Maison de la Mouche - Paris

Visited this famous fly shop in Paris back in 2019.

This historic fly shop opened its doors in 1934, which was visited by Charles Ritz and Hemingway.

Yet closed its doors a year later after our visit.

Devils Crook variant

A winged spider fly with some inspiration by the Devils Crook.

Spiders can be very simple and effective, but they can be a bit boring to look at. Adding a pair of mallard wing (stubs) just behind the soft hackle does make it a lot more appealing. The smooth body of raffia, a tuff of fox dubbing in the thorax and this fly has the looks of an emerging caddis.

Grey Fox Variant

Art Flick's favorite fly, the Grey Fox Variant.

Tied on a vintage Mustad 94838 size 12

Joan Wulff Special

Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum: ‟The Woman Fly Fishers Club commissioned Ed Van Put to come up with a commemorative fly for their 90’th anniversary, and he did with the Joan Wulff Special”. Ed also came up with the Able Mable for the club's 60'th anniversary back in 1992.

I tied it ‘Ed van Put style’ (almost no space behind the eye)

Hackle with straight barbs

Straight barbed hackle, it looks like it's not as obvious as it sounds...

Not so straight...

Pink Lady in September

It has been a few very wet days in September

Abbey

Saying goodbye to the weekend with the Abbey.

Originally an old wet fly pattern, this dry fly variant was a favourite of Rube Cross.

“The Abbey. In America, the Abbey is credited to, and named after Mr. Charles Abbey, of Abbey & Imbrie, a New York firm of fishing – tackle dealers. The fly has been popular in this country many years. It is claimed that it is an English pattern of old standing, which received its name from a building,not from an individual ; also that long before it was called the Abbey fly it was in general use, known as the Jew fly.” (Mary Orvis Marbury in Favourite flies and their histories, 1892)

Quiet Saturday evening tying

Blue ribbed Red Fox (ribbing is the same shiny material I used for the Blue Bottle Humpy)

Red Quill

Hoagy's legacy

A video from the 2020 virtual Catskill Fly Fishing Center Gathering where Hoagy Carmichael demonstrates the historic Garrison rod shop housed at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum. 

It's a bit hard to understand Hoagy from time to time. It's the result of cancer (of his tongue & stomach) he got treated several years ago.

Land of the big feet

I love looking up in old maps. 
Here are a few interesting close ups of maps from the 1500’s of what we now know as Patagonia. 

The story goes that the Portugese explorer Ferdinand Magellan saw giants in this area and gave them the name ‘Patagones’. ‘Pata’ is Portuguese for ‘foot’. Several other maps shows the area depicted with giants. So Patagonia was named as 'the land of the big feet'.

The earliest depiction of giants in the new world was in the in 1562 engraved map, the largest of its kind back then by the Spanish cartographer Diego Gutiérrez and Dutch engraver Hieronymous Cock. The map Americae sive quarte orbis partis nova et exactissima, Latin for The Americas, or A New and Precise Description of the Fourth Part of the World, shows the new world with many mysterious beings like mermaids, monsters and giants.

Update Dec 6, 2023:

Here is a very nice video about the various geographic parts of Patagonia

Lazy Sunday afternoon tying

Did some tying this past sunday afternoon while my little man was handcrafting.

Atherton #1

Gray Fox

Little Marryat

An old fly called the Little Marryat I tied this past Saturday evening. It’s a pattern from the times of Preston Jennings and Rube Cross, yet it was already written about in F. Halford’s monumental book 'Floating Flies and How to Dress Them’ (1886).

Picture of color plate from Halford's book, page 92 (Wikipedia):

A very interesting video about George Marryat's ideas about his flies and techniques

Update July 2, 2025:

More about the life of Marryat can be read in this biography

Me on podcast (II)

A new podcast I did a few weeks ago, this time on Andrew Barany's Dead Drifters Society. We talked so much, the podcast is cut in two episodes. Andrew is based in Vancouver island BC, Canada.

Listen to the first part of the podcast here.

2nd part of the podcast is here.

I was also on Pete Tyjas' podcast Fly Culture last year.

Variants & Skaters

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."

Harry Darbee:

"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.

Two casting tips

Here are two casting tips, one for short and one for long(er) distances.