September 21, 2021 Brent Auger

October Spider Caddis Soft Hackle Pattern

So we've already touched on the importance of the October Caddis in the fall. Let's discuss now the importance of having your box full of soft hackles to fish this hatch with. Soft hackles are timeless patterns that every angler and tier should know how to fish and tie. They give us a sense of history and the roots of fly fishing, but with the plethora of quality materials now we can let our imaginations take hold. Let the hook be your canvass in creating these pieces of art that pay respect to those who came before us. This is what we have done with the October Spider Soft Hackle taking it back to the traditional spider patterns. This pattern will be extremely effective to fish alone on a swing, or even a dead drift up stream. We have found them to be effective as a dropper with both a dry fly trailing behind the adult insect, and as a trailer fishing in a higher zone off of a weighted nymph. We prefer trailing it behind a weighted soft hackle nymph. These two methods allow you to target two different feeding zones, but also life cycles of the bugs.