The Craven soft hackle emerger has risen from an experimental fly to a fly I select ahead of the trusted RS2 during blue winged olive emergence periods. I first tied a batch of these flies during the winter before the 2013 season, and I experienced quite a bit of success with them. Consequently I produced enough to begin 2014 with 50 in my storage bin. As a testimony to their improved status in my selection ranking, I consumed roughly half of my beginning inventory over the past summer, and as a result I decided to tie 26 new soft hackle emergers to bring my stock back to 50 for 2015.

A Completed Craven Soft Hackle

Despite my increased confidence in the soft hackle emerger, I recall several situations where the circumstances seemed perfect for the soft hackle wet fly, yet I was disappointed with the results. During one outing on the South Platte River in Eleven Mile Canyon in April a dense hatch of blue wings evolved, but the soft hackle did not entice the numerous feeding fish to devour my offering. I fished it using a dead drift, but I also imparted movement with numerous line manipulation techniques.

Soft Hackle Emerger Without Bead

I gave these situations some thought and concluded that perhaps I was fishing the soft hackles too deep. Quite a few mayflies were emerging from the surface of the river, but because of the strong wind, they tumbled and skittered across the surface before the trout could respond. Perhaps the trout were tuned into blue winged olive emergers or wind blown cripples just below the surface. My weighted offering may have been drifting beneath the fish’s field of vision.

Another View

For this reason I tied ten new emergers with a tiny nickel bead, and the remainder were tied with no bead. In addition I completed ten on a Tiemco size 20 2457 hook with no bead. These are very small and hopefully will cover situations when the smaller broods of olives hatch on Colorado rivers. If I need to go deep with the emerger pattern, I can always combine it with another larger beadhead nymph as the top fly.

29 Craven Soft Hackle Emergers