New deer hair supplier

There are several deer (and elk) hair suppliers. These days the largest suppliers are Wapsi and Hareline. The last 10-12 years the best hair seems to comes from a company named Nature’s Spirit. However recently this fly tier, Josh Varner, from Montana has took up preparing hair that goes beyond the amount for his own personal use.

His deer hair is all tanned, a proces of cleaning and preparing the hide that results in the hide staying soft. With raw hides you will need to spend some time scraping them to make sure you get any small chunks of meat off the hide. Salting and borax on the hide will also make the hide very stiff and brittle. Tanning is a much more complicated process. Josh only has deer hair at the moment. Maybe later on he will also offer elk hair as well. Josh only supplies to two fly shops so far.

I wanted to try his hair so I ordered to tie a few humpies. I ordered a patch of what he calls short fine deer hair. The shade I ordered is called ‘Ginger bleach’. The hair is silky smooth and soft. Yet I was surprised how sturdy the hair is as I put quite a lot of pressure when tying hair on the hook. The hair has very nice even tips. Not as short & pointy as elk hair, but that’s how deer hair is.

While patches used to be a 3x4 inch, these days the patches are even smaller. This patch was a mere 2x3 inch. This size seems to be the standard these days. The pricing of his hair is much higher than other brands. Basically double the price of Nature’s Spirit. So one has to consider whether paying this much is worth it. I've got more than enough hair so I'll order only when I see a color I'd like to add.

History of salt water fly fishing

A very nice overview of the history of saltwater fly fishing presented by the American Museum of Fly Fishing. Fishing for saltwater species was probably done in other parts of the world as well, but along the shorelines of the east and west coast of the US is where the documentation as well as innovations has been recorded the most extensively.

Also check out the museum's quarterly magazine that's also available on line.

How the Dutch invented America

What a great presentation about the Dutch influence of the course of the birth of America.

This video is a very nice add on to my own presentation about the history of the Catskills I gave a few years ago.

What I found remarkable in this presentation the narrator shows that often geographic names like rivers and properties in the Catskill region was named after the owner of properties, as I also mention in my own presentation.

Dark Hendrickson

 

Hendrickson

Tonight during the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild (Zoom) meeting, the Hendrickson is on the menu.

Probably many members will be wrapping dun hackles and ask what shade of dun is the right one? 😂

Sardines

 

Guide to Big Horn river

Haven't fished the Big Horn yet, as it's a bit our of the route to where I usually went in Montana. Also being a river where a drift boat is the most common way to fish, as access to the river by foot is not easy or possible. Well, at least that was what I often read.

I'm not a big fan of drift boat fishing, although it is a nice way to see the river's scenery. But the Big Horn is on my list to fish one day.

Here is a good video with the overview of the river's structure and the possibilities.

Chris Rownes on dry fly fishing

Here's an interview with my friend Christopher Rownes about his dry fly fishing equipment.

Obviously it's all gear from Guideline, but if you look past that he has some good tips on leader set up and other stuff.

End of the year

These two Humpies are the last flies tied in 2024 and ready to fly to the USA.

The Abbey

Another tie of the Abbey

Rat Faced McDougall

Originally starting as a fly named the Beaverkill Bastard, this fly invented by Harry Darbee in the late 1930's somehow was renamed Rat Faced McDougall. The story about the name change can be read in Harry's book 'Catskill Fly Tier'. 

A very similar fly called the Irresistible by Joe Messinger sr. looks almost identical. The Rat Faced McDougall having a hackle fiber tail rather than the more durable moose body hair.

Leslie Harrop tying

There are some video's of Rene Harrop tying flies. We don't see much of other family members tying. Here's a recording of Rene Harrop's daughter Leslie recently tying the Harrop mayfly cycle flies. Besides showing how to tie their designs she also tells some remarkable stories along the way.

It's a long sit so maybe you might want to watch it in parts but it's worth the tips and stories.

Flies for Ed van Put

Update Dec 15, 2024:

Heard that Ed van Put passed away this past Saturday (Dec 14, 2024).

Thank you for your friendship Ed!

Rest in peace 

Update Dec 19, 2024:

The Catskill Fly Tyers Guild Zoom meeting was devoted to remebence of Ed van Put. The fly to tie was the Adams, Ed's favorite fly. The picture below shows my Adams next to one Ed sent me.

Update Jan 9, 2025:

A nice article about Ed in the New York Times after his recent passing.

This was originally posted on June 29, 2021:

Recently I've been exchanging thoughts with Catskill legend Ed van Put. Ed is a Catskill authority who has been fishing the Catskills for more than 50 years. He wrote several books about the Catskills: 'The Beaverkill' and 'Trout fishing in the Catskills'. Ed also participated in Christopher Rownes' series on fishing with the dry fly.

We also decided to do a fly swap. Of course I asked for his signature fly called the Able Mable. I'm getting a few flies ready and of course a couple of Humpies are included.

Update Aug 6, 2022:

Here's a great interview with Ed.

I can now imagine Ed tied the flies for me at the desk you can see in this interview!

Update July 30, 2021:

Ed sent me some flies, a piece of mink and the amber thread for tying the Able Mable.

Thanks Ed!

Some other posts I wrote about Ed van Put:

1) Tying the Able Mable

2) Ed van Put's Joan Wulff Special

3) Adams with rooster or hen wing tips?

4) The Beaverkill - presentation by Judy van Put

Spain

Here is an interesting letter Edward Hewitt wrote to Harry Darbee in 1950 about the fishing possibilities in Spain.

Connect

So I thought Providence was the last video Confluence Film made but there's this one called Connect.

This video starts with a footage about my friend Masa Katsumata fishing in Japan with Scott Fly Rod's rod designer Jim Bartschi.

The ultimate Catskill podcast

Listening for the second time now, the four part podcast about the Catskills on the Hallowed Waters podcast by Matthew Supinski.

Joe Ceballos, the president of the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild is the guest that has all the knowledge about the history, the fishermen, the tiers and the fishing of the Catskills.

Each episode is around 2 hours (part 4 is almost 4 hours!) long, so it's an epic listen. But for anyone interested in the Castkills, it's a must listen.

Listen to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

The art of making Japanese longbows

It's amazing to see how similar the making of Japanese bamboo longbows, both to material selection and handling to manipulating the bamboo, is to bamboo fly rod making.

The Conover

The Dette’s tied this fly, the Conover, for the Brooklyn Fly Fishing Club member Scotty Conover back in the 1930's. The story goes that Dette’s weren’t allowed to tie for anyone else than him.

Mike Valla adds:

"I know in June 1972 I was fishing Conovers on Beaverkill---during that wonderful season I stayed with Dettes for over a month (that was my high school graduation present from them---check my "Tying Catskill Style Dry Flies" book for that Conover story (page 18). That's one of my favorite stories.

I caught that big brown trout at the tail of Barnhart's Pool, on BkilL, on a Conover. Landed it down at Hendricksons, with a crowd watching and applauding. All but Ernie Maltz---who yelled at me for not having a landing net. Then he yelled at me for fishing a 7ft Leonard (given to me by a Leonard dealer, also as a graduation present) who I figured had one too many glasses of Scotch)--rod much too short for that river. Anyway, I'm sure I tied the Conover myself. They way Walt explained it to Leiser ('The Dettes - A Catskill Legend', page 56) was once Scotty couldn't wade the river well any longer, he relaxed things--Dettes were allowed to sell them."

Wemoc Adams

Mike Valla's books are fabulous, especially about everything about the Catskill style tying. I think I got all of his books.

He also came up with this fly called the Wemoc Adams.

Mike tells about this fly:

"There are probably only 3  flies I've ever attached a name to myself. But this is one of them, and is one of my favorites--The Wemoc Adams. It was first fished around Buck Eddy, on the Willowemoc, one morning--having tied it the evening before--just tooling around.

Presented in print, only as an image, it didn't get  much info attached to it there. Guys have since asked me about the fly, and one chap in Oregon reported great success with it on his home waters. I guess he really likes it.

It is, of course, just a slight variation of the regular old Adams.  From time to time guys were using Cree as what Eric Leiser once called "Instant Adams" hackle--since it could in some ways substitute for mixing Brown and Grizzly hackle (albeit slightly lighter in shade). But since a Cree was involved, in my mind (as still a younger lad--in around late 70'--and with a decade of tying experience under my belt--I thought that's what tiers have to do--name a fly here and there, and from time to time). But in that regard I never wanted to make claim to some sort of brand new fly, or concept. And I don't now. But when one is younger, that sort of thing runs through the mind.

The pattern is tied with grey dun underfur of Red Fox, and ribbed with wire. Introducing wire kept my regular Adams' from fraying apart--at least that was my thought. And using Cree sure made it an easy tie.  In that it did not call for dubbing of Muskrat, (or Mole fur as per Elsie Darbee)--but rather Fox. And that this pattern called for Cree, and gold wire ribbing---I gave it a new name--but connected it with the Adams.  So, there you have it..."

Beaverkill history presentation by Judy van Put

I've been a member of the Catskill Fly Tyers Guild, a group of people that embraces the heritage of the Catskill fly tying, for some time now. The get togethers being in the Catskills, usually at the Catskill museum, it's tough that I'm not able to enjoy the company of so many amazing tiers and their stories.

Fortunately we also have Zoom meetings in the winter, but the 7 PM meetings local is 1 AM here! The ocassional times I join the nocturnal meeting, it has been very enjoyable.

This past weekend was the Fly Tyers Roundtable at the Catskills Fly Fishing Center and Museum. Thanks to fellow member Phil, the audio of the presentation given by Ed van Put's wife, Judy, about the history & importance of the Beaverkill river was recorded. With approval by Ed & Judy I can publish this great presentation!

Update Dec 19, 2024:

With the recent passing of Ed, it's really nice able to see Ed during the presentation.

Back to the Kyll again

Went to the river Kyll again. My buddy Nico needed to renew his German fishing license too so we packed our stuff and headed to Germany again. Now a few weeks later the weather has cooled down considerably. 

Providence

I think this is the last video produced by the now defunct Confluence, the video production company.

Fishing in the Seychelles is a destination that most of us will enjoy only from videos like Providence.