The Soft Daddy is an impressionistic, soft-hackled streamer that imitates the rusty crayfish. It’s currently featured in On The Water magazine‘s “Guide Flies” column, written by Tony Lolli. (Thanks, Tony, for letting me play!) The concept of a guide fly is twofold — it’s a pattern that is typically simple to tie, and is also a consistent producer. Like most of my flies, The Soft Daddy starts as an idea; is rendered on the vise; and goes through extensive field testing. Tweaks are made as needed, and the end result goes into the rotation. Like many of my patterns, you can see the wet fly influence in its construction. Smallmouth eat this fly like candy…or is that crawdads…or crawdaddies…?
Here’s a pdf:
currentseams.com 
Looks awesome Steve. Curious, do you ever tie this on a bent shank like a Diiachi 1730 bent shank? I’ve used those for some crawfish patterns I’ve created over the years, and am thinking that would be awesome with this fly… Curious if your experiments have included similar hooks, or only straight hooks.
I have not and do not. But, you can and should experiment away! Note that on my tie, the hook rides point up. Happy exploration. 🙂
Thanks Steve – Experimenting I shall go 🙂 Hook point up for sure. This would make 3 sweet flies of yours that I tie often and enjoy – HIghligher, and that other bass fly I’m blanking on your name for are the others. Great flies man!
The Countermeasure. I think. Thanks so much for your feedback. It’s good to know that you’re wanted. 🙂
I need to publish more of the flies that I make up. A list would be a good place to start….
That’s it – the Countermeasure. I’ve caught a lot of river and stillwater bass (and a few trout and other things) on that fly 🙂
I like that one, too.
[…] refuges turn into trutta crisps or osprey snacks. I did a little hop-and-drop fishing with the Soft Daddy — this new stick is genius for that — but I didn’t like the water so I headed […]
[…] bass to complete the slam. I took them topwater (Gurgler), film (Countermeasure), and deeper (Soft Daddy). Observations: every one of the fish I caught at this second mark — covering about 250 yards […]