March Brown Soft Hackle (Tutorial/SBS)

[zen leecher]

two thumbs up, Ray. Excellent tutorial.

[letumgo]

My color choices for tying materials were influenced by Jason Neuswenger's ("Troutnut") wonderful insect photography.

LINK TO TROUTNUT WEBSITE: http://www.troutnut.com/common-name/20/March-Browns

[letumgo]

Random Thoughts About Fishing:
I've been thinking about how to fish this pattern, and look forward to fishing it as both a wet fly (untreated/fished below the surface) and as an emerger (treating the front half with Frog's Fanny floatant and fishing the fly suspended in the surface film). The shaggy body is going to cause this fly to sink very slowly, but very naturally in the current. It is likely to be difficult to fish the fly deeply, without the use of some sort of weight on the line. A pinch of the soft pliable tungsten putty might be useful for deeper runs.

Fishing it as an emerger (back half sunk below the surface film/front half treated with floatant and fished as a dry fly) has me excited. I'm hopeful this pattern will work a treat, on my Tenkara rod.

Random Thoughts About Pattern Design:
It may be worth tying a few of these with dark brown ribbing (more like the naturals) and some with weighted bodies (tie in a piece of lead free wire along each side of the hook shank/adding weight and flattening the body profile. I might not pick out the dubbing on the weighted flies, which should allow the pattern to more readily sink and fish more deeply.

Anyway, this is all part of the fun of tying your own flies. You can come up with ideas, test them on the stream, and fine tune the pattern over time.

[Bazzer69]

Thanks for taking the time to publish this sbs.

[DOUGSDEN]

Ray and Bob!
Wow! Unbelievable SBS (Ray) and incredible looking patterns (Bob)! I just can't get over how good each pattern from each of you looks! Super tying and interpretations guys! Our Forum is indeed a special place!
Drooling in the Den,
Doug

[dj1212]

That's a fine looking fly Ray. Thanks for posting. Interesting you included some olive in the dubbing. I've been searching March Brown patterns for the upcoming swap and have only come across one other that used some olive in the body. Would not have thought of that myself. Good job.

Doug

[redietz]

Random Thoughts About Fishing:
I've been thinking about how to fish this pattern, and look forward to fishing it as both a wet fly (untreated/fished below the surface) and as an emerger (treating the front half with Frog's Fanny floatant and fishing the fly suspended in the surface film). The shaggy body is going to cause this fly to sink very slowly, but very naturally in the current. It is likely to be difficult to fish the fly deeply, without the use of some sort of weight on the line. A pinch of the soft pliable tungsten putty might be useful for deeper runs.

Fishing it as an emerger (back half sunk below the surface film/front half treated with floatant and fished as a dry fly) has me excited. I'm hopeful this pattern will work a treat, on my Tenkara rod.

I'm sure it will work both ways. A couple of years back I had a red letter day on the upper Beaverkill by the covered bridge during March Brown hatch just casting a similar MB flymph up 45 degrees and letting it dead drift down to 45 degrees. And the largest trout I've taken from a freestone in the east took a March Brown flymph half treated with floatant and fished as an emerger.

The hardest part about catch with will probably be just tying it on and getting it in the water.

[letumgo]

Bob - Thank you for the feedback. Your experience bodes well.