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Most of your topics are covered in the 3 Don Bastian DVDs:  Tying Classic Wet Flies, Advanced Classic Wet Flies  (excellent married wing technique and a Silver Dr demo), and Traditional Streamers and Bucktails.  They are better than anything I have seen on the internet.  He covers thread (Danville 6/0), hooks (mustad 3906 and 3399), materials and especially techniques.  Dave Hughes book Wet Flies is also very good.   Good Luck,

Thanks, Bob H

 

 

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LESSON 7 is the one that puts you shape.

so important to understanding that you dictate where that feather goes , so knowing structure of feather rachis and how it reacts to thread pressure is 🔑 

Fun Stuff

That fly I tied above was fourteen years ago! I mean I still actively tie, sort of lost track of those days.
Years ago we had a CLASS ROOM SECTION where we could meet in real time and I held many classes, we all tied together and if someone had a question I could immediately go back and re tie, yep the good old days. Met many many tiers, most not active here anymore.

We couldn’t get the forum tiers to host any and I got burned out and the cost to keep it running became too much. 
Bacj to Lesson 7, great stuff right there.

 

p.s. It’s been awhile but I got all my hooks from Ron 

 

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Thanks everyone for all your fantastic responses! I'm trying to buy a few materials to get started tying a Parmachene Belle or the Fontinalis Fin, and I have most of the materials in my cart. However, many of these wet fly recipes (in addition to salmon flies) call for brightly colored hen hackle for the fly's throats. What type of feather should I be looking for (saddle, neck, back, rooster, hen, etc.)? I can only find hen saddles natural, drab colors. 

Do you have a recommendations for a source for bright but relatively inexpensive hackle feathers? 

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Poking around on the internet, it looks like some places sell dyed hen neck which would probably be best for your classic wet fly throats due to their length and webbing. However, if you can't find them from your source, you could probably find some webby feathers in a pack of strung saddle hackle, which would also probably be your cheapest option. There are usually a variety of sizes in a package and several are generally shorter and webby. For classic salmon flies, you can also use saddle hackle. Hen neck would be too short for body hackles and throat hackles on larger salmon fly patterns. You can also use schlappen, rooster, etc. When it comes to classic salmon flies different people seem to have their own preference when it comes to the hackle type they like. The hackle you choose will also depend on if that hackle is being used as a throat, collar, or body hackle.

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This is purely personal, but I have always use cock hackle for my wet flies. It will bend back along the body when being fished, but because of it resilience it adds movement or motion to the fly that hen just doesn't give. The one exception is for a couple of Jim Leisenring's patterns where he calls for hen or Jackdaw. Don't fret over trying to find just the right dyed hen hackle...it doesn't really matter all that much, use the dyed cock hackle. But...obtain good natural colors of both hen and cock hackle when you can.

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@SalarMan or others

Here's an example of what I'm wondering about in the above post... What follows is an old (how old, I don't know) catalog from Mustad posted earlier today on another site. At page 19 there is a neat series of traditional salmon flies (jock scott, silver doctor, etc.). But the flies as pictured look so much more "buggy" than the artistic flies, yet still superb. They're not "stacked wing" flies like @Bruce Derington had posted, they're married wings. Any insights?

https://flypattern.org/pdf/mustad-catalogue.pdf

By the way, the catalog is really neat all around. 20+ pages of great looking old flies.

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Chug, not sure how old that catalog is either. It is a cool resource though. I'm not sure I have an official answer to your question, but can provide a little insight. 

Originally, these flies were absolutely tied to be fished, I'd say almost exclusively. Many patterns are not nearly as complex as all the most popular ones you see like the Jock Scott, Green Highlander etc. and many patterns didn't use a lot of exotic materials. A lot of patterns used simple mallard for wings, wool for bodies, european jay for a throat for example. I believe a lot of the most elaborate patterns were developed in the Victorian and surrounding eras where you see elaborate designs and displays of excess in many aspects of life. Think houses from that era, very stately, ornate and adorned with trim, hand carved embellishments etc. I think that mindset transferred to salmon flies of the time. As people explored the world, they found the exotic birds and before there were regulations they harvested them for their plumage for things like hats, mounting in display cases, museum collections etc. and also made them available for salmon flies. My point is, the elaborate and exotic designs were definitely used to appeal to the people fishing and tying the flies, but the flies were still intended to be fished so originally I wouldn't say there were separate artistic and fishing flies. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, however.

Historically, These flies were mostly tied in hand using no bobbin with waxed silk thread. This technique can certainly produce a beautiful fly, but will be much harder to keep it as refined as many of the show pieces you see today. I'm sure the tyers of old didn't spend hours on each fly since they were tying for fishing. Those tyers were not spinning their bobbin to flatten the thread and making sure they always made side by side wraps. There was also a focus on making a durable fly. If you look at a deconstruction of an antique fly you'll see they spiraled the thread forward or backward routinely and often threw a half hitch on between steps so they fly wouldn't fall apart when they worked to prepare materials for the next step. There are people now who tie in this manner and they tie wonderful flies but they have a bit of a "patina" that is visible in the fly which many find appealing.

If you get a chance, look at some old books on the subject by people like William Blacker, Tolfrey, Charles and Mary Orvis etc. You'll see the illustrations on the plates in those books also show less-than-perfect flies. I don't think tying crisp, framing quality flies was the priority. As far as your question about married wings, from what I've heard from people who still fish these, the married wings don't stay married. I think it's a technique that is/was probably largely done for the aesthetic, though I can't say for sure as I have no experience fishing married wings. 

I don't know if my ramblings make much sense or answer any of your questions. There is a lot to discuss with the topic and I'll try to start providing some of this information to this section of the forum over time for those who wish to understand the history more deeply. In summary, I think you are correct about there being two camps of tyers today, but originally these flies were definitely tied for utility and I think techniques seen most often today differ quite a bit from techniques used in the "old days".

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And remember what I told you chug bug, “The”Macallan scotch is an important part of.the process. Why, in Scotland it’s actually traditional.

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