The winter issue of Trout Unlimited’s “Trout” magazine inspired me to want to return this spring to my fly fishing roots — swinging a type of wet flies known as “soft hackles.” Soft hackles are simple ...

Fish a soft hackle fly by swinging it down-and-across through runs, dead-drifting it in a tandem nymph rig, stripping it like a streamer, or greasing it up to fish the surface film. The pattern's real ...