Paul's October 2022 Fly of the Month

                                       Soft Shoe Wetflies

Iso Soft Shoe Wetfly

Hook:  Wet Fly Hook of Choice Size #12 & #14. 

Thread:  Brown or Wood Duck

Tail:  3-4 Pheasant Tail Fibers and 1 strand of Krystal Flash.

Rib:  Gold or Copper Wire.

Wing:  Dun Snow Shoe Rabbit Foot Fibers.

Body:  Brown, or Dark Brown, or Iso Dubbing. I use a mix of Rabbit, Squirrel, Brown Peacock & Brown Ice Dubbing.

Soft Hackle/Collar:  Pheasant Rump Feather. Partridge can also be used.

 

Sulphur Soft Shoe Wetfly

 

Hook:  Wet Fly Hook of Choice Size #14 & #16. 

Thread:  Fluorescent Orange Thread.

Tail:  3-4 Pheasant Tail Fibers.

Rib:  Gold or Orange Wire.

Wing:  Natural Snow Shoe Rabbit Foot Fibers.

Body:  Sulphur Yellow/Orange Dry Fly Dubbing.

Soft Hackle/Collar:  Partridge or Dun Hen Feather.

 

The Soft Shoe Wetfly was created by Jerry Shillcock of Paradise Fly Tying. What’s great about this pattern is that it can readily be modified to represent almost any hatch that’s out there.  Here is the ‘Iso’ version of the Soft Shoe. I don’t know why it works but it does.  The biology of the isonychia insect is that it crawls out of the river before hatching. So why the wet fly? Trout may see this fly as a dying dun or spinner. Or maybe it’s just a tasty meal they can’t resist.  I’ve also supplied the recipe that I use for a ‘Sulphur’ Soft Shoe Wet fly. I initially thought that the rabbit fibers would prevent any of these variations from sinking.  That’s not really a problem especially when fishing it in tandem with another wetfly.  When fishing the sulphur version, I will sometimes grease it and fishing in the surface film.

 

To tie this fly, begin by placing your hook in the vice and starting your thread.  Cut the tag end off and wrap down to the bend in the hook. Next, tie in 3-4 Pheasant Tail Fibers for the tail. The tail should be a little more than a hook gap in length.  For the ‘Iso’ version also tie in 1 strand of Krystal Flash the same length as the tail.  Now tie in your wire rib on the ‘far side’ of the hook shank. Create a slim dubbing noodle and with touching wraps create a slightly tapered body. Make sure you leave enough room behind the eye to tie in your wing and soft hackle collar. Next, wrap the Wire Rib forward to create a segmented body. Tie and cut off the tag end.  You are now going to tie in a clump of Snow Shoe Rabbit Foot Fibers.  Make sure the clump you cut from the foot is long enough for the wing. It should extend to the end of the body. The preparation of the wing is probably the most difficult part of this fly.  After cutting the clump discard any straggly long hairs and after measuring it against the body, trim the butt end for your tie in point. Hold it firmly in your fingers and tie it down on top of the hook shank. Bind it down and create a smooth base to tie in and wrap your hackle. Prepare your hackle feather by stroking the fibers back towards the rear butt. Tie it in behind the eye by the forward tip. Once it’s tied in, make 2-3 wraps around the hook shank.  Stroke the fibers back towards the rear of the fly as you’re doing this.  Once your collar is created tie the feather off and cut off the butt end. Whip finish and cover your wraps with ‘head cement’.

2GuysFlyFishing has a great instructional video on how to tie this fly below:

 If you have any questions about this fly or would like to submit a Fly of The Month, I can be reached at pdinice@frontier.com .