Back at the Bench

      I tied up a couple bead head soft hackle Hare's ear variants last night. This fly work great and there is no secret to fishing them; they work well dead drifted and swung down and across like a traditional wet fly. My favorite way to fish this fly is dead drifting under a traditional nymphing set up. The hackle pulsates in the water and drives fish (especially native brook trout) absolutely bananas. It can be fished just as well as the top fly or the dropper. When fished as a dropper, it can be fished on the rise as this imitates emerging insects. To tie this pattern, use a traditional scud/ emerged hook in sizes #12-20. The larger the fly is, the better it fishes in high water since it sticks out like a sore thumb (which is great in these situations). In high water, the strikes are ferocious so hold on!