Variants and Skaters are very different ball games in the traditional Catskill dry fly pallet. The history of these flies is fascinating. I tied a Grey Fox Variant yesterday evening. I’m still figuring how to tie it correctly.
Although the Variants and Skaters have a similar look, the oversized hackles, they both originated with a different approach in mind. There are so much aspects of these flies written in the various books, it makes them elusive, almost mythical.
There seems to be consensus that the English fly fisher William Baigent was the originator of the Variant-style dry flies.
Ernest Schwiebert in Nymphs Vol. I mentions William Baigent (pgs. 72-73):
"... William Baigent, who was an English physician from Yorksire, and believed that veiling the colors of a particular fly pattern in dry-fly hackles of exaggerated length could suggest the illusion of an insect restlessly hopscothching and fluttering above the surface. Baigent developed a series of eleven long-hackled patterns, shortly before World War I, that were later manufactured and sold through Hardy of Alnwick and distributed to leading tackle shops in North America."
Edward Hewitt is the originator of the Skaters:
"These are spiders which are exceptionally large but tied on No. 16 hooks. The purpose of this is to make a fly which can be made to alight lightly on the water and the move over the surface without stopping to rest on slides and skips without getting soaked or wet at all. The very light hook is necessary for this. The reason for this type of dry fly fishing is that I have often noticed that large trout take small butterflies when they get close to the water, when they will not rise to any form of dry fly.
After many attempts to immitate the actions of the butterfly I developed the Skater which seems to have the same attractions and can be cast and worked, whereas a fly with a large enough feather wing, will not cast well on the light leader which it is necessary to use. It is generally found that if this fly is cast lightly on the water and not allowed to get damp but moved in skips and jumps over the surface that the largest trout will jump for it like porpoises and come many time for the fly if they miss it. I know of no fishing which is so exciting. It is hard to do this casting which requires great skill, and it is also hard to hook these fish but it is great sport. The fly must never be allowed to become wet or damp. If it does, it must be careful dried before casting again. This is the most skillful and the most amusing forum of dry fly fishing and one which I have developed entirely myself. These flies are carried in Brown, Cream, Yellow, and Badger. All are good at different times."
"The Neversink Skater, best know of Hewitt's flies, is patterned after butterflies he saw being taken in broad daylight be large leaping trout. How I happen to think his skater looks as much like a butterflies as a goose looks like God, but he certainly caught big fish with it. Basically it is a spider with no tail, tied on a light wire size 16 Allcock Model Perfect hook with large, light ginger hackle to make a fly 2 inches or greater in diameter. The fishing method, is prescribed by the master, required great casting precision to keep the fly moving on the water, high-and dry-at all times. The Neversink Skater was to be fish oiled, and the moment it got soaked or caught in a fish Hewitt put on a fresh one.
Elsie and I tied most of Hewitt's skaters. We saved our longest, stiffest hackle for him. Besides the favored light ginger variation, the Neversink Skater also came as bivisible (brown and white), badger, ginger, dun, grizzly, grizzly with brown, grizzly with ginger, and furnace.
To tie properly, the extra wide and stiff spade or saddle hackles of the required color are tied in just forward if the hook point, but far enough forward to clear the hook point when they are wound in. The fron hackle has its bright side forward, the back has it bright side to the rear. The center hackle may face wither way. The tying tread is carried forward leaving room to finish off with plenty of room to clear the eye. When hackles are wound and finished off with a whip finish, apply thin spar varnish to head cement to the base of the hackles from fround to rear. Be careful not to allow the varnish to be soaked up into the hackles. This would stiffen the fly and make it almost useless."
Then there's the debate of type of hooks to use for tying Variants.
In Art Flick's 'The Streamside Guide', he calls for a "short shank #12 hook" (page 100 & 107).
Mike Valla writes:
"About Flick's hook model in variants. He also used a regular 94840---in examples I've seen of his flies---from more than one source. So don't fret...use what hook you like for variants."
"I've used both shorter and regular 94840 hooks, but Winnie seemed to use the 94840 for her Grey Fox/Dun variants---and if was good enough for her, then it was what I preferred, too"
"In fact---look at his page 75 figure #5 (in Flick's book 'Master Fly Tying Guide'). He's tying his Grey Fox Variant. That's not a short shank hook he's using. Nothing like what he may have "originally" recommended in his Streamside Guide."
Jim Slattery writes:
"Preston Jennings wrote much about Variants in his "Book of Trout Flies". As for short shank hooks vs. regular hooks he has some interesting observations from page 111 ...short-shanked hooks.... lack of leverage in setting the hook....Very small hooks are often found in commercial flies....and the reason for using them is that GOOD HACKLE IS HARD TO OBTAIN and poor hackle will not support the proper size hook on the water:hence, the small hook... It also appears that Jennings advocates the use of regular size (regular shank) hooks."
A Badger Variant and a Black Spider tied by Elsie Darbee. The black Spider looks like tied on a Sproat hook.
Update Feb 24, 2025:
Here's a rare video of Ed Hewitt (and George LaBranch) fishing the Neversink.
Check out how Hewitt skates the Skater over the water.
