Adam Gallant

Very sad news, and from personal experience, it's a very difficult journey for you and your family, as well as for him. I wish you and the family all the best. I never had the opportunity to meet Mike, but I sure do know his videos, his books, and his influence on the community. He really set a very high bar in his work, and the thoroughness of his instructional works have levelled up all those that read them.

So, after a bit of revisions, and the inspiration for doing it from SalarMan, I'm happy with my first real project... Green Highlanders, per Kelson, Pryce-Tannatt, and Maxwell versions... and I'm now officially done with the green highlander for a while... The variations are interesting and do help with figuring out how to work with different materials effectively (which I can't wait to figure out)... Now, onto the Jock Scot and other fun patterns!

I found an example of the maxwell version I mention above using ChatGPT (Bing Chat) ... the throat of blue gallina really sets it apart, and no tippet under the wing...

Ok, well, my first framed fly. It's a custom fly for an old uncle, from a place on PEI called "The crick", or the creek, which is slang for North Rustico... Ignore the lighting, taken on top of the washing machine with an evening sun...

Thanks George, appreciate that! I looked at the Hardy literature, "Salmon Fishing", 1907, and that's what I took away as well, it's the same... Maxwell (Fishing at Home and Abroad, 1913) has a more interesting derivation that I'll pursue, "The Green Highlander." Tag, silver wire and gold floss; tail, a topping and sprigs of teal; butt, black chenille; body, one fourth yellow pig's wool, remainder myrtle green pig's wool with green hackle over, ribbed with silver tinsel; shoulder hackle blue dyed gallina; wing, strips of mottled brown turkey, bustard, red, yellow and blue-dyed swan, jungle-fowl at cheeks, topping over, blue macaw wings. " So a bit of a variation, although I don't see it in the "hard to tell" image from the book...

George, I've been trying to find a good photo of a Hardy style green highlander as a reference, rather than just looking at the recipe.... Do you (or anyone else, for that matter) have a good photo? Would sure appreciate it!

I think I'm happy with this one... I couldn't get the horns tied in to follow the curve of the wing, so that's as close as I could get it... Thank you sincerely for all the great suggestions...

Fantastic work! I really like the symmetry of the jungle cock on the cheeks, how it splits the wing, that's really nice!

Hi George, great suggestion on the horns! Never thought of that!!! Also, I love what you show in terms of prepping toppings... soak them, lay them on glass and until they release on their own... I know I have a more than a few pheasant heads where the the rachis in the toppings is curved, and although I've not tried this, I imagine the process you are showing brings them back to relevancy... I really appreciate the great comments folks are providing, it's definitely making a difference in how I'm approaching things. I'm having a great time with this stuff. As my boss of bosses says, "I'd rather be a learn-it-all than a know-it-all" and this journey is really satisfying!

Thanks both for the great comments, I do appreciate it! I'm going to keep going with this pattern until I get something I'm happier with... Some improvements in the attached, and I purposely made the wing thicker to bulk it up... The hackle and throat aren't what I like, just waiting on some new hackle to arrive... the tail is a bit more in proportion...

Hoping to get some advice here... I've got a few flies now that I need to frame and ship to some friends... I want the fly to survive the bumps, rattles, vibrations, etc that it is bound to encounter along the way that may cause some of the feathers to move around, separate, etc... Other than hope, does anyone have any suggestions? Things I've thought about, and would love to hear comments on, are: 1) using some wax or cement at "strategic" points to lock parts of the feathers together 2) finding some overall spray that might lock in the feathers permanently (ie: some sort of clear sealer that I could spray on, that wouldn't affect the feathers' look and feel, or ruin the overall look) Anyone have any ideas, secrets, suggestions, good wishes, etc?

Fantastic work... I really like the wing work and the cascade of the topping...

Well, first go at a Green Highlander, the Kelson version... I've been inspired to copycat Salarman's "What I'm doing at the moment" post... This one has a couple of issues, much of which stems from the underwing -- lesson here: stop and redo until the underwing is as perfect as possible: otherwise, the wing gets narly. Critique welcome, as well as suggestions on techniques...

I love this idea... the green highlander was the very first classic fly I learned to tie in a class run by Bill Spicer (the new flyfisher). Can't wait to see how things are going!!! I was trying to find a good photo of Maxwell versions of the fly, but can't seem to find a nice one, if anyone has one, I'd love to see it to compare to the hardy and tannatt versions...

Hi Folks... I learned a lot from the books and DVDs from Michael Radencich (http://www.radencichsalmonflies.com/ ) and was trying to buy another copy of "Tying the Classic Salmon Fly" DVD from his site a while back, and noticed they were out of stock, and the last update to his site seems to have been in 2018... Just curious if anyone knows if he's still active in the community, or if he's retired...