Why Swinging Soft Hackles Works
It might be the oldest trick in the trout fly fishers playbook. Yet many people still don’t really know why swinging soft hackles work. It's hardly a natural presentation...
Revisited November 2024
It might be the oldest trick in the trout fly fishers playbook. Swinging soft hackled flies has worked for hundreds of years and though not as popular today, it still tricks fish when nothing else does. Yet, its a counterintuitive method when we’re all conditioned to pursue dead drifting presentations for dry flies and nymphs. Do we really know why trout take soft hackles?
Surely there is a logical reason why swinging soft hackles elicit strikes. Better yet, if we understand WHY this strategy works, we will know WHEN to swing.