Soft Hackle Guide Service

Soft Hackle Guide Service I have retired from guiding. I do intend to fish with old friends and teach technique by spells.

05/31/2026

The countdown to 5 days on the West Branch of the Delaware has begun. I stopped tying flies and got my travel tying kit packed up. I probably tied well over 2000, well over, flies over the winter for this trip. Mostly dries, but a good collection of nymphs and caddis larvae as well. I have enough hooks and materials to tie up hundreds more while we’re there if I have to, everything from midges to drakes, wets and dries. My wife does our finances and is aware of how much I’ve spent on materials. I don’t bring the subject up. The amount comes right after “a lot”. I was buying for my bench and my travel kit, double of each thing I needed. It adds up fast.
This is a bucket list trip. I’m closing in on 1@700 fly fishing books in my library. I’ve been reading about this area of fly fishing history since I was a boy. The rivers in the area around Hancock are storied. La Branche, Hewett, Camp, Gill, Gordon, Cross, Whitlock, Bergman, all the greats of American fly fishing, have fish here. This is my shot.
The weather forecasts had been looking good, but may be a challenge. The flows right now are about perfect and there is good dry fly fishing. Each day I have a chore list to complete getting ready. For me, this is a big deal and I am stoked !
Update at 9.

05/31/2026

Two thunderstorms today, one with hail. Wicked cool !!

05/23/2026

I don’t fish ponds, I prefer moving water and didn’t attend the recent meetings about changing some pond fishing designations. However, I do have an opinion about the issue.
It seems to me that it says something when only fly fishermen show up at these meetings. It would seem that if there were a real public interest in changing the pond designations the public would show up and present their side of the argument. The “public” didn’t show for this meeting or the meeting about changing the rules last year.
To counter the argument that public money is involved, so the bait and lure guys should have a shot at these fisheries, I would support a special tag/fee for fly fishing waters. $20 seems like a good number. This approach is used for for other special uses like bear, turkey, habitat, it would work here.
And additionally, who the heck calls a meeting saying they will present “scientific data” then doesn’t have the data to hand out to interested participants? Who does that? It seems to me that Fish and Game, Inland Fisheries, is a disorganized mess. Those folks need to get their “stuff” together.

#18 BWO, thread- olive, tail- wood duck, body- light olive dubbing, wing- light dun CDC.
05/13/2026

#18 BWO, thread- olive, tail- wood duck, body- light olive dubbing, wing- light dun CDC.

#12 Adam’s CDC variant - 14/0 cinnamon thread, tail- wood duck, body- Adam’s gray Spectrablend, wing- cinnamon dun cinn...
05/12/2026

#12 Adam’s CDC variant - 14/0 cinnamon thread, tail- wood duck, body- Adam’s gray Spectrablend, wing- cinnamon dun cinnamon CDC sandwich

#18 Blue Quill Spinner. These take a while - big fingers, poor eye sight.
05/10/2026

#18 Blue Quill Spinner. These take a while - big fingers, poor eye sight.

05/09/2026

Spent 5 days with 10 kids from the High Mowing School. Not the best of conditions, but they were just great.

A light Hendrickson , #14, tied in my style. Golden thread, wood duck tail, abdomen cream dubbing, wing ginger CDC, tho...
05/03/2026

A light Hendrickson , #14, tied in my style. Golden thread, wood duck tail, abdomen cream dubbing, wing ginger CDC, thorax dark hare’s ear dubbing.
I’m thinking that if I were to tie a Dark Hendrickson I’d use a darker brown thread. I’ll have to play with that.

05/02/2026

We've been having light rain, and light rain is expected next week. The flow at Murphy is 500cfs, 1st Dam 200, 2nd Dam 100. The Magalloway Road section below the bridge should be fishable. I don't know if the road is open.

04/28/2026

The flows are Murphy - 500cfs, 1st dam - 300cfs, 2nd Dam - 390cfs, Next week they are forecasting Monday sun, next three days rain with highs in the mid 40's.

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45 Hidden Hill Rd
Pittsburg, NH
03592

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+16035389558

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