Classic Dry Fly Trout Swap

[gunpowderleader 0]

I'd love to join this swap of you will have me.

[troutguy 0]

Would anyone mind doing one extra? I invited FishingBobNelson in and the swap filled up before I could post him.

[shoebop 0]

No prob.

[troutguy 0]

I have said it here before, in fact i tied it in a swap and got some good feedback from a couple who fished the fly. There was a tier Mahlon Davidson who tied a Davidson Special. It was really a Light Cahill with the white body dyed light green with willow bark. The fly was one of my grandfather's favorite. The only place in print I ever saw the fly pattern was Darbee's Catskill Tier book.

 

The was a lot of variation in ties back then and now. I have seen Light Cahills tied with yellow dyed wood duck or mallard wings with almost pure white body and very light almost white hackle. Four years ago I saw a Cahill with a greenish tint in one of the stores in Roscoe. I asked the guy in the store if they were supposed to be a Davidson Special. His answer saddened me, he said he never heard of the fly and that the people who tie most of these have never seen a trout. They one lot just came with a very light green tint.

 

As I said, duplicates are fine.

[Dcap240 0]

I think I'm going to tie a red quill. No problem here with tying one more.

[fishingbobnelson 0]

Are we tying 13 and get one of our own back or 12 and not getting one of ours back? I will be tying something out of The Founding Flies.

[troutguy 0]

Tie twelve you will not get one back.

[vicrider 0]

Dcap, I've already started some Red Quills but there's several different versions of them around so don't think we'll have any chance of duping. I hope not because yours will surely look better than mine. I've played with different old recipes I found and what I finally settled on is Moose body hair tail, stripped red dyed herl quill, Gold wooduck wings, reddish brown hackle. I happened to just receive some very old Partridge fine wire #12 hooks from Redditch England and will tie on those. They are a traditional dry fly hook with a fairly long shank which let's you tie a decent sized fly and still leave room at the eye for those who still would do the old tie behind the eye knot.

[Dcap240 0]

No problem Vicrider. I'm going to tie mine on a size 14 TMC 100. Coq de Leon tails. Stripped hackle quill. Lemon Wood duck wings and dark dun hackle. I might mix grizzly in with that as well.

[joseph russell 0]

I will try tying them Rat-Faced McDougal.

[vicrider 0]

I like that Jo R, but I'm no good at spinning deer hair or I'd do more of them. The other one I'd like to spin for is the muddler minnow. One of my all time favorites and I don't know how to tie it.

 

Okay Dcap, let's go for it. If I didn't already have a bunch tied with rusty dun hackle I'd have done them with Cree, but rusty dun it's going to be.

[joseph russell 0]

I have never tried spinning deer hair but I have been wanting to try it out. I will be looking at some YouTube video's and give it a go.

[troutguy 0]

Very cool. The key is small diameter deer hair and pack it tight with your thumb nail and don't run out of room.

[shoebop 0]

I have never tried spinning deer hair but I have been wanting to try it out. I will be looking at some YouTube video's and give it a go.

That's a pretty difficult pattern Joe. Are you sure you want to tackle it, especially if you've never spun deer hair before? If you do, make sure you use a 1xl hook. The little extra shank really helps.

BTW The RFM is the same thing as a an Irresistible Adams. But I like the name Rat-Faced McDougal better.

[vicrider 0]

My first disasters with deer hair was trying to spin bucktail. That ain't gonna cut it. Played a little with body hair and sure makes a difference. What bothered the most was getting to the trimming part. God what a mess. Hair everywhere. Next try at it I'm going to complete clear the desk for trimming so I can vacuum a nice flat surface instead of mixed in with all the things on my fly tying table setup.