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).

'Sunrise' Delaware Adams

This is a variation on the Delaware Adams, the 'sunrise' Delaware Adams

Irresistible

"Irresistible", that's what a client of Joe Messinger Sr. said about this fly after his successful fishing trip in Canada while the world was still heavily in war during the early 1940's.

With this fly Joe Messinger Sr. tried to imitate a female drake and has a two tone spun deer hair body, deer hair tail and wings and a claret (wine red) hackle. Especially the claret colored hackle is quite intriguing. 

Joe (Messinger Jr) wrote me "He tied them in other color combinations but the dun with claret hackle was the most popular." Unfortunately Joe never asked his dad why he used the claret colored hackle. The story goes Messinger Sr had this pattern since the late 1930's but didn't have a name for it yet. After it got its name, this fly has been a well known fly all over the world.

This story of the Irresistible was written by his son Joe Messinger Jr. and published in the now defunct magazine American Angler (May/June 1991). Following the story about the Irresistible, Joe also wrote the article about the Bucktail Frog (probably better known as the Messinger Frog) in the July/Aug 1991 issue.

A few years later after reading the article about the bucktail frog I decided to write Joe a letter and we became friends ever since. Now almost 30 year later, Joe sent me an Irresistible. Thank you Joe!

Tim Camissa did an interview with Joe Messinger Jr. about the Irresistible and Joe shows how to tie the fly, the way his dad did.

Light Cahill

Along the years the hackle used for the popular Catskill dry fly called the Light Cahill went more cream coloured but I think it looks nicer with a ginger hackle as it was tied in the early days.

Mike Valla says:

"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."

Light Cahill tied by Elsie Darbee:

Another Light Cahill tied by Elsie Darbee:

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

Able Mable

Did some tying together with my little man.

I tied a few Alien Bugs and an Able Mable, Ed van Put's signature fly using the materials Ed recently gave me.

Royal Humpy

 

Jack Dennis' signature fly the Royal Humpy:

"It was 1968 when I decided to marry the Humpy and the Royal Wulff at the urging of then Penn state professor Joe Humphrey and his college fellow wrestler Charlie Ridinour they had difficulty seeing the grey hackle Humpy on the Gros Ventre river in Jackson Hole. That August I tied some up and Joe caught the first fish on the new Royal Humpy and the name came from Charlie who guided for me."

Humpy takes off

Three Humpy's ready to take off to a place far far away 🚀

And a comment by Jack Dennis

Coffin Fly

This Coffin Fly (Eastern green drake spinner) is a serious big bug 😳

Here is one tied by Winnie Dette.

The real thing

Grizzly hackle - a very underrated shade

Martin Joergensen wrote this elaborate article about the grizzly hackle. All you need to know about the grizzly hackle and more.

Hungry GTs

We all probably have seen this footage from the BBC Blue Planet II. It's still impressive and scary at the same time. Now book a trip at Alphonse in the Seychelles at around $15K a week and experience that big GT on a fly 😎

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