Fishing Flies. Smalley

       HUTCHINSON FLY FIVE

      Tag: 2 Turns Of Gold Twist.

      Tail: Blue Cock Hackle.

      Body: Red Wool.

      Rib: Oval Gold Tinsel.

      Body hackle: Red.

      Wing: Red, Yellow And Green Dyed Mallard.

      Head hackle: Guinea fowl (gallina).

      These five flies are quite gaudy and clearly reflect the then new craze of tying gaudy flies that was engulfing the salmon fly at the same time (see here). But how were they fished? Mrs Hutchinson gives us a clue:

      Most capital sea fly-fishing can be obtained off the coast of Connemara, viz., in Bertraghboy Bay, at the Skyard Rocks, at Deer Island, and off the Isle of Mweenish and the Isle of Arran. The whiting, pollack [sic] that are to be met there, take a large gaudy fly boldly. I have with a fly taken some in those parts, as large as nine pounds. I use seven flies at once, and have frequently taken seven fish at the same time.

      Mrs Hutchinson was ‘feathering’, lowering her line with seven flies and jigging them up and down with the aid of a heavy weight. Her flies were not ‘cast’ as we fly-fishers cast a fly. It is still possible to catch several fish (such as pollock and mackerel) at once on a multi-fly jigged rig. But there is no need for such complicated flies when jigging or feathering.

      It was also the method used by Sanez Reguart, Diccionario Historico de las Artes de Pesca Nacionales (1795), but his flies were dyed feathers (coloured hackles) tied on weighted (leaded) double hooks.

      Theophilus South (real name Edward Chitty) did come up with a most simple fly that may have been cast in his The Fly Fisher’s Text Book (1841):

       HERRING FRY

      The fly is a white feather, projecting considerably over the hook, and it resembles the herring fry, of which both mackerel and Pollock are very fond.

      James Wilson gave a fly, which could be used today for catching sea trout, in The Rod and the Gun (1844).

       SEA TROUT FLY

      … a singularly successful fly for sea-trout, large or small, may be made with silver tinsel enwrapping the whole body from head to heel … the wings, of a narrow elongated form, composed either of pure white or pale grey [hackles], or a mixture of both.

      Try that on a big hook or tandem mount instead of a GRIZZLE SUNK LURE (see here).

      TWO FLIES FOR STRIPED BASS

      None is more killing than an orange body with peacock and bluejay wings and black hackle legs.

      Frank Forester (real name Henry William Herbert), Fish and Fishing, 1859.

      The best fly [for striped bass] is that with the scarlet ibis and white feathers mixed.

      R. B. Roosevelt, Game Fishes of the North, 1862.

      But note: these may have been fished in rivers when the striped bass made their spawning runs.

      In conclusion, over 100 years ago it was questionable whether it was necessary to have specific fly patterns for saltwater fishing (and black bass fishing), certainly in and around Florida. James Henshall (Camping and Cruising in Florida, 1884) advised that:

      Bright feathers are easily procured in Florida from the numerous gayplumaged birds, so that the angler will be at no loss for materials for tying his flies. Two flies I remember as being particularly taking: one with upper wing of white ibis and lower wings of the mottled feather of chuck-will’s-widow, another with top wings of white egret and lower ones of pink curlew [roseate spoonbill].

      Not today, they aren’t!

       North Country Spiders or Soft-Hackled Wet Flies

      Old flies often seem to fade from popularity not so much because they lose their effectiveness as because they are replaced by more fashionable new flies, whether the new flies have proven more effective or not.

      Paul Schullery, American Fly Fishing: a History,

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