Bivisible

The Bivisible's first appearance seems to be in the 1920's. The first time in writing about the Bivisible was by Edward Hewitt in his book 'Telling on the Trout' (1926) where he tells why he came up with the pattern:

"Dark colors are more visible to the trout from below than light colors, and, therefore, take more fish under most conditions and are more generally used. They are often, however, more difficult to see on the water than the lighter flies. This is the reason for my favorite design of fly which I call the Bivisible which consists of a palmer-tied brown hackle on the head of which is wound a small wisp of white hackle. The white resting against the brown becomes very visible in most lights to the angler; on the other hand, the trout see the brown hackle from below better than any other color used. This fly is by far the best of any I have yet seen for all species of trout and it is based on a sound physical principle."

What the Bi-Visible imitates, the opinions varies. Art Flick writes about the Bivisibles in his book 'New Streamside Guide' (1969) that it's an imitation of beetles but he isn't sure. In Ray Bergman's book 'Trout' (1938) there's a fly plate and a recipe to tie the Bivisible but no mention about the origins or what it imitates. Here is Hewitt's description of his Bivisible from his 1937 catalogue.

The Bivisible's roots clearly comes from an old pattern called the Palmer. First documented in the 1600s, also in Izaak Walton's 'The Compleat Angler'. The palmer or palmer-worm was already a well-established fly at that time, so it originated much earlier, probably in the 1500s. The tying technique of wrapping a hackle from the hook bend forward to the hook eye, Palmering, is used in a wide variety of wet and dry flies (Woolly Bugger, Elk hair caddis and Stimulator for instance). I found an article about the origins of the Palmer flies in a 1976 issue of Fly Fisherman.

Bivisible tied by Winnie Dette

Back in the early 80's all I fished with were Palmers, basically a single shade (brown) version of the bi-visible to catch rudds in the ponds & channels. The Palmer was recommended by the late Dutch (fly) fishing author Kees Ketting. His books & articles were all we had back in the pre-internet days.

My bibles back in the early '80s...

The Catskill - how to tie it?

The Catskill. There seems to be some confusion how to tie it...
Maybe it's because it's Sunday morning 😁

Two recipes for the Catskill in Cross' book?

In the 'early years' fly patterns were never the same. Mary Orvis, daughter of founder Charles Orvis, acknowledged this (as being a mail order company) and wrote the book 'Favourite flies and their history' (1892) to standardise the patterns (both writing and drawn pictures of the flies) so customers know what they are getting when they order flies.

Whether fly tiers like Cross and later the Dette's etc. stuck to the recipe of a pattern or altered slightly due to (temporary) shortage of materials is possible but unfortunately we will never know.

Kelly Galloup on hackle

I don't know how and why but Kelly Galloup, more known for tying and fishing streamers, is now one of the largest sellers of (Whiting) hackle. The past 15 years or so the offering, in colors and shades, of Whiting has gone through the roof. And the sales are huge too. Oddly we don't see as much flies (both in the bins of fly shops as well as on social media) using hackle as much as one might expect with so many capes and saddles flying out the stores. 

If hackles get used, it seems to mostly end up on parachute dry flies. And the funny thing is, parachute hackle doesn't need this insane quality hackle we got today. In fact all it needs is two to three wraps to get the fly to float and give an impression of legs of the insect (they don't have zillion of them like barbules on hackles 😂).

Kelly recently started a very nice series of videos on explaining the various aspects of hackle. I think it's the best I've seen so far.

Here is part 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and  7.

Beaverkill on Sinterklaas day

The Beaverkill is one of the most recognizable classic Catskill dry flies. Yet it started as an English wet fly before transforming into a dry fly.

Mike Valla writes about the Beaverkill:

"... was cast upon Catskill waters long before the Dettes were even born. We know from his brochure fly pattern listing that William Warren Cone, in the 1880's, featured a pattern bearing that name. But historical texts also remind us that the Beaverkill was first tied around 1850. 

A Greene County, NY (a Catskill county) judge named Fitz James Fitch gave a similar British pattern to Harry Pritchard who first tied the fly. It was Fitch who named the fly after his beloved Beaverkill River. Harry Pritchard and his brother Thomas operated a sportings goods store at 50 Fulton St., in New York City. Harry was known as one of the greatest fly casters back in his time. Harold Hinsdill Smedley's classic book Fly Patterns and Their Origins (1944) tells us that "the fly as originally tied was similar to the present male or Mr. Beaverkill. Mr. Pritchard's pattern called for dressing with light body and gilt strip ribbing, brown hackle and mallard wings."

-The Beaverkill, in both wet and dry fly form, was also show cased in ca. 1920's Wm. Mills & Son catalogs. It is also interesting to note that as was common with many early Catskill trout flies---given their British influences---the pattern was tied with gray mallard fiber tails (not hackle barbs); wings were sometimes tied with blue heron, pidgeon or the more common mallard duck quill slips that we use today. In his Streamcraft (1917), George Parker Holden featured the Beaverkill by dressing: 

Wings: blue heron or slate colored wings of duck or pidgeon

Body: white silk

Hackle: brown

Tails: gray Mallard

And, of course, Rube Cross listed the pattern as we now love it; White body, gray wing, brown palmer hackle, brown hackle tail.

And, doubly of course, Mary Orvis Marbury (Favorite Flies and Their Histories) gives greatly expanded details concerning the pattern's history and Pritchard's story. (Plate #105 illustration). It's highly probable that Smedley obtained his information from Marbury's reference book. However---the illustration looks nothing like what we would call a "Beaverkill,"--check out the wings. And, that featured was a wet fly pattern."

From "Complete book of fresh water fishing" by P. Allen Parsons

TMG improved

Tied the TMG (Teal, Macaw & Ginger, a Catskill style dry fly I came up earlier this year for the first time. This one is reinforced with fine gold wire at the body for more durability. Have a nice Sunday!

On request by Jack Dennis here's a little more info on this pattern:

The Macaw quill body on this fly is derived from the Whitcraft, a spin off of the Adams created back in the 1940s by Don Martinez and Bob Carmichael. Read more about the Whitcraft in Mike Valla's wonderful book 'The Founding Flies'.

The macaw quill when wrapped gives a very intruiging pattern of blue and green (sometimes golden) shades. The quill from a Macaw wing feather is often used by salmon fly dressers. I named this fly with help of Clement Booth and Hendrik Wiegand the Teal Macaw & Ginger (TMG).

Wings: Teal flank feathers bunched & split

Body: Macaw quill & ribbed with fine gold wire

Tail: ginger hackle fibers

Hackle collar: Metz ginger hackle

Hook: vintage Mustad 94840 size 12

Al Troth's Elk hair Caddis

Al Troth’s Elk Hair Caddis from the book ‘The Art of the Trout Fly’ (Judith Dunham & Egmont van Dyck, 1988). This book showed me that fly tying can produce beautiful flies.

Personalised cape socks

The hackle companies are strangely reluctant to provide some spare zip lock bags...

André Frijlink of Frame Your Fly was kind enough to send me some zip lock bags that comes pretty close to the ones when you buy a cape or saddle. He also added some personalisation! 
Thanks André!

Vintage Metz capes

Sunday during the DAAFT meeting my friend Theo Bakelaar had some old Metz capes and saddles (‘commercial’ grade I think?) he wanted to get rid off. I picked up a dark barred ginger, cree and a barred dun.

They were very greasy so I gave them a warm dish washing soap bath. The barred ginger and especially the cree were very greasy. The fibers were matted when you bent the feather. The dun has the nicest hackles of the three. Nice dry and straight barbules.

These capes are quite different than what I’ve seen before. The smaller size feathers are very long and stems are flexible. But if you go up the cape and look at feathers for size 12 and 10 and larger the stems are very thick and stiff. Totally unusable for wrapping.

Gave the Cree and barred ginger a second wash. Also cut off the upper part of the cape which isn’t of any use. I could have kept that part for using on streamers etc. Especially the Cree looks much better. Almost no matting. The upper part will get used by another friend who will use them for tying bonefish flies so no part will get wasted.

Today after dinner I gave the old capes a swing on the vise. These old hackles are pretty darn nice! Thanks Theo!

Drying after the warm soap bath

It's okay but still some matting of the barbules

Barbules matting on the cree too

The barred dun already looks great: nice dry barbules

The dark barred ginger and cree got a second bath. I also got rid of the upper part of the cape

Less matting

The cree looks much better now

Cahill Quill (dark barred ginger hackle)

Fifty Degrees (barred dun hackle)

Grey Fox (dark barred ginger & cree mixed)

Wet weekend tying

It's a very wet weekend...

Getting started with Trout Spey

Trout Spey (or micro spey) is a type of fishery that has become more and more popular the past 5 years. It's basically a down sized double handed rod that steelhead fishermen use but for trout. Generally 10 to 12ft long, these down sized double handed rods are getting more and more momentum. One does need to figure out how this whole spey game works.

Trout spey rods are classified as #2 to #4 weight line rods. For fishing with spiders and small streamers the really ultra light trout (#2 and #3 weight) spey rods come in play, while the larger streamer fishing rigs are a bit heavier (#4 weight). Back in 2017 I asked Robert Sherill, a bamboo rod maker from Texas, to build me an ultra light (#2) Trout spey rod (graphite). It's still unfished (or even cast!). This ultra light Trout spey fishing using spiders (and the occasional small streamer) is what I want to try soon.

Now to continue the confusion, the line weights on spey rods are *not* the same as we know with regular single handed fly rods. The rule of thumb with spey line weight is to add three line weights to get the equivalent line weight of the regular fly line. So a #2 Trout spey line is equivalent of a 2 + 3 = 5 weight regular fly line. And a #4 Trout spey line weighs the same as a regular 7 weight fly line.

These ultra light double handed rods have become popular for fall fishing for browns using (big) streamers on large rivers like the Missouri river in Montana. These streamers are fished deep down using heavy sink tips on the so called Skagit heads. This isn't the streamer fishing as we know (casting and stripping the line in to impart movement to the streamer) but swinging the streamer by the current at a downstream angle. With spey rods it's not fished upstream. If this fishing streamers deep down during the fall months isn't exactly your type of fishing, the alternative is swinging soft hackles just below the surface, also downstream at an angle.

Joe Rotter from Red's Fly Shop is a guy who explains many aspects of fly fishing extremely well. Here's a good first entry video about how a Trout spey rig looks like and what comes with it.

A nice article about starting with trout spey at Fly Fisherman website.

Quack

A ‘Sunrise’ Quack I tied the other evening. I couldn’t figure out where I left the red floss 🤔

Leonard Quackenbush, a member of the Beaverkill Trout Club liked the Royal Coachman but the fragile fan wing wasn't to his liking. Rube Cross tied this hair wing version in 1930 on request of Quackenbush. Later a more robust version of this fly became known as the Royal Wulff.

Streamer fishing masterclass

I have no idea why Kelly isn't asking money for this (long!) video, it's a true streamer fishing masterclass for free!

Kelly Galloup is the owner of the lodge and fly shop Slide-Inn on the banks of the Madison river in Montana. He moved from Michigan after a life as a guide and dry fly expert. But the past 20+ years the world knows Kelly as the streamer expert.

Here's a post about how to tie Kelly's signature fly, the Zoo Cougar.

Here is another long video Kelly talks about fishing streamers.

Kelly has many videos out, this is one I also liked.

Fish sinking lines in rivers, but don't false cast and start stripping right away once the line lands on the water.

Me on a podcast

Here's something that's new to me, a podcast talking about some weird hobby called fly fishing.

Pete Tyjas runs a glossy quarterly magazine called Fly Culture. Besides running a magazine Pete also hosts a podcast with many interesting people from the fly fishing community.

Making of the Dette fly frame (I)

Some years ago I acquired 11 traditional Catskill dry flies tied by the Dettes (by Winnie and Mary I'm told by the original owner). Recently I sent the flies to a professional framer to get the flies framed. We have been thinking about the set up of the frame.

Part II of the story

Part III (final) of the story

Able Mable (II)

It has been a while I tied...

The mystery of the Catskill dry fly hallmark

Rube Cross wrote the book ‘Tying American Trout Lures’ in 1936, later combined with his second book ‘Fur, Feathers and Steel’ published as ‘The Complete Fly Tier’.

In this book Rube describes the typical Catskill dry fly hallmark of the tiny piece of bare shank behind the hook eye. Many debated about the reason for the 'clean neck'. Was it to accommodate the turle knot or for a better balance of the fly on the water? And was Rube Cross the originator? 

So what makes a dry fly a Catskill dry fly? Catskill legend Harry Darbee wrote in his book 'Catskill Fly Tier' what in his view defines a Catskill dry fly.

We have to go back to the Catskill history to figure out how the typical Catskill dry fly became to be. Theodore Gordon was, besides being a fly fisherman, a journalist and was the American correspondent for the London based newspaper Fishing Gazette as early as 1890 (source: Tying Catskill style Dry Flies, Mike Valla). Britain was the center of fly fishing back then, so Gordon was acquainted with the latest techniques on fly fishing and tying.

After reading the book 'Floating flies and how to dress them' (1886, click here to download the book) by the British angler and author Frederic Halford, Gordon got in touch with Halford. The corresponding between the two anglers resulted in 1890 in Halford sending Gordon 48 dry flies.

However these flies were tied with the slower English chalk streams in mind. Gordon adapted the English dry flies to suit the faster waters of the Catskills. The Quill Gordon, Gordon's trademark pattern, with a rooster hackle and wood duck wing started the Catskill (and modern) dry fly tradition.

So at one time this bare shank behind the hook eye became the hallmark of Catskill dry flies. Gordon's flies don't seem to have the bare shank, but Herman Christian who was a close friend of Gordon seems he tied his flies with a bare shank.

Christian by the way never saw Theodore Gordon tie a fly. In an interview in 1950 in the Angler's Club bulletin (New York) Herman Christian denies that Gordon taught Rube Cross to tie. Roy Steenrod, the only person known to have learned to tie flies from Gordon, tied his flies alternated with and without a bare shank. Cross tied most of his flies with a bare shank but sometimes even he tied flies without them.

So somewhere around the time of Steenrod, Christian and Cross this idea of bare shank was introduced. The search continues...

Update 26 Jan 2022:

Another picture from someone who went through two old Wheatley swing-leaf boxes from the period of the 1910s-1950s. 

"One was a brown japanned box from Gordon's time. Every fly that had tippet residue was tied with a Turle knot..."

Update 18 Jan 2022:

In this article about Theodore Gordon by John McDonald mentions about "Bits of leader gut still clung to some flies, snipped close to the hook eyes and revealing that Gordon used a Turle knot...".

The big news today is a Quill Gordon tied by Roy Steenrod was shown with what appears to be the remnants of a turle knot behind the hook eye. It's probably the first time the world has seen such evidence of the reason behind the 'clean neck'.

The endless hours of making an illustration

Illustrations of wildlife looks so amazing but what is even more amazing is the time that needs to be put into making it.

History of trout in Patagonia

Patagonia as we know wasn't always a fly fisherman's paradise. Just like New Zealand, Patagonia had no native trout or salmon so they are all imported by man. The idea of pristine rivers with no trout to be found for millions of years is hard to grasp.

It all started early 20th century when the first trout and salmon eggs were brought to the area. Read more about the history of trout in Patagonia here.

Here are two podcasts with great info about fishing in Patagonia I really enjoyed: part 1 and part 2

Lime Royal Humpy

 This lime body Royal Humpy is waiting for the sign to travel to an artist to get a portrait painted.

Recently someone asked about the Humpy: "I've fished Wulff dries, but never a Humpy. What's the advantages?"

Like the Wulff series it floats very well so it can withstand rough water conditions. It basically doesn't imitate anything specific but can go for many different insects (mayfly, caddis, beetle) in various stages. Doug Swisher and Carl Richards wrote in their iconic book 'Fly Fishing Strategy' (1975) that a Humpy can also be fished as an imitation of a mayfly stillborn (emerger).