The Coffin Fly

"The Coffin Fly" was first designed by Walt Dette and his friend Ted Townsend in the beggining of the 1930´s. Walt did over the years work on the pattern making several improvements, It is still today a popular fly in the Catskills. The fly is supposed to imitate a spent Ephemera Guttulata or more common named Green Drake the largest of the mayflies within the charmed circle of the Catskills.

American March Brown

The March Brown is a name of a fly that has been mentioned in fishing literature for hundred of years. The March Brown I tied here is not that old. The American March Brown was originated by Preston Jennings and he has it published in his book “A book of troutflies” as a imitation for the American March Brown. Mr Jennings was experimenting on how light refracts off a insect on the surface, and how the trout perceives such light, this and more made Mr Jennings to come up with this pattern, one of the more known Americna dry fly patterns.


His "A Book of Troutflies" was first published 1935 and was the first book that gave the American fly fisherman a good reference to American trout stream insects. Mr Jennings was a highly regarded angler and fly tier.

Quill Gordon

What could be better to start up the blog of 2011 than with a true classic Catskill Style Dry fly. The "Quill Gordon" or "Gordon Quill" Theodore Gordons legacy. This is one of my absolute favourite flies to fish and tie, both offcourse equally important. Gordon tied this fly in different shades and sometimes with a gold wire to get a bronze shade to the body.

A couple of weeks ago I got a copy og John McDonalds "The Complete Fly Fisherman". In this very heavy volume of flyfishing history I found loads of intresting stuff to read. It´s easy to get kind of afraid of the book at first sight as it is loades of pages and small letters. But I assure you, it is great and full of nice small talks and letters.

Here is what  Gordon wrote to G.E.M Skues on May 7, 1906
"I would like to have you try the following. Body plain quill, peacock, light color, hackles and tail, light blue hackle, wings wood-duck plain, mottled from a good sized finely mottled feather, using double for each side of the stem. I usually varnish the foundation to strenghten the quill. It is a light blue quill with wood-duck wings, and I will gamble on it killing, if dressed to suit the water..."

As well as I love to tie the classics by original recepie, I also sometimes love to play a little and do some changes to them. One idea I have had for a while is to put a boddyhackle on this lovely pattern. With a body hackle I believe this fly will work even better in rough water. I didn´t wan´t it to bushy though so I stripped one side of the feather before wrapping the bodyhackle. I didn´t want to strenghten the hackle with wire or thread either because I wanted as much of the quill possible still visible, so I gave the quillbody a small amount of clear superglue before wrapping the bodyhackle.

I´m really looking forward to try this one on Trout and Grayling hiding in the rough water. Will do my best to try and remember to tell you how it worked.

Herman Christian frame

Made this frame with some known flies from Herman Christian. Hard to find patterns with his label on them in the books. Anyway, Herman was one of he pioneers within the Catskill Style flytyers. He was known as a great fisherman, a guy who caught the bigger ones. Was a close friend to Theodore Gordon, learned to tie flies by taking apart Gordon´s flies. More about Mr Christian here.

Just finished

I like to have some stuff with me to help me to get that right atmosphere when tying at events. Next weekend on Friday I will be at "Call of the wild´s" to show some Catskill patterns and talk a little about them. For this occasion I chosed to make a frame of Theodore Gordon and two of his more famous patterns, made three of them. Why Theodore Gordon? Well, In my opinion he´s the guy behind the "Catskill Style" flies and as it is that I will talk about during the show....

Mosquito

Was searching for something new to try out this morning. Scrolled through one of my favourite books "The Dettes" by Eric Leiser. By the way, my copy is actually a signed first edition that I bought from my friend Joe Fox grandson to Mary Dette, yep the shop is still running Dette trout flies, check it out..
Well, back to my search...Found this little "bugger" that I believe will make a great contribution to my box. Will make some in smaller sizes #16-18 for the fall fishing for the Grayling. This one however is tied on a #12 Allcock W170 and will make a contribution to my demo portofolio. Tied it in true Catskill Dry Fly Style.

A little something.... Made one just before this one, proborably one of my better ties.. But one of the wings slated slightly so I just wanted to fix it a little... Yep I teared it of, shit happens doesn´t it?

The Complete Flytier

“From Reuben R. Cross Lew Beach , New York” A trademark full of respect by anglers from the past and present. Theodore Gordon might very well be the one that popularized the dry fly to the American flyfishers, but from looking at pictures of flies from Cross and others my opinion is that it´s Cross who set the standards to the Catskill style dry fly of today. Cross was the first professional flytier to write a book about flytying, Tying American trout lures (1936). He wrote three more books, Cowdung of Shrin Creek, Fur Feathers and Steel (1940) and finally The Complete Flytier (1950).

Reuben Cross grew up in the Neversink area, the domains of the master himself, Theodore Gordon. Cross claims to have learned to tie flies from Gordon, who knows? The stories tells othervise, not even Herman Christian who was a close friend to Gordon got any hints or lessons from him. On the other hand it´s known that Gordon taught Roy Steenrod to tie flies. Later Cross said he learned to tie flies by taking apart Gordon´s flies, this feels more reasonable as it seems to have been a common way to learn the art those days. Cross himself wasn´t that eager to share his knowledge either, Walt Dette said that he offered Cross 50$ if he taught him to tie flies, an offer Cross quickly turned down. Other stories tells that Cross did show his techniques and secrets as long as he didn´t felt any competition, a fact I can relate to as he was a semiprofessional flytier and partly tied flies for a living. Later in Cross´s flytying career he did great efforts in sharing his knowledge, attending at angling fairs etc.

The Cross Special

Reuben´s most known fly was the “Cross Special” named by the way it´s originated, a “Cross” between a “Quill Gordon” and a “Light Cahill”. Cross was once asked about what made the “Cross Special” so special, “Not a damned thing”, he replied.

During the time my own interest of the “Catskill style dry fly” grown into the passion of today I have learned that Cross was kind of a grumpy guy. After have reading his last book “The Complete Flytier” and after writing this little piece I have slightly changed my mind about Mr Cross. The book is about flytying in general, techniques, patterns and materials. The book is easy to read and understand, kind of laid back written and here and there I also found some laughs, so how grumpy could Mr Cross be? One of the laughs were the “Tie a dry fly” part were in the book is shown, tie in the tails first. Walt Dette who learedn to tie by taking Cross´s flies apart said that that wasn´t the way he tied them, so maybe he tried to hide some secrets even in his own book. My favourite parts of the book was the chapter of “Effective Patterns” were I found the “Ken Lockwood” Gray hackle and tails, Woodduck split wing and gold wired raffia straw body.
Ken Lockwood

Another chapter that fascinated me was the “favourite patterns”. Her I found the “Monsignore” originated by a Mr Claude Norton a flytier active in Newburgh, New York.
Monsignore

Also found the “Cochy Knight” originated by Jack Knight.
Cochy Knight

Herman Christian

Herman Christian 1882-1975

An old woodsman, trout fisherman, farmer, fishing guide, hunter and one of the hallowed four flytyers who founded the Catskill fly-tying tradition.

Christian was a great trout fisherman, widely known for his skills of finding the bigger fish. Christian learned to know Theodore Gordon around 1906 as a result of that he needed some decent flies, he had heard the rumors of Gordon’s flies so off course he decided that he needed some of those. As time went by they became friends. Christian was on a regularly basis fishing with Gordon, showed him where the really big trout’s were to be found. Despite the fact of Christian guiding Gordon in the Catskills after the big ones, Gordon never showed Christian anything regarding fly-tying. Gordon even put away his materials etc whenever Christian came by. Christian learned the secrets and how to tie flies by taking apart Gordon’s flies.

The most known patterns Christian left us are the “Christian Red Body” and the “Christian Green Body”. Two similar flies with the color of the body to separate the two patterns. The tail and hackle uses stiff fibers of dark dun, a peacock quill makes a nice dark rib over the glossy floss body leaving a nice segmentation and finally a lovely divided wood duck wing.

I think these two flies are amongst the most beautiful Catskill patterns. Now I only have to try them on the trout as well, and as Christian was known for his big catches he should know what he was doing when he created these masterpieces.

In between...

Now between a Merry Christmas and the Happy New Year I finally found some spare time to try out some new stuff that I recently came over. Some "White Deer Hair" and some really "White Fur". The Deerhair comes from.. eh well  a Deer and the fur from my mother in law´s cat, a Ragdoll, really cool cat by the way.
I have been searching ffor White Deer Hair for some time as I wanted it for Elsie Darbee´s Coffin Fly, it is needed for the body. Spun Deerhair cut short, makes a really nice lifejacket for a Hook #12.

The really White Fur from the cat was needed for Reuben Cross´s Cross Special, I noticed it in Mike Vallas -Tying Catskill styl dry flies. There was something I just couldn´t resist in that really white body.

I hope you like it... As usually I did :-)

Better late than never

I have not spent as much time with my blog lately, sorry, other obligations and some lack of mojo maybe?

Well... Got a parcel of Peccary from my friend Andy Baird a couple of weeks ago. Sat down this week and played with that, really liked the mottled effect it had on a Catskill dry I made with it. I will call it the Peccary Dun until I fin a more sexy name for it. The wings are of Teal, tails also Peccary..
Will be back with some more within a couple of days, just wanted to say hello...

A story about a fly and it´s originator

The Bradley special

Most dry flies fished in America during the end of 1800´s were mostly imported English patterns dressed to suite English waters. Because of this dry fly fishing wasn´t very common at this time. But in the end of the 1800´s that started to change, one of the pioneers was Theodore Gordon sometimes called “father of American dry fly fishing”. Most fishermen have heard of Mr Gordon, but there was offcourse others. I will with this piece try to tell a little story about a fly and it´s originator.

I first saw the “Bradley Special” in a fly swap I hosted, it was tied by my friend Roy Christie. It didn´t look like much but something with it´s simplicity caught my attention. Offcourse the fact of me never heard of it before also added some spice to the situation. The rumour says that a William A. Chandler, a well known fly fisherman from the banks of Neversink originated this fly. He was a good flytier and tied all his flies himself as the imported ones from England didn´t satisfie him. Chandler had great belief in that the wings was the most important part of the fly and also he added extra fibers to the tail, the common way at this time was two to three fibers but Chandler could use up to six sometimes even eight fibers.

The “Bradley Special” is the result of Chandler and his friend, Beaverkill trout club member William A. Bradley efforts. Chandler and Bradley was experimenting with a dry fly for fast water. They came up with a fly dressed with brownish mallard flank for the wing, rough blue/gray fur from the back of the red squirrel spun in a double strand of red silk. Finally medium red hackle for hackle and tail. Chandler later gave the fly the name after his friend.

In later years Mr Bradley had his “Bradley Special´s” made by the Dette´s. You could really tell that Chandler and Bradley had experimented with this fly as he wanted the fly tied in several different way´s depending on the water, weather conditions etc. The Dette´s did during this time make these special orders for their customers. They had a special card with Bradley´s different dressings for his belowed fly. In Eric Leisers book “the Dettes” you can understand that Mr Bradley was a quite demanding customer, he also made them promise not to sell the fly to any other customer. Winnie said -Quite frankly, he was a real pain in the you know what.

Reference
The Dette´s –Eric Leiser
Trout fishing in the Catskills –Ed Van Put

Recepie

Hook: Model perfect ex Mustad 94840.

Tail: Medium red cape

Body: blue/gray fur from the back of the red squirrel spun in a double strand of red silk.

Wing: Mallard flank tied divided (also tied with Mandarine, Woodduck, Teal and Mallard breast fan wing)

Hackle: Medium red cape

The Adams

The British flyfair around the corner. This weekend I started to make plans for what to tie. I decided that The Adams will be one of the flies I will demonstrate. Why? well the thing with me and patterns is that I like  agood story, and this one got one..

The Adams
Hook: Model perfect dry
Thread: Uni 8/0 White
Tails: Brown/Grizzly rooster
Body: Muskrat/Grey fox underbody fur mixed
Wing: Grizzly hackletips hen or rooster (rounded)
Hackle: Brown/Grizzly rooster

The Adams dry fly came to this world through the vise of Leonard Halladay of Mayfield, Michigan about 1922. Halladay designed the fly for his close friend Charles F. Adams of Lorin, Ohio. Judge Charles F. Adams asked his friend Halladay to create a fly that would imitate the insect the discriminating trout were favoring that day. Leonard Halladay and Charles Adams used The Adams with great success on their beloved Boardman River, Michigan.

From the beggining the fly was tied with two strands Golden Pheasant tippet or grizzly hackle fibers as tails and the wings were tied spent. Some people says that the Adams was first tied as a downwing to imitate a caddis. As for most known and belowed patterns there are a lot of different stories and for sure, the Adams has over the years been tied many different ways.

Even though it was originated in Michigan some catskill tyers like Rube Cross, Walt Dette and Harry Darbee early saw The Adam´s advantages and started to tie it comercially. There are still some contemporary catskill tiers that might shiver when the Adams is called a Catskill pattern. The Adams are proborably one of the most sold flies in America and known all over the world, maybe because of that these gentlemen took it to their vises.

A problem with this fly is to find the round hackle tips that requires for wingmaterial. The search for long, stiff hackles has made the hackletips narrover and more pointed then they were in the 1920´s. Walt Dette´s sollution to this problem was to use hackletips from hen birds.

I hope you enjoyed the story... I did.

Messing with the classics

Tonight i started up tying some flyes for a fishing trip in September. I read that we could stumble on some Baetis Rhodani. So I used one of my favourite patterns, The Quill Gordon. As we are going to a catch and release water I used a barbless hook, Partridge SLD. Chosed a size 14 as the the body length of the Baetis Rhodani are 6-9 mm. the Tail is Coq de leon, really nice material for tailing, long and nicely segmented. For the body I used Golden olive dyed Peacock herl that I recently got from Mr Holding at the http://www.flytyingboutique.com/ . The dyed herl was perfect in colour to what I was searching of. I can really recomend it, don´t forget to soak it first to soften it a little. The wing, well it´s a Catskill tie so offcourse woodduck, divided. The hackle, Grizzly dyed Golden Olive.

Quill Gordon Variant
I am quite pleased of the result and looking forward to try it on the graylings up in Idsjöströmmen.

The Royster Doyster

A while ago I had my mate Roy Christie as a houseguest. After have seen one of his wonderfully dyed capes I managed to get him to take care of a grizzly cape that I had laying in my tying bag. So now I have had this wonderfully dyed cape lying in my tyingbag for some time, and today I felt It was time to play with it. I decided to do "The Royster Doyster". "The Royster Doyster" is somewhat a little tribute to my dear friend Roy Christie. Roy was my first foreign flytying mate, now after like 2 years, I consider him one of my best and closest friends. Offcourse he needs his very own fly, and offcourse if I´m doing it it has to be something close to my heart, a catskill style fly, not a quillie though, why.. Roy is more of a dubbing bloke so as a tribute to him the fly need some fur.

Here´s the stuff I used:

Hook: Partridge The Dry #14.. (Quality bloke- Quality hook)

Tails: Coq de leonBody: Red fox underfur (Roy´a clever bloke, so is the fox )Wing: Bronze Mallard

Hackle: Roy Christie special dye

A Tribute to the Dette´s

My strongest obsession in flytying, the Catskill dry flies. In my opinion the Dette´s, Walt, Winnie and Mary are one of the best examples of true genuine Catskill traditions. Their patterns, flies and skills sets the bar skyhigh. After reading Mike Wallas book "Tying Catskill-Style Dry Flies" I also need to mention

the Dette´s as humble, caring and giving people. Not only with their flytying also as human beings. Thank´s Mike for writing this piece I will cherish it and read it many times. Now I only need to look for a copy of Mr Leisers "The Dette´s" also.

My way of saluting this family is by doing a frame with a selection of their own originated patterns and favourite flies and putting them in a frame. And who is better to ask about the flies than Mike Valla, I sent him a mail and asked him about the Dette´s favourite ties. Mike replied with the Delaware Adams, Coffin fly and the Conover. I used Mike´s book for information concerning the patterns and started to tie them.

Delavare Adams

The Delaware Adams was one of Walt Dette´s favourite ties. It is originated by Walt, he developed it from the Adams.

The Conover

The Conover, Winnie Dette´s favourite fly, both tying and fishing. My Conover has some black tips in the hackle, the story says that Winnie didn´t like that. Sorry Winnie, i didn´t find Golden Badger without the black tippets.

Coffin Fly

Last out of the three Dette flies the Coffin Fly. The original calls for Peccary tails, I didn´t have that so I substituted the Peccary with something more scandinavian, moose mane. I really liked tying this fly and I can´t wait until I get a chance to try it on the trout.

The Tribute

I truly enjoyed working with this frame. There is something very special with this family. i really hope that I one day can go to the Catskills and visit their house where they had their flyshop. Mary Dette Clark, Walt and Winnies daughter is still tying her parents patterns in the Catsills today, and her grandson Joe Fox is running the flyhop. Joe also a great Catskill dry fly tyer.

Hope you liked it

Nik