Folks,

Thanks so much for your help.

Randy

I live in Missoula. The Skwala hatch should begin soon, but I'm having trouble finding soft hackle
Skwala patterns.

Does anyone know where I can find these patterns?

Thanks,

Randy

Folks,
Thanks. I went back to the shop and looked at the feathers. They seemed to be in good shape. Maybe it's the skin of a young bird.
I decided to buy the skin.
Randy

I was in a fly tying shop and they had some small partridge skins with a lot of small feathers. The skins were selling for $20.00. The guy in the store said, however, the skins were grade B. I'm not sure what exactly grade B means. Should I buy a skin, or should I just spend more money for a better ...

Old Hat,

I'm not sure what you mean by bending the hackle back to 90 degrees to the hook shank.

Randy

Folks,
Thanks so much. I've never fished during the winter so it should be interesting.
Randy

Folks,

I recently moved to Montana, so I want to begin fishing soon. I'm wondering if any of you fish soft hackles during the winter. If so, do you use small flies? Large flies?

Do you fish close to the river bottom? What winter techniques do you use?

Thanks,

Randy

Great article. I'm not sure about one thing: I have an Ott fly tying light. If I buy two clamp lights what kind of bulbs should I use? Daylight balance? Will they match the Ott bulb?

Thanks,

Randy

Thanks so much. Unfortunately, the streams here in NY that I fish are now closed. I did start swinging emergers a few days late the fly fishing season and didn't have much success - I was using emergers of my own design with CDC wings, so maybe the patterns were at fault - but then again, I was fish...

By emergers I mean traditional, non-soft-hackle, emergers, e.g. CDC emergers.

By swinging I mean casting upstream or three-quarters downstream, as Old Hat described.

Randy