Some more production tying last night at currentseams HQ. Partridge and Light Cahill soft-hackles. So simple. And so effective during an emergence of the creamy mayflies we get on late spring evenings on the Farmington. A size 12 or 14 will do nicely. Hold on, now. Trout get reckless during this hatch.
When I started tying wet flies, I made two full rows of Partridge and (insert Pearsall’s Gossamer Silk color here) in my box. Later, on a whim, I bought some Uni Light Cahill thread and tied up a few of these soft-hackles. They sat unused for at least one season. I don’t remember the exact circumstance, but I do know that the first time I fished this fly, I cleaned up. I still have one of those original Partridge and Light Cahills; I fished it last spring, caught a trout on it, then retired it. It barely had any hackle left, but it still worked.
Such is the power of the impressionistic soft-hackle.
Filling corks with Partridge and Light Cahill soft-hackles. These are tied on a 1x strong, 1x long size 14 hook.
currentseams.com 
Steve,
Are those gray hackles wing covert feathers?
Thanks!
Alton, I took these feathers from the side of the neck area (as opposed to the wing).
Thanks Steve. They look great by the way.
Nice looking flies, Steve. After taking your class on the water I have become a believer.
Thanks, Steve. I appreciate it.
Just about to sit down and tie some sulphur wets in a smaller size with partridge and a sulfur orange thorax. Don’t have silk so I’ll stick with a cahill dubbing or else working thead thread. Finally realized that what I was using for the ginger soft hackles was red fox squirrel. This explains why mine were never as buggy as yours. Materials are coming. Thanks Steve
John, if you’re talking about the Squirrel and Ginger, I am using red fox squirrel for that fly. But I don’t see why grey squirrel wouldn’t work. Squirrel in general is a versatile fur.
Every time I try to pick the underfur from the pelt, I can’t seem to separate out the necessary spiky hairs as on your post. Else there doesn’t seem to be enough spiky hairs. WIll let you know when the fox squirrel patch arrives in a day or two.
Nice flies. What wine is the cork with the four stars from?
That’s a Turley cork.
[…] a classic Catskills dry or a creamy Usual; subsurface, a legacy Light Cahill winged wet or a Partridge and Light Cahill soft hackle. All will serve you […]