Hackle Stacker

This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Hackle Stacker, a style of fly developed by Bob Quigley in the late 1980’s.

Quigleys PMD Hackle Stacker | www.johnkreft.com

Bob fished the Hackle Stacker in Southern Oregon and Northern California. The fly utilizes a paraloop technique by winding the hackle around a flexible post of some type. The fly above is a size 16 PMD Hackle Stacker utilizing a loop of tying thread for the post.

The fly could imitate emergers, cripples, or duns. I’d like to be a fish for a couple of hours to really understand what they see and why they choose or don’t choose to eat my fly.

The other Bob Quigley fly you may recognize if the Quigley Cripple, a Throw Back Thursday Fly I posted last year.

This week’s post entitled PMDs Hatching Again got me thinking about this fly. I better tie up a few more and fish them later this week!

Perhaps I should tie a few Green Drake Hackle Stackers for my favorite river…

Enjoy…go fish!

Similar Posts

  • Improved Governor

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Improved Governor. This is another steelhead fly found in John Shewey’s Classis Steelhead Flies book. It’s one of my sources of flies for TBT posts. I’ve read recently about the low steelhead returns in the Columbia Basin and it got me thinking about the last time I…

  • Humpy

    The Humpy fly pattern is this week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly. It’s a fast water attractor pattern, which floats well and can be seen a mile away. Some quick Internet research finds the fly was originated by Jack Horner, a Northern Sierra California fly tyer in the 1940’s. The original fly was called the Horner…

  • Old Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Books

    Have you ever wondered about the history of fly fishing? It’s an interesting topic to me, which explains why I’ve been reading old fly fishing and fly tying books lately. Why? First, they are a source for my Throw Back Thursday Flies. Secondly, I wonder how previous generations fished and what some of their streamside conversations…

  • Lord Baltimore

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Lord Baltimore wet fly. This is an old fly pattern listed as No. 64 (page 158) in Mary Orvis Marbury’s Favorite Flies and Their History (1892). Click the link for a free download of the book. The fly can be seen on Plate I, page 183. No….

2 Comments

  1. John,
    Great fly…Bob taught me to tie this fly on the Fall River, Calif. Eric and I fished with him and got the drive around cooks tour of the area along with a history lesson. Bob is missed but not forgotten.

  2. Bob had large hands and fingers. Watching him tie this fly was no less than amazing. We all miss Bob.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *