Light Hendrickson

Stamp of approval! 🎓

Thanks Mike!

Blue Esquire, Pink Lady's handsome brother

I have been looking for the right shiny blue material to use for the Blue bottle Humpy. I looked at dubbing (like ice dubbing alike) and thread/tinsel. None of the ones I saw had the bright sheen, durable and the right price. Then I found this streamer wing material that is incredibly tough, has the right sheen and there's so much in a pack that I'll never run out of it.

Recently I've been using it for other styles of flies. One is a variation on the Pink Lady, I named Blue Esquire, but now with the shiny blue body. I have no idea if fish might like it but I like the looks of it.

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.