mvendon

I don't claim to be an expert on Fran's patterns, but I don't ever remember him ever calling a fly a Picket Pin. It was always Picket Finn. To add to the confusion, I went to his shop in the fall of 2004 to buy some dubbing and a few more Usuals. He was tying beadhead Picket Finns when I was there. He didn't have any Usuals available at all when he asked me what I was looking for. I asked for a half dozen Usuals and he stopped tying the Picket Finns and tied up 6 Usuals in a matter of minutes. I bought two of the Picket Finns he was tying and kept them along with a lot of other patterns that I have of his. Here's what they look like. They are size 12.

Try this link from the Wayback machine https://web.archive.org/web/19991117211137/http://ausablewulff.com/flyofmonthapril.html Regards, Mark

Pink Wickham's Fancy Hook: Allcocks W143 #14 Thread: Gudebrod 8/0 Brown Tail: Gallina dyed reddish brown Body: Flat gold tinsel with brown hackle palmered to the wings Ribbing: Fine gold wire Wing: Landrail primaries Hackle: Brown The Pink Wickham was evolved in 1885 by Francis Francis. The only difference from the original tie is that the wing is made from landrail instead of starling.

Thank you all very much ! You're way too kind !🙂

Here's my attempt at a Muddler Minnow. I tried to make it as close to the original as possible. There's quite a few sparsely dressed original pics on the net here and there. I ended up going with the one that's in Bates Streamer Tying and Fishing book, since it was tied by Gapen and was more than likely tied for presentation. Hook: Mustad 38941 size 4 Tail: A pair of mottled turkey wing slips Body: Weighted with 0.010 lead wire and old gold metal tinsel over that Wing: Grey squirrel tail just beyond the fly's tail in length, with two mottled turkey slips tied in above that. Shoulders: Fine deer hair tied in on either side of the wing so it reaches all the way back to the bend of the hook Head: A couple of clumps of deer hair spun and packed loose, clipped tapering back above and below the hook shank Thread: Red for weighted For the next one, how about a Professor wet fly. It's almost a hundred years older than this one, and most folks should have just about all the materials for it. Regards, Mark

I'll take the muddler minnow..

The Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear was first tied as a wet / nymph type pattern without any wings. Dressing was: Body: Dark fur from the root of a Hare's ear spun on yellow or primrose silk Ribbing: Flat gold tinsel Hackle: Long strands of body dubbing picked out with a dubbing needle Whisks: Three strands as hackle Hook: 14 to 16 This is all from the book, A Dictionary Of Trout Flies. A. Courtney Williams also wrote that he stood on dangerous ground referring to the original dressing, since nobody knows when or by whom the pattern was invented.

Here's a pic of an original. You just need to have the clipped hair part a little more back from the eye. Having the right sized hair for the hook size helps big time as well.

It seems to work just fine consistently when using Microsoft Edge. When I switch to Google Chrome, it's hit or miss. More so on the miss side. Regards, Mark

Hi Sandan, I really like Atherton patterns too! I bought a re-print of the book quite a while back. The problem is that the re-print doesn't have the detailed color for the fly illustrations that the first edition has. Maybe on Kindal it's different. Here is an extremely good copy that a very nice person mailed to me that is as close as possible to the way that it appears in his first edition. I would have PM'd this, but it only has a URL link to the web, and not a picture attachment provision. Regards, Mark

From a brief search right here that's not too old. https://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?/topic/93249-nayat/&tab=comments#comment-818239 Regards, Mark

I use a lot of it for mainly one pattern, the Ausable Ugly. All sizes of brown trout just love that pattern and its usually the first one that I tie on if I don't see any specific hatch that the fish are targeting. Regards, Mark

Satin Fin Streamer Hook: Mustad streamer 6X Tail: Very few fibers of yellow marabou cut off vertically just beyond the bend of the hook Body: Wound with white floss, slightly tapered Ribbing: Flat medium silver tinsel Throat: Very few fibers of yellow marabou, cut off vertically to the same length as the tail Wing: Two blue saddle hackles, on each side of which is an orchid saddle hackle, all the same length and extending slightly beyond the tail Cheeks: J C, small Originated by Keith Fulsher, from Bates Streamer Fly Tying & Fishing book

Here's a pic of an old tying catalog from the 50's that I spotted on ebay a long while back. Check out the upper right hand corner. Veniards sold a sub for it back in the early 50's as well.

Here's an answer Regards, Mark

How strong does it have to be ? After reading your post, I spun elk and deer hair onto an old Mustad #5 wet fly hook. I used YLI 100 silk thread and left it on the end. The color is 231 which is pretty close to Pearsall's 6A. There are two bunches each of elk, X-caddis deer, and yellow deer body hair towards the eye in that order. It's spun and tied half assed, but the point being that I didn't break the YLI thread to flare and spin the body. The pic is below to compare how close Pearsall's is to YLI 100. I have YLI 100 as a back up to Pearsall's if I ever run out of it.

They only had two issues for 1995, then combined the fall/winter 1996 issue. Regards, Mark

A Darbee Bronze Dun Neck that I have. Regards, Mark

I sent an email to them after reading this note yesterday. According to Bucky, Cam bought BRF a little over 7 years ago from Craig. They have a new supplier for good quality hides, which are drying and should be ready to cut up and sell very early next year. Whitetail Fly Tying moved their shop from Illinois to North Carolina just a month or so ago to be closer to their family. Just some deer hair news, sorry for the slight hijack..

Bunyan bug wings. I tied these in size 8 for smallies a few months ago with horse mane wings, and the streams never went low enough to try them out. Maybe next year..

Here's a blast from the past. Twenty years ago now...

Along the line of extended patterns, if you have the materials they work good for cranefly / daddylong leg patterns. Here's one that I used that works pretty well, though I wish it floated a little better while fishing. Regards, Mark

Like others have mentioned, you did a really nice job on those flies! The third one down in your first post is really close to the way that Fran tied his. He used a lot of hair for the wing. He used quite a bit of dubbing too , but tied them really fast and rough that left the thread showing in spots. If you want some more ideas for patterns that use snowshoe here in the northeast check this link out. Just scroll down to see lots of patterns that Tony Ritter has tied. He used to be a member here, but like tons of other folks, just doesn't come here any longer. His site hasn't been updated in a while either by the looks of it, but there's lots of good patterns there. Regards, Mark

Here's my quick and dirty attempt. The wing is folded ozark oak mottled turkey that's very old. Ginger rooster streamer cape feather for the tail and hackle. Stripped natural condor quill for the body. It's on a size 12 3906b Mustad hook. The original pic is lit up very bright so the colors are a little washed out by it.

@Moshup, Both of those came out just fine! The tapered body can take some time if you don't use the right combination of thread underneath. Bob Petti has a tutorial on them over at the Global Fly Fisherman site. The type that he uses takes quite a while to build, even though it's somewhat thick to start with. I used it as the secondary thread since it really flattens out and makes a nice base for the floss body on some of his patterns that I've tied. I think it's a real unique feature compared to all the streamers out there that have been created over the years. They used to have lots of his patterns over at The Streamer List before that forum became pretty dead.