Hairy Hackles – Opossum

Feather hackles and flytying goes hand in hand like bread and butter… You find hackles in most type of flies and especially in trout and salmon flies are they hard to get by, but there are alternatives out there.. This post is not by any mean an attempt to replace the amazing feather hackle, just an attempt to inspire…

At the beginning, a few hairy hackle flies was just placed in the corner of my flybox, and was only given a chance to shine once in a while when everything else wasn’t producing… It was the same case a warm august day at the Swedish river ørekil… The river was running very low, around 3cubik/sek, and nearly no fresh fish had migrated up river for weeks… Even these conditions can nearly hopeless I actually kind of enjoy to fish during those condition since it often pays of to approach the fishry very differently than the usual step-cast-swing approach… After trying most flies in the box I pulled out a small red hairy bugger and tie it on.. Just a few meters in front of me was a small but really slow pocket right beside the only really fast water left on the river… I placed the fly in the hard current and let it swing into the slow pocket… The swing reached its end and the fly stopped, It hanged there for a few seconds and suddenly, in slow motion, a 80cm salmon raised against against the fly… As every thing happened in slow motion, it slowly opened its moth, sipped the hairy bugger in, turned and sunk very peacefully and slowly down into the pocket, I set the hook, the line came tight and all slow motion was suddenly gone!… This was with out any doubt the coolest salmon take I have ever had still to this day and to make a long story short, the salmon really made my 7wt singlehanded rod bend out in the heavy current before it went straight into a sunken tree and ended the experience… Ever since the hairy bugger and other hairy hackle flies have earned its place in my box and have made the day several times…

A beautiful late seson seatrout taken on a Em clearet hairy bugger on the very upper river on the River Skjern…

Hairy hackles is a great alternative to feather hackles… The hairy hackles gives you a line of opportunities for customize your “hackle”, like controlling the volume of the hackle, the length, it even gives you the opportunity to mix colors or taper it… The hairy hackle is just as versatile as the traditional feather hackle and can be used just as well as hackle on your zonker tubes as on woolly buggers or hair wing flies… The possibilities are endless…

There is a bunch of different hairs out there, witch work great as a collar or as a hackle, either tied down or spun in a dubbing loop… For the hairy hackles my favorite hair is the American opossum… It have just the right stiffness witch prevent it from collapsing, its have a very nice shine almost like a rooster hackle and its easy to adjust the volume of your hairy hackle, by removing the spike hairs or the fine wool just as you like… On top of that it comes a great amount of colors that will suit most conditions…

Scissor, dubbing twister, dubbing needle and brush and your favorite color of American opossum is all you need for a hairy hackle…

Making a hairy hackle is fairly easy once you know the basics… First you make a dubbing loop… For this you need a thin but strong tread like the FF GSP… Then you cut of the amount of hair you need and place the hairs carefully in the loop… Now, you spread out the hairs on the loop. it very important to really even them out to prevent the hairs to clump when spinning… Next step is to adjust the length of the hairs by pushing at the bottom of the hairs and then cut of as close to the tread loop as you dare… Last step is to spin the loop by holding the loop just between two fingers just above your dubbing twister and spin the twister… after letting it spin for a few seconds loosen your fingers and allow the loop to spin as well and lock the hairs… spin it tight and give it a brush with your dubbing brush… Ready to wrap!

Make shure to even out the hairs to prevent them to clump together in the loop…

The Hairy bugger – the well known and almost legendary  Wolly bugger design have properly landed me more salmonides than any other fly design… especially on smaller rivers or during low water periods I really love to fish these flies on my singlehanded… this fly design I always tie on hooks witch allows me to work the fly a lot more due to the “loop to hook-eye” connection… The hairy bugger is very similar to the original Wolly bugger but with the mix of the hairy hackle and the easy dub brushed together it have a even more tempting shine and light reflection… Great fly for both trout and salmon and even Carp…

 

The Hairy Bugger

Hook: FF C3 or Guideline single tube hook

Tail: FF marabou

Body: FF easy dub

Hackle: F American opossum

Head: FF 5mm brass bead

Thread: FF GSP

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Marc Skovby

Marc is based in western jutland close the banks of the river Skjern where he work with conservation of the Danish salmon on a daily basis and as a certified guide... Due to his work, the Danish salmon is a big part of his life but despite that, Marc flyfish and tie flies for just about everything!...Whatever itbeing small browns on dries, huge catfish or seabass from bellyboat or lightning fast Bluefin tuna and have landed nearly 50 species on fly...
In his home waters, salmon, pike and seabass are among the favorites and these are the species that responseble for most of the days countedon the water during the year...
Marc like to combine techniques, styles and experincefrom different species and fisheries into his flies which often shows out in some untraditional but effective patterns...
Marc is also a part of the Guideline ambassadur team
For Marc, being a flyfisher and flytyer is not just a titel... it´s an identity...

Latest posts by Marc Skovby (see all)

• “The Tail dancer” – A Predator fly Step-By-Step - 12.11.2018
• Bluewater gold - 23.10.2018
• Hairy Hackles – Opossum - 01.07.2018