Flies Of Yesteryear: Lindgren's Peacock

Ira Lindgren is another pioneer of fly fishing and tying.  He lived in an era where flies were easy to tie and simplistic.  Lindgren lived near the Kings River in Dinuba, California. where he snorkeled often to observed trout and the way they feed.  

Ira was responsible for devising quite a few patterns- especially nymphs.  Most of his nymphs contained peacock in one fashion or another.  Many of his patterns still have quite the following in the Sierras.  However, little is known about his dry fly patterns. From the research I done it appears peccary was a staple of his dries and much of his stock was shared with Doug Prince (Pig Nymph) and Wayne "Buz" Buszek (Buz's Fly and Tackle, Visalia, California).  

Perhaps his best known pattern is the Lindgren's Olive.  However, the Lindgren's Peacock is super simple to tie and highly effective to this day.  This pattern comes with a strong recommendation from me to those just beginning in fly tying/fishing.  It is a pattern that I use often in the waters of Northern California.

Tying Notes:

(1)  The pattern should be weighted.

(2)  Only use peacock herl from near the eye.   Not only is this the best area for color and thickness, but gives the pattern a lot of "juicy" bulkiness.

(3)  Once the hackle is wrapped trim a few fibers from the top and bottom.  This will give the appearance of legs alongside the body.

Materials:

Hook:  Standard nymph hook.  Lindgren would have tied this pattern on a Mustad 7957BX or 3906B, sizes 8 to 14.

Thread:  6/0 black

Tail:  Hen, dyed black

Ribbing:  Fine gold counterwrapped

Body:  Peacock herl

Hackle:  Hen, dyed black wrapped 2 or 3 times.  Clipped short top and bottom.

Flies Of Yesteryear: A.P. Black

The late Andre "Andy" Puyans devised a series of seven nymphs in the early 1960's that will remain a staple for generations to come.  He laid emphasis on the shape, color and size of his nymphs as well as the importance of natural aquatic furs (beaver and muskrat) for texture.  He also dubbed a small head of fur to mimic the prominent heads he noted on nymphs.  This dubbing also covers the bump of thread formed by securing the moose hair and the legs rearward.  

The A.P. (All Purpose) series seems pretty straight-forward, but the technique Andy devised to tie his nymphs is absolutely sheer brilliance.   The tail, wingcase and legs are from the same clump of moose body hair.  Perhaps I should have done a step-by-step of the tying procedures...

Tying Notes:

(1)  The fly is weighted with 7 or 8 turns of lead wire in the thorax area.  The lead wire size is generally .015 for larger flies and .010 for smaller flies.

(2)  Clip approximately 12 to 15 fibers of dark moose body from the skin.  Measure the tail to about the length of the body and tie in immediately behind the thorax.  Secure with a few wraps rearward. Cut a few fibers so you 5 to 8 fibers remaining for the tail.  Do not clip forward portion of moose hair.  The remaining hair will be used for the wingcase and legs.

(3)  Tie in small copper wire.  Secure wire and tail material rearward.

(4)  Lightly apply dyed black beaver dubbing and wind forward to approximately the 60-percent mark.

(5)  Wind ribbing forward and secure forward of the wingcase hairs.

(6)  Apply black beaver dubbing and complete the thorax.

(7)  Bring wingcase forward and secure tightly with a few wraps.  Draw three fibers from each side of the wingcase and secure rearward.  Cut remaining forward pointing hairs.

(8)  Dub a small amount dyed beaver over the thread wraps for the head and then cut the legs to a length to just behind the wingcase

(9)  Whip finish.

Materials:

Hook:  Any standard length nymph hook

Thread:  6/0 or 8/0

Tail:  Dark moose body hair

Ribbing:  Small cooper wire

Body:  Dyed black beaver fur

Wingcase:  Dark moose body hair

Thorax:  Same as body

Legs:  Same as wingcase

Head:  Same as body and thorax.

Flies Of Yesteryear: Trueblood Shrimp

As a young teenager, some four decades ago, I would have never been without a few of Ted Trueblood's shrimp pattern on my local pond chasing stunted bass, crappie, perch and bluegill. These scrappy little guys absolutely loved this pattern as well as a Hare's Ear.   Now, in my middle aged years, these simple and impressionistic flies intrigue me.  So much so I have a fly box dedicated solely to flies of yesteryear.  Every so often I get a wild hair to fish retro - fiberglass and flies - and daydream of what fishing was like in those days...

 

As the name implies, Ted Trueblood designed his pattern to imitate shrimp in lakes and spring creeks. However, word soon hit the streets the Trueblood Shrimp could be fished successfully for different species in waters that lacked shrimp altogether.   Some literature from the 1970's suggests the fish may take the Trueblood Shrimp for callibaetis nymphs, too.  I believe this to hold weight as the local pond of my youth certainly did not contain scuds.  And I looked hard for them!

The effectiveness of the very simple fly comes from the use of seal's fur and a super impressionistic silhouette of several aquatic insects.  The Trueblood Shrimp, or Otter Nymph, flat out catches fish!

Tying Notes:

(1)  The Trueblood Shrimp is/was often called an Otter Nymph

(2)  Nearly every older pattern book lists the body material as a 50/50 mixture of otter and cream (natural) seal.  However, the exact ratio of otter to seal is 80/20 respectively.  More specifically, the otter should fur should come from the belly.  I have stuck to the 50/50 ratio due the my preference for the translucency of seal and confidence the fly is more effective with this ratio.

(3)  Another original portion of the recipe calls for brown thread if the fly is to be unweighted and green thread for weighted.  Green looks terribly tacky to me...  I used brown thread for weighted flies and tan thread for unweighted.

(4)  Various scud color combinations are highly encouraged.  Various shades of olive and dyed partridge has been very effective for me in British Columbia.

(5)  In the picture below the notable thick hairs is seal fur.  You can see just how translucent this fur is and how the Trueblood Shrimp, or any fly tied with seal, becomes a truly effective fly.  

Materials:

Hook:  Trueblood tied this pattern on a Mustad 3906B or 7957BX in sizes 8-16.  I've tied it on a Hanak 230BL, size 12.

Thread:  See note 3 above.

Tail:  Brown partridge

Body:  Otter and cream (natural) seal.  80/20 mixture respectively

Beard:  Brown partridge to hook point.

Flies Of Yesteryear: Carey Special

Let's head back a little further in the time vault with a pattern synonymous with the Pacific Northwest- the Carey Special.  Sometime in the 1920's, I cannot exactly pinpoint the year, Colonel Tom Carey devised his now famous pattern to likely represent dragonfly nymphs found in the lakes of British Columbia.

There is a ton of history behind Col. Carey and his Carey Special in British Columbia.  I've read Col. Carey was terribly persnickety about his pheasant rump patches and a perfectionist when tying. Whether it represent the dragon nymph we will never know.  But when tied with various materials and thickness/thinness the pattern can be tied to mimic damsels, leeches or minnows, too.  Even some thought has been written about the patterns effectiveness as an emerging caddis.

The Carey Special is my favorite lake pattern.  Even as a kid I can remember trolling the fly behind hardware and catching a lot of trout with a fly wrapped with a peacock body.  Now into mid life, I have experimented with nearly every material or fur under the sun and still find the fly effective. Early in the season, when the water is still cold, this pattern with a fluorescent colored floss bodies tied thin really racks up the numbers of planter trout.  When the spring gives way to summer I start tying my Carey's with seal for thicker bodies.  I also have a few pigeon holes in the box for olive floss bodies to mimic damsels.  Black floss bodies and rump works well for leech imitations.

The Carey Special is a Northwest icon, but my friends to the east would be doing themselves a huge favor by tying and trying a few.  I have caught largemouth and smallmouth bass, crappie, bluegill and even a turtle on the Carey!  Give it a go!

Tying notes:

(1)  The original Carey Special calls for a tail of pheasant rump, a body of pheasant tail fibers ribbed with black linen thread, and a collar of pheasant rump.

(2)  There are truly endless materials to wrap for a body.  Peacock, estaz, floss, natural furs, hair, etc. Each and every one of these materials work.  You'll need to pinpoint which material and colors work best for your area, but shades of olive and peacock are really hard to beat.

(3)  Dyed pheasant rump patches are available.  Even more color combinations!

(4)  I often tie the Carey without a tail.  This alleviates the short strikes sometimes associated with this pattern.

Materials:

Hook:  2XL or 3XL, sizes 4 - 10

Weight:  Optional.  Brass, tungsten or glass beads work well

Thread:  UTC70. color to match body

Tail:  Pheasant rump fibers

Body:  Choice.  Medium olive seal is pictured

Collar:  Pheasant rump wrapped

Flies Of Yesteryear: Skunk Hair Caddis

In his 1976 tome, Nymph Fishing For Larger Trout, Charles (Charlie) Brooks describes his own pattern, "Difficult fly to make, due to the difficulty of tying the hair down so that it will not loosen, and keeping it twisted tightly enough so the turns remain separate.  It is the best cased caddis imitation I know of, and has taken many fish for me over the last twenty some years.  I just wish there was an easier way to tie it."  

Don't let the aforementioned scare you from tying Shunk Hair Caddis.  If it wasn't for me wanting a somewhat aesthetically pleasing picture I would have knocked out nearly a dozen within the hour. Give this pattern a shot.  It is very deadly and perhaps still the best imitation for cased caddis.

Tying notes:

(1)  This fly should be weighted heavily to get down into the rocks,  I used tungsten sheeting cut into strips and wrapped.  Lob casting here I come!

(2)  The body is made by tightly twisting skunk hair taken from the tail.  You'll want to find the longest of the hairs (typically located between the mid section and tip).  These hairs are generally around 4-inches in length.  Once the hair is removed from the tail, align the the tips and tie in near the rear of the body.   Pull hair straight down to tighten the bunch and then tightly twist counter-clockwise.  Use the rotary feature of your vise.  This will keep the hair twisted, but you may have to slightly re-tighten to keep the segmented look even.  Leave a little extra room at the head of the fly for securing the skunk hair.

(3)  Charlie recommended 2XL hooks sizes 6 to 10.  I used a TMC 200R style hook to mimic the slight bend in the caddis' case.

Materials:

Hook:  2XL nymph or curved nymph hook. e.g, TMC 200R, sizes 6 to 10.  (Size 8 pictured.)

Thread:  3/0 or 6/0, black

Body:  Skunk hair taken from the tail and tightly twisted

Ribbing:  Copper tied in at the head and wrapped rearward and then back over the body..

Hackle:  Soft black hen, one or two turns,

Flies Of Yesteryear: Squirrel

Here's another simple yet highly effective Doug Prince pattern.   Let's take a quick look at his Squirrel pattern.

Tying notes:

(1)  Prince would have tied his squirrel on either a Mustad 3906B or 7957BX hook.  I have given it a slight modern look by tying the pattern on Fulling Mill's Czech Nymph Hook for more an emerger profile.
(2)  Early pattern books call for leaving the guard hairs in with the dubbing and a shaggy body picked out.  This time I elected to only picked out the thorax area to simulate the wing case opening during emergence.
(3)  The pattern recipe calls for gray squirrel body however, I went with a professionally tanned Russian squirrel.  The hair is softer and a slightly darker gray.

Materials:

Hook:  1XL or 2XL nymph hook, sizes 6-14.
Thread:  Black, size of choice. (12/0 Veevus pictured)
Tail:  Squirrel guard hairs taken from the back
Body:  Squirrel body
Hackle:  Hen, grizzly

Flies Of Yesteryear: Burlap

I've been very fortunate to hold a few originals of this next fly in my hands.  A quick disclaimer... Although it cannot be positively confirmed it is strongly believed these flies were tied on Mustad 7970 hooks due to the perfect alignment of size, length and wire diameter.  However, there is a possibility of the hooks being manufactured Edgar Sealey, too.

I am going to kill three (not two) birds with one stone and highlight a pattern that is not only effective for resident river trout, but the mighty anadromous steelhead.  The finale is displaying the Burlap on a vintage Mustad 7970 5X Strong hook as it was tied over 75-years ago when Arnold Arana first introduced the pattern to the Klamath River in Northern California.  The Burlap remains popular on the Klamath and it's tributaries however, the fly is use more to pursue the aggressive half-pounder (returning 1-year old steelhead) than the larger adult steelhead on modern hooks such as the TMC 200 style.

Tying notes:

(1)  The Mustad 7970 is still available for those that desire to fish a floating line and chase steelhead. There are few patterns that are specifically tied on this hook for the aforementioned purpose. However, due to the hook's wire diameter, it is not recommended for smaller fish if you practice catch and release.

(2)  Quite a few of the recent pattern books call for fine deer hair in the tail and tied short.  The original Burlap utilizes light brown bucktail tied longer.  I haven't seen this dyed color tail commercially available, but the center portion of an ordinary white tail will suffice. This was more than likely the same procedure years ago for choosing the color

(3)  The Burlap is quite a resident trout pattern, too!  It is believed the trout mistake the fly for a caddis pupa or emerger.

(4)  This pattern fishes better the longer it is fished.  The shaggier, the better.  Scoring the body of the fly prior to fishing is strongly recommended.

Materials:

Hook:  Any 2XL or 3Xl nymph hook. (Mustad 7970, size 8 pictured)

Thread:  6/0 or 8/0. black

Tail:  Bucktail, Light brown at least one body length or slightly longer.

Body:  Burlap, natural color (tan) scored for a shaggy appearance

Collar:  1 or 2 turns of soft grizzly hen hackle tied long.

Flies Of Yesteryear: Mink Nymph

The late Doug Prince was responsible for at least a dozen popular fish-catching patterns during his era.  A few have lived on...  Ironically, one extremely popular fly bearing his name today, the Prince Nymph, wasn't devised by Doug.  Both the Brown Forked-Tail (Prince Nymph) and Black Forked-Tail were spawned by brothers Don and Dick Olson of Bemidji, Minnesota.  Prince only touted the two patterns.

Tying Notes:

The fur body of Mink Nymph calls for natural brown mink.  However, natural mink coloration can be found in several shades of brown from light to a very dark.  While a few tiers are persnickety to exacting the color of their flies I believe Mr. Prince gave us a wide option here.  The sheer buggy look of this fly and movement of the soft hen hackle in the water might possible make exacting the color secondary.

Doug tied the Mink Nymph on Mustad 7957BX hooks in size 6 through 14.  The fly was promoted as "an effective fly on larger streams and rivers for those real big fish."

Materials:

Hook:  1XL or 2XL nymph hook
Thread:  Brown (14/0 Veevus pictured)
Tail:  Soft brown hen
Body:  Natural brown mink tied full and shaggy
Hackle:  Dark furnace tied back over the body

Flies Of Yesteryear: Casual Dress

We're not headed back in time too far.  The year was 1960 when three experimental (Casual Dress) nymphs were introduced to the waters of Oregon's Deschutes River where it enters the Wickiup Reservoir.   Long story short the nymphs immediately racked up some pretty impressive catches and E. H. "Polly" Rosborough's nymph continues to find the end of a leader to this day.

I'll be honest... I don't fish this nymph very often in the rivers (where I should probably spend more time doing so) strictly due to the type of water(s) I fish, but in the lakes the fly really shines for me.  I am not sure what the fish take it for, perhaps a leech, damsel or dragon fly nymph, but the tail and collar definitely provide enough undulating action that the takes are very hard!

The Casual Dress is suggestive of many aquatic food forms and only requires two materials tie- muskrat and ostrich herl.  Rosborough writes, "While is appears to represent some tidbit of very active food, to the fish, it really simulates nothing more than just that, food."

Tying notes:  (" " indicates direct quotes Rosborough's Tying and Fishing the Fuzzy Nymphs.

(1)  Although Rosborough doesn't specifically mention adding weight to his patterns, you may do so if desired.  He does mention "plenty of cement" (varnish) along the thread before the body is wound.  I usually weight the forward portion of the hook shank,

(2)  Even though the body is spun in a dubbing loop Polly pens, "It may look ragged enough as it is, but I score it anyways so the guard hairs are feathered out like centipede legs."  Rosborough used a hacksaw blade to score his fly bodies.

(3)  Just a personal preference, but I like a lot of guard hairs.  Especially when I tie the Casual Dress for lake fishing!

(4) I cannot tell you how many times I've read Rosborough book, but there's no reference to spinning the collar.  It does appear the fur from pelt was tied directly to the shank and then maneuvered around for 360-degree coverage.  If someone knows for sure please contact me.

Materials:

Hook:  2XL or 3XL hook.

Thread:  UTC 70, black

Tail:  Small clump of muskrat from the pelt.  Guard hairs left in place.

Body:  Muskrat. Body is formed by winding material in a dubbing loop.  Well picked out.

Collar:  Small clump of muskrat with guard hairs from the pelt spun in a dubbing loop.  

Head:  Ostrich, dyed black.  

Flies Of Yesteryear: Black Seal

This pattern is very representative of a period when a lot flies were tied with the thought of simple and impressionistic in mind.  As you can clearly see the Black Seal is impressionistic of a stonefly or possibly a hellgrammite.  These simple patterns were typically heavily weighted to reach the bottom quickly in swift riffles.  Therefore an accurate anatomical dressing was not required.

The recipe can be found in Randall Kaufmann's early published work on nymphs however, it doesn't list any helpful historical data such as originator or time period.

Tying notes:

(1) The original pattern was tied on tied on large(r) Mustad 3906B or 9671 hooks and heavily weighted (typically sizes 6 to 10).  I've have substituted the hook with a Daiichi 1260, Size 12
(2)  The fly pictured is tied loosely with seal.  If you are unable to locate good seal I would recommend angora goat or SLF in it's place.  These are excellent substitutions.
(3)  Reminiscent of this style is cutting the top of the hackle once wound and secured.

Materials (As pictured)

Hook: Daiich 1260, sizes 6-12, weighted
Tail:  Goose biots tied in a "V," dyed black
Ribbing:  Gold wire
Body:  Seal, dyed black and loosely dubbed.
Hackle:  Hen, dyed black and clipped on top.