Was Geoffrey Bucknall's "Footballer Nymph", the first modern buzzer pattern?
Body : One black and one white horsehair wound up the shank side by side
Thorax : Mole fur and bronze peacock herl
This fly reputedly had the first major success beating the blank in infamous "Blagdon boil"
Not sure of the dates, think it was in the 1960's
Any takers on this?
Bowtie Buzzer - Frank Sawyer?
I think Frank sawyer's "Bowtie Buzzer" would have pre-dated the Footballer. I don't have a copy of his book, but I should imagine this was in the fifties.
Just read your post Fishtales. Any idea when?
Alex
I have 'A History of Flyfishig' by Conrad Voss Bark which states the same.
I remember reading the article about G.Bucknall's Footballer Nymph in a magazine called "Rod and Line", that would have been probably 1966 or '67. It was featured some time later, '68 or '69 in T&S by Tom Stewart. The Bow-tie buzzer was featured in T&S in a short article mid-sixties as well. I have used the F. Nymph with some success on a few occassions over the years.
Greenwell
Does anyone know how Bucknall's Footballer Nymph got its name?
Because the footballs at that time were black and white? Or he supported Newcastle United and that is their colours :)
Quote from: fishtales on January 18, 2008, 09:07:03 PM
Because the footballs at that time were black and white? Or he supported Newcastle United and that is their colours :)
Pretty much………the striped body of the fly looked like old fashioned footballer's socks!
Quote from: wee bri on January 18, 2008, 08:35:45 PM
Reputedly the first person recorded as tying and fishing imitations of midge pupae.
wee bri.............
I have a memory of reading about fishing the American West in an old book using a midge pattern called the Snow Fly. I'll check out some of my American books but the indexes are rubbishy
Quote from: wee bri on January 18, 2008, 08:35:45 PM
http://books.google.com/books?id=Nd6AcbwgWp8C&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=the+blagdon+buzzer&source=web&ots=FuNeJk88qA&sig=_4R2JUkRB0JdGuor6c6O7XvVIaU
According to this link from a book by C.B. McCully, Dr Bell created and fished the Blagdon Buzzer in the 1920's/30's.
Reputedly the first person recorded as tying and fishing imitations of midge pupae.
I hard heard of the Blagdon buzzer and been told it was one of the earliest buzzers though I've never come across this fly myself.
wee bri.............
I have just been threw my library and I have this book :) Only my copy is called 'A book of words Fly-Fishing' printed 1992, the book in the link was printed 2000.
It looks like it. The cover picture is the same.
What seems to be coming across here is the buzzer may be old enough to be "traditional"
Oh dear! :worms
:biglaugh;
This to remind those who visit the chippie in Dunkeld !!!!! really must make a point of going there ! so we are told by the lads on this forum ??? :makefun :makefun
I was always under the impression it was Dr Bell that coined the name. His Buzzer Nymph was the first time I had heard the name Buzzer used. Still there may be others that predate this but I have not heard of them. Always thought that is was the Blagdon Midge.......but I bow to others if there was a Blagdon Buzzzer that predates Dr Bell. Bell was the first to use a tuft of wool to imitate beathing filaments if I remember correctly though.
Tight Lines
Maybe's Aye Maybe's naw
Tight Lines
I've lost the thread here. What really :shock:worries me is that I fancy the sexy smiley something awful
alex
And going back to Fred's original post in his inspirational roller coaster ride of discovery.....
The first "buzzer" hmm, how about Stewart's Black Spider or the Blae and Black or the Butcher or the Black Pennel or the Silver Saltoun or the .........
Dennis,
I mean the first purpose designed buzzer rather than a general pattern. What we might now call a traditional buzzer :hippy
Quote from: haresear on January 19, 2008, 03:38:19 AM
I've lost the thread here. What really :shock:worries me is that I fancy the sexy smiley something awful
alex
Me too! :worms Phwoarrr...............
Where does Dr Mottram fit into this? I've read that he was accredited with the first "buzzer" pupa.
.D.
I think Mottram designed the blagdon green midge but I that's an adult imitation? Before that Alfred Ronalds designed a midge pattern I think called the golden midge or maybe the golden dun midge. As well as the Blae and black there must be some very old patterns of Duck Fly. However I can't think of any midge pupae tyings before the Bell version. Come to think of it There must have been very few patterns in what we regard as the classic "nymph" form before then. I wonder if Skues tied anything like it?
Malcolm
QuoteHey Fred where did you get the Kylie smilie?
Is it not a Carol Smillie :lol:
Alex
The buzzer was invented by Dr.H.A Bell in the early 1920's when he came back from WW1 and fished a place called Blagdon, his patterns where used with little change until the 70's, a guy called Martin Blakeston, who as far as I know was the first to use pearlescent materials with his Blakeston's buzzer.
Who was the first person to tie a Diawl Bach ?? I've read it was either Jimmy Evans, Albert Horne or Glyn Isaac back in the 50's ?? can anyone shed any light ??
Quote from: Allan Liddle on January 20, 2008, 08:42:37 PM
if you consider a Stewarts spider fished on a 'Greased Line' right up in the surface, or even the fly itself greased then as it has no tail then would it not have sat arse down with the hackle lying across the surface as a parachute style does
Or indeed with the body sunk, emerger style. Bob Wyatt once mentioned this and reckoned that "dries" like the grey duster often fish like this and that may indeed be what makes them great patterns. His point was many anglers may have been fishing sunk bodied emergers for years without even realising it.
Leckford Professor or Cow's Arse devised by Ernest Mott, a test river keeper. Fishes like a parachute fly with the body under water. A mate of mine caught quite a few Grayling on the Earn with one.
HOOK : 12-14
BODY : Dark hare's ear
RIB : Fine flat gold tinsel
HACKLES : A bright red cock and a white hackle tied in at the rear of the shank, hiding the point of the hook.
This is a picture of it from fish4flies http://www.fish4flies.com/
(http://www.fish4flies.com/img/flies/Large/871-Leckford_Professor.jpg)
Alan,
If you mean this style of dressing, I've got a box full of them. I put one in a fly swap on the forum and Alex and I had a brief discussion about where the style came from. I first came accross the style nearly 30 years ago. It works well at times and always floats tail down in the water.
Quote from: fishtales on January 20, 2008, 09:16:28 PM
Leckford Professor or Cow's Arse devised by Ernest Mott, a test river keeper. Fishes like a parachute fly with the body under water.
Funnily enough I was discussing that fly and Terry Griffiths' letter in FF&FT today with Roy Christie, Terry wrongly tried to liken it to Roy's Avon Specials.
Apart from the fact that it doesn't fish inverse like Roy's, we both agreed that it would be almost impossible to get it to swim with the body hanging vertically. There is too much hackle and the dubbing is too spiky. It may sit in the surface film, but is highly unlikely to hang vertical.
That's not to say that the Leckford Professor isn't a very good emerger type fly.
Quote from: Allan Liddle on January 20, 2008, 10:18:12 PM
Maybe start a new thread for this Fred as it might hijack this a wee bit. Not really to do with buzzers?
OK, can you start it?
Quote from: Malcolm on January 20, 2008, 10:07:16 PM
Alan,
If you mean this style of dressing, I've got a box full of them. I put one in a fly swap on the forum and Alex and I had a brief discussion about where the style came from. I first came accross the style nearly 30 years ago. It works well at times and always floats tail down in the water.
I've used the same style of fly myself. Usually a Grey Duster with a single "advanced wing" of natural or dyed yellow squirrel tail. Works OK if the body is dubbed fairly tight ( with rabbit body fur, as a Grey Duster should be tied). And why shouldn't it? ; that's how a Grey Duster floats much of the time. Smooth bodies , as in your image, hang vertically more consistently though.
Cheers,
.D.
The American tyer Scott Sanchez also ties a pattern with the same profile: his Parachute Midge Emerger. It too is designed to fish with the body submerged. It's in the "Emergers" book. And in his own book, " A New Generation of Trout Flies" :| .
.D.
Quote from: admin on January 20, 2008, 09:01:16 PM
Or indeed with the body sunk, emerger style. Bob Wyatt once mentioned this and reckoned that "dries" like the grey duster often fish like this and that may indeed be what makes them great patterns. His point was many anglers may have been fishing sunk bodied emergers for years without even realising it.
"
Max Joset tied the original Moustiques with a collar hackle of CDC feathers and a body of silk. In Marc Petitjean's view these archtypal CDC flies were used as dry flies fished in the surface film. With their floating CDC hackles and sinking bodies, they give a good impression of emerging insects"
Tying Flies with CDC ; The Fisherman's Miracle Feather. Leon Links 2002
Yet another example.
.D.
QuoteHis point was many anglers may have been fishing sunk bodied emergers for years without even realising it.
I think"many" anglers were well aware how & what they were fishing.
Tight Lines
Quote from: Highlander on January 21, 2008, 01:00:47 AM
I think"many" anglers were well aware how & what they were fishing.
Tight Lines
I concur.
Off topic a little, but if you look at a Waterhen Bloa what else could it imitate but an emerging or damaged baetid dun. Dirty olive body, grey wings . The legs on both the nymphs and adults are some shade of olive, marked darker. And they're short. Those "old guys" would happily fish it through the middle of a hatch, in or at worst just under the film.
.D.
Quote from: Highlander on January 21, 2008, 01:00:47 AM
I think"many" anglers were well aware how & what they were fishing.
Very likely many did, we can speculate. Certainly in recent years this is a topic that, to some extent, has been done to death in the fly fishing press and elsewhere, so one would image that most now would be aware.
Quote from: Allan Liddle on January 20, 2008, 10:18:12 PM
Do you fish it a lot and do you think colour plays a part in the dressing?
Allan.
I used to use it a lot and still do from time to time. I found the best pattern in this style was using the same material as a polywing adams. I had a fantastic time using it on loch Watten about 12 years ago. I was up there on holiday and had about 4 s16s with me. At the end of the holiday the hackle had all but gone on them all but they were still catching a load of fish.
I don't really know why I stopped using them regularly but CDC buzzers - first the Perky then the more conventional CDC buzzer took their place. Every so often though I'll have another red letter day with them as I did at one of the hill lochs above Corriekinloch when I had a great day on a big dark orange and black version.
Malcolm