shank, ¾ inch.
Eyes: ‘Unnecessary.’
Wardle & Davenport ceased production and so today we have no idea what M2, 298A, 298, 226, H2 or N were, we cannot obtain them, and Dunne’s flies will never be tied again.
More recently, a material called Swannundaze, which was highly recommended in the 1970s for forming the segmented bodies of larvae and nymphs, has vanished from the fly-tying scene (see here).
Many fly-tying recipes in this book include synthetic materials, such as Krystal Hair and Poly Yarn. It is likely, should such synthetics disappear from the market, that reasonable alternatives will become available.
TIP: One of the greatest pleasures in fly-tying is to gather materials for nothing. It may be a road-kill, or some distant aunt may have a fur coat that she wants to get rid of, or the local game dealer may have some rabbit or deer skins that he doesn’t want, or a shooting friend may have a bag of mallard or pheasants that need plucking, or the family next door may have some hens and an aged cockerel with the most superb grizzle hackles! Never say no! Rub borax into skins and the cut ends of wings to prevent fungal and bacterial growth. If you are unsure that the material may hold parasites (e.g. feather mites or moth larvae) that could ruin a fly-tying collection, put the item in a plastic bag, knot the bag and put it in the deep freeze for a month. Store all natural materials in sealed plastic bags.
Often recipes require dyed fur or feather. Dyeing your own materials is good fun, provided the kitchen remains undyed! And when a colour is required for a tying recipe, consider a blend of material that gives that colour. For instance, if medium olive fur is needed, mix the fur from two or three sources (such as hare, rabbit and perhaps a synthetic) so that there is variety in texture. Perhaps also mix in a little yellow or red or orange to break up the flat tone of the olive. For a good example of this, see JC HATCHING BUZZER, see here.
DO WE NEED SO MANY DIFFERENT FLIES?
The answer is, of course, no! This Encyclopedia contains the tyings for nearly 250 different dry flies designed for catching trout and other fish that take insects from the water surface. By varying size and, sometimes, colour/shade, it would be possible to use one pattern to match several species of real fly, so from the practical fishing point-of-view, the 250 could become over a thousand flies in the box. If it were essential to carry so many imitations, the hatch would be over before a fly was cast! In The Floating Fly (2008), Malcolm Greenhalgh described just eleven different dry and emerger patterns that, he argued, would catch any fish eating any insect floating at the surface of any river or lake anywhere in the world! Seventy-five years earlier, Edward Hewitt listed ten dry flies (five winged and five hackled) in Hewitt’s Handbook of Fly Fishing (1933) and added: ‘Personally, I would not want any more patterns of dry flies than the above … Don’t get a raft of patterns. They are not necessary at all [his italics].’ Ray Bergman (in Just Fishing, also 1933) agreed, noting that: ‘I think it is possible to get along with half a dozen [dry fly] patterns ranging from [sizes] 10 to 15.’
Life would, however, be incredibly boring if we tied and carried only a few patterns that we knew nearly always caught fish. Most of us do carry our favourite flies, the ones in which we have lots of faith. But we do enjoy tying and trying new ones. The worst scenario would be the discovery of the Holy Grail, the fly that catches every fish it is cast to. For then there would be no need to tie or carry any other fishing fly, there would be no challenge, and it would signal the end of fly-tying and fly-fishing.
THE PRESENTATION OF FLY-TYING RECIPES
There are two main ways of presenting fly-tying recipes.
The first is to list the parts of the fly in the order that they are tied in. So if the wing is tied in first, it appears after hook and thread detail, whereas if the wing is tied in last, it appears at the end of the recipe. This way lacks uniformity in that the order changes depending on what fly is being tied.
The second is to consider the finished flies (shown in this volume as photographs) and to list all the parts in order beginning with hook, then thread, then tail, body, rib, hackle and so on. In seeking to present the recipes in a clear uniform manner, this method will be used throughout this Encyclopedia.
PARTS OF A FLY
Hook: This may be one of several types (e.g. wet fly, dry fly, nymph, streamer, low-water salmon) and sizes. Some flies may also be tied on double and single hooks, tandem mounts, and tubes or Waddington shanks to which a separate hook is fixed. Note that often there may be restrictions as to what hooks may be used on particular stretches of water.
Thread: The ability to use thread well marks the difference between a good tyer and a poor one. The great tyer Terry Ruane used to say that, for the fly-dresser: ‘the hook is the canvas, the thread the brush, and the materials the paint. A good artist is one who can use the brush.’
Tag (sometimes called ‘butt’): Small amount of material (e.g. two or three turns of tinsel or floss silk) wound around the shank before the tail. But note that sometimes ‘tag’ means ‘tail’ (e.g. RED TAG, see here).
Tail: Represents the real tail in some flies based on insects and fish, but added simply to lend movement in, for instance, modern salmon and saltwater flies.
Butt (sometimes called ‘tip’): At the base of the tail and immediately before the body, this is usually added to salmon flies and some loch/lough/sea-trout flies to add a hot spot that might attract the fish’s attention (e.g. a turn of fluorescent floss).
Body: May be separated in insect imitations into abdomen and thorax.
Rib: Suggests segmentation in many imitative flies or, adds extra ‘flash’ (a tinsel rib) in salmon and other flies. Note that, when tying flies that imitate insects, the novice tyer is urged by the expert to rib evenly so that every segment is the same width. Yet in real larvae, pupae and adult insects, the segments will vary in width!
Body hackle: This is a hackle wound spirally around the body. It may be tied in at the end of the body, wound forward and then tied in at the front. Or, it is tied in at the front of the body, wound back around the body, and then fixed in place by bringing the tinsel ribbing forward through it. Note too that in some flies the body hackle is wound in touching turns (e.g. BIVISIBLES, see here), whereas in others it is wound in open turns (e.g. Troth’s ELK HAIR CADDIS, see here).
Wing cases: In nymphs. Usually a slip from a feather, tied in on the dorsal surface between abdomen and thorax, and then brought forward over the back of the thorax after the thorax has been completed and legs tied in.
Shellback: In scud/freshwater shrimps. Usually some synthetic strip tied in at the end of the hook shank and then brought forward over the back of the fly just before completion.
Hackle: Wound at the front of the fly. In a false hackle, hackle fibres are tied in, in front of the body or in front of
