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Will K

Picket Pin - the streamer

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I'm curious. The Picket Pin wet has been one of my favorite flies for a long time... but around the same time I heard of the wet, I learned of the streamer. If my memory is correct, I think I learned about the streamer before learning of the wet fly actually.

 

The streamer is basically palmered peacock body, "ribbed" with ginger saddle hackle with a squirrel tail wing. Simple, and very very effective fly dead drifted, stripped or swung...

 

I've never really seen others fishing the streamer version, and that has me wondering - does any one fish the streamer version besides me (sarcasm :)) and, do any of you know more of the history of the Picket Pin streamer? I've not really been able to find any!

 

Will

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Will:

 

No, but I tied some floies that were called "picket Fins" which the pattern mentioned that this was the fin and not the pin. I look it up when I get home tonight. It seemed to be more of a small streamer. I think it was one of Fran Betters patterns fom upstate NY?

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Not sure about the history. It's been around for a long time, and was one of the first flies I learned to tie. Really never gave much thought to the difference between the wet fly & the streamer versions, as I've tied both. I've always used a natural red-brown hackle or a furnace hackle for the palmered body in either. Either version is a darn good Smallmouth Bass fly!

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Hi Will,

 

I've tied and tried a few, but have yet to catch anything on them. There's a small bunch of history about them over at FAOL's Just Old Flies section. Jack Boehme came up with that pattern sometime after 1915. It's name is because of the ground squirrel hair that's used for the wing. Cowboys used to see the ground squirrels sitting upright on the prairie looking around, and thought they looked like the picket pins used to picket out their horses. I would have copied the link, but it just looks like it goes to the index, not the pattern. It doesn't come up when Googled either.

 

Fran Betters also tied a pattern called a bead head Picket Finn that used different materials than his regular one.

 

Regards,

Mark

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Ask, and thou shall recieve :)! I have some reading to do it seems.

 

I learned of the picket finn recently on the small stream reflections blog (AWESOME blog) and have those int he que... Pretty much any fly Fran Betters tied is a very good fly indeed! I just felt like I see others fishing the picket pin... but so rarely if ever hear about the streamer... I was starting to think the guy who described it to me (Rodney Flagg of Flagg's flies up here in MA) just created it on his own!

 

Thanks folks!

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Will

 

I agree about that blog, small steams reflections. I don't remember how I found it but thanks to the person I got the link from.

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That was some very good info - I enjoyed the links a lot guys - thanks! Funny how flies change. the pic of the streamer on one of the links was a smidge different than what I'd been taught. 1.) it had a tail and 2.) had peacock palmered in front of the wing. both are the way the wet fly is set up, but the streamer that was showed to me and taught to me was tailless, and did not have peacock in front of the wing. The wet fly did, but not the streamer. I think that's just the "telephone" game of fly tying right there.

 

Person learns about a fly, ties it, tweaks to suit their needs/style. They show someone who repeats that process. Then down the line, it just keeps changing...

 

All good, but great to see the history. Thanks!

 

Such an awesome fly - in both the wet and streamer forms.

 

Crackaig thanks for the link - I enjoyed it. I do tie it with peacock ice dub some times too! It's a smidge easier to tie that way, but I do like the look of the natural peacock better. i dont know that i've sensed a difference in catch rate... Great idea to try ribbing with krystal flash - never thought to try that.

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