TMG (Teal, macaw & ginger)

This is the TMG (Teal, Macaw & Ginger), a Catskill style dry fly I came up.

Wings: Teal flank feathers bunched & split

Body: Macaw quill

Tail: ginger hackle fibers

Hackle collar: Metz ginger hackle

Hook: vintage Mustad 94840 size 12

Update:
Here is the Improved TMG

Unknown vintage capes

Recently acquired a few no name used vintage capes like this nice ginger cape. Still enough hackles for a size 12 Light Cahill. Love the glassy gingery shine and the straight & stiff barbules!

Update:
Mike Valla sent some interesting info about the hackle color used for the Light Cahill:

"Jay, for years the hackle shade you selected was the shade used for Light Cahills---in the Catskills. Overtime, the hackle shade changed to almost a cream....so different and not at all what we traditionally used. The late Ralphy Graves and I often discussed and point out this fact.

.....

Metz hackle was that shade. It was a big deal when Metz produced "the perfect ginger," as they called it in full page late 1970's Fly Fisherman magazine advertisments----sometime in the 80's a lighter hackle was used."

Thanks Mike!

Also check out page 92 and 153 in Mike's book 'Tying Catskill style Dry Flies' about the hackle color.

Flies tied by Rube Cross, in the middle a Light Cahill

Penn prints

I love history that has a link to fly fishing. These Penn prints are reprints of old 16th, 17th and 18th Century maps of famous cartographers printed in the 1960s. Some interesting insights from then, like California shown as an island. Also the Korean Peninsula (Willem Blaeu, ca. 1642) is shown as an island*.

Then there is this map by the famous Dutch cartographer Nicolaes Visscher of the eastern USA as seen in the 17th century.

A large part of the Eastern coast was a Dutch colony then called Nieuw Nederlandt (New Netherlands) or in Latin ‘Nova Belgica’. Back in those days The Netherlands was called 'Low Lands' which also included parts of current Belgium.

The area now known as the Catskills is particularly interesting. The map also shows the Catskill area as the Dutch settlement ‘t landt van Kats Kill’ which can be translated as ‘Kats Kill county’ with a creek called ‘Kats Kill’. The word ‘kill’ is an old Dutch word voor creek. I think ‘Kats’ refers to a Dutch family name. We also see Long Island (written in Dutch).

If you have some spare cash you can buy an original Nicolaes Visscher map...

* In a later map (1658) by Nicolaes Visscher shows Korea as a peninsula.

Alien Bugs should be outlawed...

Craig Mathews' reaction about the Alien Bug tells the story... 😁

 

How to use bear spray

I've seen a black bear in Montana only once while I was fishing a mountain lake in a float tube. 

Knowing how to use a bear spray when one encounters a bear is maybe common knowledge for inhabitants of the Rocky mountain states, but for a tourist mostly not.

Fishing small streams with dry flies

The Floating Fly is a series of articles in one format about fishing with dry flies by various fishermen (not persé fly fishing authors 😉) under supervision of Christopher Rownes. The number of authors has been growing rapidly.

Check my story on fishing small streams with dry flies here.

André Puyans again

From Mike Valla's book 'The Founding Flies'. We've never corresponded nor met but surely we would have had a great time talking about the Humpy 🤓!

Checkout the rare Humpy tied by Puyans I recently acquired.