Fishing Flies. Smalley
of advice when it comes to choosing which hook to use comes from George Selwyn Marryat, the driving force behind the great and sadly maligned pioneer of the dry fly, F. M. Halford. A good hook, said Marryat, ‘should have the temper of an angel and penetration of a prophet; fine enough to be invisible and strong enough to kill a bull in a ten-acre field.’ In other words, buy the finest and strongest hooks you can find for the fly-tying bench and with an eye to the fishing situation in which it will be used.
TIP: With the increasing prevalence of ‘catch-and-release’ – either because of fishery rules or reduced fishing stocks – buy barbless hooks, or crush the barb before tying the fly.
THREADS
Up to the second half of the twentieth century the choice of threads (then mostly real ‘silks’) available to the fly-tyer was very limited – with Pearsall’s Naples and Gossamer probably most popular. Today there are several manufacturers, producing ever stronger and finer threads. As with hooks, some writers specify precisely what thread (manufacturer and thread thickness) should be used to tie their flies. In general, this is unnecessary.
TIP: All fly-tyers are advised to find a brand and thickness of thread that they find they get on with for most of their small to medium-sized flies (hooks about size 10 and smaller). A thickness of approximately 10/0 to 12/0 is ideal. Buy several spools of every colour. Tune all your bobbin holders to the spool size of the brand of thread, by bending the bobbin arms so that the thread will run off the spool easily when pulled, but the spool will not turn unless the thread is pulled. Without different-sized spools of thread from several manufacturers, you avoid the need to retune your bobbin holders with every change of thread.
Buy some thicker and stronger threads for larger flies (size 8 and larger), and perhaps a very fine thread (Spider Web 20/0 is the finest currently available, though it comes only in white and must be coloured with a spirit-based pen) for the smallest of flies, and give them their own, tuned bobbin holder.
FUR AND FEATHER
There is of course some natural variation in the colour, shade and texture of natural materials, especially those taken from wild birds and mammals (e.g. hare’s ear, speckled brown partridge). Fish seem not to notice. When it comes to other natural materials, there is a wider range of high-quality product now available to the fly-tyer than there has ever been. Half a century ago, cock hackles for dry flies came mostly from the Indian subcontinent and the best of them were grossly inferior to the specially bred ‘genetic’ capes available today.
TIP: The only problem with the genetic cock hackle is that it often has a thick stalk that, when the hackle is wound, twists around unless very tightly bound down with many turns of thread. Take the hackle from its cape and trim away the lower barbs. Then, before tying the hackle in, soften with stalk close to where it will be first wound, between the nails of thumb and forefinger.
Many flies were devised years ago, before there were worldwide concerns about endangered CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) species. This Encyclopedia includes mention of no CITES species, other than in the sections dealing with historical fly-tyings (where the feathers used come from very old collections) or with species bred in captivity for fly-tying (e.g. jungle cock). There is no need to use CITES species when tying flies to catch fish.
Legislation varies from country to country when it comes down to owning and using feathers of birds that are protected. In the UK, the grey heron and waterhen are protected, but it is not unlawful to gather moulted heron quills from the riverside in summer or the feathers from a roadkill waterhen. Always check the legal situation – especially if planning to travel abroad – with fly-tying materials.
Synthetic materials have increasingly been used in the design of many fishing flies since the Second World War. They often have properties lacking in natural materials. They are usually consistent in colour and texture: contrast the variation of hare’s ear or natural rabbit fur with a synthetic fur such as FlyRite. Sometimes they have properties not provided by any natural material: for example, no natural material provides such a soft, realistically segmented and translucent body for nymphs as Flexibody. However, there is a problem with synthetics. Rarely are they made solely for the fly-tying market and usually the fly-tying market is a tiny part of their sales. Consider Antron, made by the Dupont Corporation, which just about every fly-tyer in the world now uses. Almost 100 per cent of Dupont’s production goes into carpet or similar manufacture and a fraction over zero per cent to fly-tying. So should furnishing fashions change and Dupont stop manufacturing Antron, fly-tyers could find many of their tying techniques compromised.
In 1924 J. W. Dunne published Sunshine and the Dry Fly (2nd edn, 1950), in which he described a new range of dry flies. These, he argued, were ‘far more natural looking’ than previous dry flies. Their bodies had a natural translucency brought about by winding ‘cellulite floss’ fibres over a hook shank that had been painted white. Cellulite flosses came in a variety of colours and shades that were given code numbers by their manufacturer, Wardle & Davenport. For the body of any fly, two or three strands of different shades had to be wound together according to Dunne’s formulae. The angling wholesaler of these flosses, Messeena & Co, also sold cock hackles dyed to Dunne’s instructions and special tying threads, and they too had their codes. The following is one typical tying, DUNNE’S DARK MAYFLY SPINNER (presented in modern form, but with quotes from Dunne’s recipe):
Hook: Size 9.
Thread: Silk M2.
Tails: Cock pheasant tail herls, not dyed. ‘Ends of whisks should be 1 ½ inches from eye of hook.’
Body: ‘2 (298A) + 2 (298) + 2(226). Thickness behind hackle, about 8/100 inch. Taper to half this thickness.’
Rib: Fine gold wire.
Outspread wings: Cut from hackle H2 (including plenty of brown markings). Total spread, 1 ½ inches.
Hackles: Four turns of N behind wings, and four turns of N in front. Maximum width across 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