The Soft Hackle Carrot Fly Tying Tutorial

June 21, 2017

Thanks for all of the support from customers and readers that have made it possible for Tactical Fly Fisher to become a full time pursuit. We've still got some glitches with the new platform to work through and a lot of blog posts to move over from the old site, but hopefully all of our past posts will be available soon.

A lot of you have been wanting a tutorial for the Soft Hackle Carrot, which is one of my confidence patterns from Modern Nymphing. Well, ask and ye shall receive as they say.

Back in 2010 before the world championships in Poland, our team got a few photos from a contact of some flies that the Czech team master Martin Droz often used on the River San that would be the river venue for the championship. One of the flies caught my eye that was very similar to the soft hackle carrot. I'm not sure of the timeline but it wasn't long after that Umpqua started carrying the Tungsten Carotene Jig which my teammate Mike Sexton submitted. Maybe Mike was inspired as well or maybe this is a pattern which has a natural gravity that leads tyers to similar designs independently.

As I've looked in other competitor's boxes over the years and read articles from European anglers, this pattern (or close variations) is a regular staple with many world championship anglers. I don't know what it is about the orange rib and the contrast of the dark thorax, but it just oozes confidence in my mind which leads to good angling and results on the water. The addition of the cdc hackle brings some extra mobility and allows the pattern to fish really well on the swing or with a down and across Euro nymphing presentation; as you'll see if you watch that section of Modern Nymphing. Tie a few up and give them a try. Whether you dead drift them or impart some action, I think they will quickly be added to your confidence pattern lineup as well.

Oregon rainbow on a Soft Hackle Carrot