Winston Stalker

This legendary series of fiberglass rods was introduced in 1974 by Winston, just after Tom Morgan bought Winston in 1973. The Stalker is one of the rods in the 'rods of fame' frame in the museum at the Winston factory I visited a few weeks ago.

Not much has been written about this rod series. I have no idea how many Stalkers were built & sold over the years and how many are still used today. Here's an amazing and very elaborate article by Tom Morgan on what he did after requiring Winston in the 1973 to improve the quality of fiberglass rods sold by Winston.

A few quotes by Tom Morgan along the years about the Stalker:

"... Before buying Winston in 1973, I had enjoyed fishing light line #3 and #4 bamboo rods. I thought that similar fiberglass rods would be popular, so I designed the Winston fiberglass Stalker Rods to add to Winston's already great line of fiberglass rods that were custom-made by the J. K. Fisher Co."

"... because of the delicate touch and "feel" they provide along with their fish playing attributes, I've always been a fan of fiberglass rods for fishing in the short to medium distances where most trout are caught."

Mistakenly labelled as 'Stalber' 😁

"... The Stalker Series of glass rods completes a longtime goal of ours, to provide fishermen with a glass rod that has delicacy and lightness of our Leetle Fellers. They have been designed to fish spring creeks where the utmost precision is needed in presenting small flies on light leaders.

The rods are supple enough to play large fish on light leaders with a minimum of loss. They are not designed to be all-around trout rods to cover all situations. Since their introduction, they have become our most popular glass rods. Once you use one of these rods, it will soon become a favorite."

"... unfortunately, the J.K. Fisher Rod Co. who made our fiberglass blanks quit making them in the early '80s and I was forced to quit offering them. I was extremely unhappy with this circumstance even though the regular angler was buying mostly graphite rods. I still think that fiberglass fly rods have an important place in an angler's repertoire of rods."

Update Jan 5, 2022:

This very unique letter from 1974 Tom Morgan wrote to Harry Darbee was sent to me by Harry Darbee's daughter, Mrs. Judie Darbee Vinciguerra Smith. In this letter Morgan writes about the new Stalker fiberglass rod series he just introduced.

I also found this Winston ad in Fly Fisherman magazine 1975 spring issue

A nice short video of Julie Arnold of Headhunters fly shop in Craig, Montana fishing a Winston Stalker:

Darbee lineage hackle

Interesting new hackle from Harry Darbee lineage I’ve been told.

Here some feathers have different shades on both halves. Experiment was needed to see how this turns out. There seems to be some slight 'cupping' of the barbs as I see some curving in the barbs as well. Two tone hackle collar from one feather.

Here’s another cape with Darbee lineage. Also unlike genetic hackle there are lots of larger sizes here, size 10-6. The larger sizes obviously have softer barbs. The very pretty shading with a brighter center of the hackle gives quite a unique two tone look.

Adams with Darbee hen wings

Adams with wings from a vintage Darbee grizzly hen cape giving the wings a more broader & rounder profile. Vintage Mustad 94840 size 12 hook, musk rat dubbing, grizzly Collins & Dark Ginger Sideling Hill Hackle cape.

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

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.

Understanding hackle colors

Hackle colors seems so obvious yet there's more to it than just being a color or shade. Jim Slattery is a big Whiting hackle reseller and wrote this 'article' on Facebook about hackle colors and their specific structures. The best I've seen anywhere. Thanks James for letting me use your write up.

Here is Jim's write up on hackle colors:

Understanding Whiting Farms and Hebert-Miner Hackle Colors

I get a lot of color questions regarding Whiting Hackle so I thought it would be good to explain the different colors. Because most of the questions are for the Hebert Line let's begin there and we will start at the light side of the color spectrum.

Cream

On the surface pretty much self-explanatory but let’s delve in a little deeper, it is a much more complex color assignation then what it appears than the name implies. On one side of the Cream spectrum is white or off white.  Both of these colors are quite hard to come by. There are two reasons for this. First, being that most of these hackles end up in the dye bath.  Second, is feather quality. Pure white can be a bit soft for dry fly purposes is rarely adequate for dry fly applications. The next shades that fall under the “cream” label come into play are dirty white and ghost barred

White

The color dirty white can be is best described as white with a "dirty" overcast, generally a faint dunnish ginger or brown.  Ghost barred white is basically white with the faint dunnish color barring on the feather.  Both of these shades begin are the first steps on the road to pale watery dun, light grey dun, and light ginger dun. Next is the "Classic" cream color, white with a light ginger overcast. Anyone who has grown up on a dairy farm and is familiar with fresh milk knows exactly what I'm talking about: After that fresh milk has a chance to set the color of the cream that rises to the top of fresh milk. That pale yellowy golden color that's the "classic color cream. Within the cream color category the light ginger overcast color can get stronger until it is on the threshold of light ginger and the beginning of the color ginger.

Light Ginger

This color is actually difficult to grow; not that it's a rare color, just a bit difficult to breed for consistency. The color is best described as a light yellow gold with a faint touch of brown, as the color darkens it gets closer to medium ginger.

Medium Ginger

This color actually has wide ranges from a pale gold tinted with brown to a deep rich amber that is the beginning of light brown.

Browns

Brown in the hackle world has a definite "red" tone; not the "red" found in such colors as cardinal, scarlet or blood but more towards auburn red hair. The Rhode Island Red chicken is a good example of red in terms of hackle color. This color starts where light brown ends and ends where Coachman brown begins.

Generally, you are looking at should expect a color that is brown with a red overcast. Actually many prefer medium brown with a distinct red overcast for tying the famous Coachman series of flies.

Light Brown

Sometimes the line between light brown and medium ginger is quite blurred. The best way to describe light brown is “a dark rich amber with a ‘red’ overtone.”  As this color deepens and darkens it moves towards medium brown

Medium Brown

When you think of the color brown and compare it to what is considered "brown" in the hackle world you can see there is a discrepancy.

It must be noted that medium brown is sometimes dyed; not very often but at times it is and is hard to tell from non dyed hackle.  The dyed brown will tie a bit darker as both sides of the feather are close to the same color. Natural brown will often have the side closest to the skin or the inside face of the feather a lighter shade than the outside face of the feather.

Coachman Brown  

This color is a dark red brown to almost black. As a rule natural Coachman brown feathers are always "soft".  For whatever reason natural dark colored feathers are rarely suited for dry flies as their feather barbs just aren't stiff. Finding mid level to high quality natural Coachman brown dry fly hackle is very rare. There are some out there but they are few and far between. Hebert-Miner Coachman brown is almost always dyed.

Black

Black is... well, black. Most of the time this color is black dry fly quality feathers are dyed. There are occasions that a few natural black hackles come along and the quality is surprisingly good but not good enough for the higher grades. Most natural black feathers have an iridescent green sheen to them. This is readily apparent in hen hackle, both in larger neck feathers and in saddle feathers.

Grizzly

Grizzly (or “grizzled”) feathers are both black and white. Generally, this characterized by black barring over white but sometimes by white barring over black. The classic grizzly is finds  has the black and white barring fairly evenly spaced and the colors are distinct. The barring is in the shape of chevrons or the shape of a "V", like a sergeant’s stripes.

Some grizzly will have a imperfect barring; either the barring goes straight across the feather or is a bit staggered from one side of the stem to the other. There is light grizzly and dark grizzly. Light grizzly is predominantly white with smallish black barring, and dark grizzly is mainly black with smallish white barring.

Grizzly Variant

Grizzly Variant is grizzly with some other colors feathers intermixed with the most common colors being brown, furnace and badger. The same color variations found in grizzly can be found in gizzly variant.

The Badgers

This color consists of two colors. The center stripe or list is black and the outer color may range from a silver white to a light golden ginger. Often the feathers will have black tips as well.

Silver Badger

Silver white tipped feathers with a black list with the white ranging from pure white to a dark cream color. As noted above the outer tips of the feathers may be black.

Golden Badger

A light ginger feather with a black list with the very outer tips sometimes being black.

Speckled Badger

The outer part of the feather may range from  white to the darkest light ginger with the list being black. The speckling can be either in the black list or in the colors found on the outer parts of the feather. The more unusual color variation is a black feather with white to gold dusting or frosting  on the outer portions of the feather. The very outer tips may be black.

Furnace

Furnace is very similar to badger except that the outer portion of the feather will range from Medium Ginger to a dark Medium Brown with a black center list. These feathers may also be tipped in black on the outer edges. Feathers that are "red" and have the very outer tips black are often referred to as "Coch-Y-Bondou"  and the feathers that have a medium ginger outer color are often referred to as "Greenwells Hackle".

Barred Gingers

(With Hebert sometimes Barred Ginger is used as a catch all for all Barred Gingers. The colors will be explained below.)

Medium Barred Ginger

This color ranges from a white feather barred with the lightest medium ginger to a lightest medium ginger barred with the darkest medium ginger. As a general rule this color is best described as a cream colored hackle barred with medium ginger. The barring can range from mostly light color with small ginger barring to a ginger feather with small cream barring and all points in between.

Dark Barred Ginger

This is one of the most sought after colors. Generally these feathers have a light to medium ginger color barred with a dark ginger to "red" color sometimes a Coachman brown. As with most barred feathers there is quite a lot of variation here, with sometimes the lighter color being dominant or the darker color being dominant. Another color variation found in this color is that the light fades into the darker color only to repeat the color cycle repeatedly to the end of the feather. This color can be very close to cree. As a matter of fact the best way to achieve a color substitution for cree is by using a dark barred ginger hackle and blending it with a grizzly hackle as you would do when combining brown and grizzly hackle when tying the Adams.

Cree

This is one of the "Holy Grails" of hackle and a very beautiful feather. It is best described as a grizzly hackle that has ginger in between the black and white colors. This hackle color is very rare and can command very high prices. This color shows up at best 1 in 1000 birds produced. There are many variations of cree, pale, light medium and dark.  Pale cree is black and white barring with cream in the middle. Light cree would have the white and Black barring with a light ginger in between the two colors.

Medium cree would have the medium ginger between the barring, and dark cree would have a dark ginger between the black and white. As with grizzly hackle the barring can be imperfect. Adding the third color to the changes the barring dynamic.

As with grizzly there can be a dominant color or they can be fairly evenly distributed with the difference being the added third color. Sometimes the ginger barring is thin but the black and white are about even, then again sometimes ginger is the dominant color with the black and white barring being equal in size. As with dark barred ginger, sometimes the ginger fades from the white to black going from a cream to a dark red ginger as it gets to the black. When you combine this color characteristic with chevron barring the hackle is sometimes called “Classic Cree," a very, very rare hackle.

The Duns

One of most asked question is "What is dun"? There is an old saying that best sums up this color: "Dun is the Mouse". Dun is a smoky brown grey. That being said there are a lot of dun colors and they will each be discussed but first a little history.

It wasn't that long ago that natural dun was the most sought after and coveted of all hackle colors. This is not difficult to comprehend if you first understand a couple of things: first, the thing you have to take into consideration is the fact that at least half of all trout patterns call for some sort of dun; second there simply wasn't much if any hackle grown for fly tying let alone bred for natural dun. Most hackle came from barnyards in Asia or India with Indian hackle being the most prevalent.

Things changed when Buck Metz got hold of the Harry Darbee strain of birds and started breeding birds to mass-produce fly tying hackle for the general fly tying public. Birds were finally bred to produce natural dun on a large scale. Eventually the Metz flock was bought by Umpqua Feather Merchants.

Later, in 1997, Dr. Tom Whiting bought the Hebert-Miner flock from Ted Hebert. These birds were bred from the same famed Darbee line, a lineage that had its roots deep in the Catskill lore of Rube Cross, the Dettes and the Darbees. There has been nothing but improvement from Whiting Farms handling of this line, in terms of both volume and hackle quality. Today the Whiting line produces a vast array of dun colors available for the general tying public.

As before, we’ll begin the discussion with the lightest color in the dun spectrum and work towards the darker colors. It should also be noted that these colors intersect and split off to multiple colors. These intersections and splits will be discussed as well. All colors are natural unless noted.

Pale Watery Dun

This is best described as a dirty white color with a distinct ginger/brown/tan/grey dun overcast. This color starts on the grey side of cream and ends at the doorsteps of light grey dun and light tan dun. This color may also have some barring; usually a light ginger dun barring.

Light Ginger Dun

This is the convergence or blending of light grey dun with light ginger. It is a beautiful color that is suitable for sulphurs, PMD's and Light Cahills. Sometimes this color has badger like markings with the list ranging from a light grey/tan dun to the darkest of medium grey dun with light ginger dun outer colors.

Light Grey Dun

This hackle is a dirty white feather overcast with a greyish dun. Often the dun color has a tan hue to it as well but most often has a general grey tone. Other variations include: pale watery dun with medium grey barring, Pale watery dun with a medium grey list or light grey dun with medium to darkish grey speckles (fairly rare) This color ranges from the dark side of  pale watery dun to the light end of medium grey dun and can be on the outer fringes of light tan dun.

Light Tan Dun

Combine the color tan with a little grey and you get light tan dun. This color is sometimes found with badger like markings with the list being a darker shade of tan dun then the outer tan dun. Light tan dun merges into medium brown dun and is on the fringes of light ginger dun, light grey dun, pale watery dun, medium grey dun and brown grey dun. Darker light tan dun can be suitable for the famed Light Hendrickson fly.

Medium Brown Dun

This is a dark tan/light brown color with little grey blended in. The overall color impression is a smoky dark, tannish brown. This color ranges from the darkest light tan dun to the lightest of dark brown dun. The color also parallels medium grey dun, brown grey dun and rusty dun. The lighter side of this color is also good for the famed Light Hendrickson fly.

Brown Grey Dun

This is a grey hackle with a brown overcast. The color can range from the light side of medium grey dun and medium brown dun and borders both dark grey dun and dark brown dun. Brown Grey Dun could be best described as the center point of the dun color wheel.

Medium Grey Dun

The quintessential dun color, these feathers have an overall grey tone that is neither too light nor too dark. Typically, medium grey dun isn't actually grey but has the appearance or tone of being grey. On closer inspection, brown, tan and ginger colors are also apparent but the overall impression is grey. There may be darker overtones highlighting the medium grey and sometimes darker speckling as well. The range of color borders light grey dun to dark grey dun, but also borders medium brown dun, dark brown dun, brown grey dun and even light tan dun. Due to the high demand for this color it is often dyed. As a credit to Whiting Farms there are times when you cannot tell the difference between dyed and natural medium grey dun.

Dark Grey Dun

This color ranges from the darkest medium grey dun to almost black. Generally this color has an overall grey tone but on closer inspection you can see dark tans and browns as well. Another characteristic is a dark bronze flecking over a darkish grey dun base color. This color blends into medium grey dun, brown grey dun, dark brown dun and black. This color is often produced by dyeing. As with the dyed medium grey dun it is often hard to differentiate between natural and dyed feathers, and this is even more true with dark grey dun.

Dark Brown Dun

Actually this is a fairly complex color grouping. The classic dark brown dun is a dark chocolate dun. From there the color ranges to almost black to almost classic rusty dun being a little too rust colored to medium brown dun. Dark brown dun is one of the more overlooked colors.

Dun Grizzly

Actually this is a wide ranging set of colors. Base color may range from an off white to a dark medium grey dun over which a barring may range from light tan dun to the darkest duns. Typically the color falls into a light grey dun base with medium to dark grey dun barring. This is a great color to add some “bugginess” to your flies that typically call for “dun.”.

Rusty Dun

This color is similar to furnace with the exception that the center list is Dun. The color of the list will range from light grey dun to dark grey dun, and the outer color may range from a light golden reddish ginger to a deep red brown. This color is beautiful and will tie up very buggy looking flies.

Honey Dun

One could say that this is the other end of the rusty dun color spectrum. Honey dun has a center list that ranges from a dirty white pale watery dun to dark grey dun with the outer color ranging from the darkest cream to deep red ginger.

Dun Badger

This color parallels speckled badger in a lot of ways. Dun badger has a dark grey or dark brown dun center list with silver to deep golden outer color. Often the outer color is a golden ginger dun color with the list on the lighter side of the dark duns.

Dark Brassy Dun

This color is a dyed color and shows as a chocolate dunwith dark brassy overtones. This is a beautiful color.

Medium Cahill Dun

Another dyed color showing as a medium grey dun with brassy gold overtones: a spectacular dun color.

When Harry met Gordon

Harry Darbee meets Quill Gordon

Harry G. McClelland

This book is probably the most unusual book I own. And it’s not just the minute size of the book. 

Under the pseudonym 'Athenian' Harry G. McClelland, basically a teenager, wrote many articles on fly tying in the Fishing Gazette. After passing at just 21 years of age, his articles were bundled in this book with the very unusual title 'The Trout Fly Dresser's Cabinet of Sevices or How to Tie Flies for Trout and Grayling fishing'.

This book (first published in 1898!) was highly regarded by Theodore Gordon, Dettes and Harry Darbee. It's quite remarkable how much knowledge he had on fly tying. Many ideas, which got common many years later, that was considered new back then was already covered by McClelland: using stripped quill for segmented bodies, using rooster hackle for wrapping hackle and various wings. 

Art Flick who is credited with the Red Quill using a stripped Rhode Island rooster hackle feather, but Harry already wrote (page 38):

“Another kind of quill is that obtained by stripping a long hackle or saddle feather

of its plume on either side. It makes a very natural looking body, which, so to speak, tapers

itself automatically in the forming; the quill used being tapered, and so the joints of the body

becoming wider and thicker as the winding proceeds from tail to shoulder. A friend, to

whom my first acquaintance with this material was due, makes a very beautiful red spinner

of the shaft of the saddle feather of a dark red game cock.”

Due to the age of the book it seems to be free of copyright. This book can be downloaded here.

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'.

Where does it end?...

I recently picked up tying some dry flies again to get warmed up for my Catskill project. I found out I didn't have a few hackle colors needed for a some core flies, mainly a darker dun and a lighter brown.

So I ordered a few capes recently from Whiting Farms, the leading breeder of genetic hackles. Although they are known for the superior hackles for dry flies, Whiting has broadened their product line with any kind of feather imaginable, from feathers for streamers, spey flies to bass bugs.

The most popular line of hackles are the capes and saddles for dry flies from the Whiting line, also known as the red label. This red label capes and saddles are basically from the birds Whiting bought from Henry Hoffman. The other, of a more historical importance are the capes and saddles from the Hebert Miner (green label) line. The current birds have evolved from the very first roosters specifically raised for dry fly quality hackles by Harry Darbee. Here's a very nice overview of the history of hackles.

I ended up with a dark dun, medium ginger and, a rare find, cree cape from the Hebert Miner line. This color (in fact it's a mix of three colors black, white/cream and brown) called Cree seems to be the most sought after color in the hackle universe. Most crees never make it to the fly shop. Most of them end up in the hands of the owner of the fly shop for his friends or as gifts for big customers of Whiting. I'll post a separate posting about this Cree hackles soon because it is indeed fascinating!

About the improvements of the hackles:
Most of my capes and saddles are from the late 1990 and early 2000 era. The most recent one I bought was a Bronze rated Whiting cape (darker barred ginger) I bought in 2006. It's now almost 10 years later and the improvement in quality is quite remarkable. From what I read and heard, every generation seems to be an improvement over the previous generation of birds.

I got the Pro Grade rated capes, which are supposed to be the entry level quality, because I want a good selection of hackles in the larger sizes 10 and 12. The higher rated Bronze and Silver have predominately hackles in sizes 14 (or even 16) and smaller.

The highest rated (Golden or even Platinum) capes or saddles (which has an even narrower size range than capes) with predominantly hackles in the size 18 and smaller (as wonderful as they are!) is simply not very useful for general use. It's an odd thing to say but Whiting has improved their hackles too much!  So, where does this end?...

Update Nov 25, 2015:
Here is a nice article about the history of hackles from Field & Stream (March 1985):

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.