way up the hook shank. Trim off any excess fibers that are sticking forward as close the hook as possible.

Step 8

Wrap the tying thread to the rear of the hook right in front of the tail and apply the Hare's mask dubbing to your tying thread. Begin wrapping the dubbed body making sure to create a smooth slow tapered body.

Step 9

Continue dubbing the body forward and stop approximately one hook eye length behind the eye.

Step 10

Wrap the gold wire ribbing forward over the body. I like to wrap the wire the opposite direction that the dubbed body was wrapped to help make the body stronger. Wrap the ribbing wire forward to the front of the body and tie it off with the tying thread. Keep slight pressure on the wire and rotate in a circle to break the wire right at the tie off point. This is a good technique for removing fine wire without having to dull your scissor blades.

Step 11

Select a hen neck feather or Hungarian Partridge feather that the fibers or barbs will extend slightly beyond the hook bend when wrapped on the hook. Strip the soft fluffy material from the base of the feather stem. Hold the tip of the feather in your finger tips and lightly pull the hackle fibers towards the base of the stem with your other hand as shown in the picture.

Step 12

Now trim the tip of the feather leaving a small triangle shape above the longer fibers. This triangle is what we will are going to tie to the hook with our thread to hold the feather in place.

Step 13

Tie the hackle feather to the hook directly in front of the dubbed body. The feather should be tied in with the natural curve towards the hook shank.

Step 14

Begin wrapping the hackle feather with the first wrap placed directly in front of the dubbed body and then wrapping forward towards the hook eye. Wrap the feather forward and stop just slightly behind the hook eye. Then take several wraps of thread over the hackle stem to tie off.

Step 16

Trim the excess hackle feather as close to the hook as possible.

Step 17

Take several wraps of thread to cover any hackle fibers and form a small, neat head.

Step 18

Whip finish the head and trip the tying thread as close to the head being careful not leave any thread burrs sticking out.

Step 19

Good Job! You completed the Soft Hackle Hare's Ear.