The No Hackle

The No Hackle

In 1972, Joe Brooks, fishing editor for Outdoor Life magazine, wrote his book, Trout Fishing. There is a good chapter about insect hatches and flies to match them. I was excited to read about some of the hatches on the Henry’s Fork. I was intrigued by his description of a unique series of fly patterns developed by Doug Swisher and Carl Richards, featured in their great book, Selective Trout. Patterns were created to imitate all phases of the life cycle of the mayfly. Most of the patterns were relatively easy to tie except one, the Nohackle. To this day I strongly believe the Nohackle is the best all around fly pattern to imitate mayfly emergers and duns.

Nohackles started to get a bad rap right from the start because of the perception of lack of durability, floatability, and visibility. On top of that, they were really hard to tie. I went through a lot of duck wings until I tied a few that looked trout worthy. Even though my early attempts were awful, they worked wonders. I was able to start hooking selective trout. They are designed to catch the most selective trout on flat water like the Henry’s Fork and other spring creeks. For example, I would never try to fish a Nohackle on the fast, riffled runs of the Madison River without using some kind of indicator. However, the fly is a killer when trout are rising in the soft margins of the river.

The most common complaint I’ve had over the years is poor durability. They look so perfect and enticing in the fly bin but not so good once the wing fibers separate. Some anglers look at them as a “one fish” fly and discard them when the wing fibers split. Today a Nohackle retails for over three dollars. That’s a very bad return on investment if it can only be used once. My perspective is that durability should refer to strength rather than the wing fibers holding together. I don’t know of another natural material more commonly used for wings that is stronger than duck quill. Hair is easy to break, CDC is very delicate, and feathers lack the toughness of duck quill.

I was privileged to have been a participant in the Jackson Hole One Fly event. Our teams won the championship 4 times as well as a couple of 2nd and 3rd place finishes. This is not to blow my own horn. It is to make a point of the durability of the Nohackle. The event consists of 40 teams with 4 members of each team. Each day three team members of each team fish the Snake on the Wyoming side while the other team member fishes the South Fork in Idaho. Scoring relates to the number of trout landed along with the size of each fish. On average, to win, team members need to land at least 10 or 12 fish with 6 of them 15” or above. If you lose your fly or it comes apart, your scoring is over. If you keep your fly, at the end of the day you receive bonus points.

We used a pattern designed by Jimmy Gabettas we named the Jimmy-Z on the Wyoming side and the Nohackle on the South Fork. Jimmy Gabettas and I tied all of the flies for our team. He tied a our Jimmy-Z and I tied our Nohackles.The Jimmy-Z was a killer pattern on the Snake because it could be fished dry or wet. The Nohackle racked up some very high scores on the South Fork. It worked well when fished blind with a small yarn indicator. In the fast water it was mostly impossible to see but you usually had a pretty good idea where it was if you saw a fish move. When a hatch came on it was lights out. Nobody in their right mind would start the day with a Nohackle in the One Fly unless they were very confident it would hold up for the entire day.

Floatability is a major requirement for a dry fly. A good dry fly can float on the surface, in the surface, or just below the surface. There aren’t many flies that work well in all of these situations. The Nohackle can look like a mayfly dun on the surface, a cripple in the surface film and an emerger just under the surface. Without doubt, the Nohackle will not float high on the surface, like a hackled dry fly, especially in rough water. After a fish or two, when they get slimed up you’ll likely need to use dry fly powder or another method to dry the fly. You may need to apply additional floatant but do not do it unless you dry the fly first. Some anglers change the fly after the wing fibers split up. Actually, the fly floats better and the profile of the wing looks more realistic, from a trout’s point of view, when the duck quill fibers split up. They don’t look all that different from hair or CDC winged flies.

One of the greatest challenges of fishing with Nohackles is visibility. They are virtually impossible to see on rough water and difficult to see on flat water, especially if they are drifting in the film. Like many old timers, my vision has dulled. I almost always use an indicator. I like a small clip of yarn attached to the tippet or, more often than not, another dry fly with good visibility, like a Parachute Adams. Keep the Nohackle about 12 – 18” below the indicator.

Most of us have a few favorites or “go to” flies. Mine is a Nohackle when mayflies are on the water. I don’t need a dry fly, cripple or emerger to match the hatch. I have it all in a single fly, the Nohackle.

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