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Aitken

Started by Traditionalist, October 28, 2011, 02:40:46 PM

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Traditionalist

Mentioned by E.M. Tod in "Wet Fly Fishing treated methodically"

SOME SIMPLY-DRESSED SINGLE-WINGED FLIES.

This style of fly, my preceptor, Mark Aitken, made me familiar with well over forty years ago. They are nameless flies, known amongst fishermen merely by the description of their various and very simple dressings, which I am naturally familiar with, and the method of dressing which, I found quite recently described in that valuable work, " Blacker's Art of Fly-making," published in London in the year 1855, and headed (at page 3) thus : " An Easy Method to make the Trout Fly." His mode of dressing such flies is almost identical with mine, save that Blacker dressed his fly with two wings, which neither I nor old Mark Aitken ever thought it necessary to do, finding as we did, that flies tied with a single wing, in a bunch, but sparely, and set upright, killed quite as well as the most elaborate flies in any fishing- tackle shop. I shall begin with a few of " Mark's " simple patterns.

Permit me to say that the " body " (unless I specially name it) will be neither more nor less than the tying silk, used in making the fly itself, and that I for one prefer yellow to any other colour, especially when it is waxed, more or less, with cobbler's wax, for the body of a wet fly.


Hackle. From any small dun feather, taken from the lark. " Mark " called it " the Laverock Hackle." At times a cock-y-bonddhu hen hackle is used instead.
Wing. Corn-bunting.
Season. April and May.

II.

Body and Hackle. Formed by hare's ear spun round with the thread, and then picked out with a needle to form the "legs "of the fly.
Wing. Inside of the woodcock wing.

Season. April, and for general use.

III

Hackle. Cinnamon hen hackle.
Wing. From the back of the hen pheasant.
Season. May.

IV.

Hackle. Soft black hen starling, or dun hackles from the feathers of small birds.
Wing. Inside woodcock wing.
Season.A generally useful and killing fly.

V.

Hackle. Neck feather of cock starling.
Wing. Wing feather of starling.
Season. March, April, and May.

VI.

Hackle. Hen (red or black).
Wing. Mavis.

VII

Hackle. Dun hackle, or cock-y-bonddhu.
Wing. Inside of quill feather of chaffinch.
Season. April, May, June, and September.


VIII.

Hackle. Black, or cock-y-bonddhu.
Wing. Inside of feather, blackbird's wing.

Season. April, May, June, September.

When this simple fly is dressed with a cock-y-bonddhu hackle, it is so near to Canon Greenwell's famous fly, that I feel almost inclined to withdraw it, and to apologize.

IX.

Hackle. Black hen ; the body formed of black tying silk.
Wing. The speckled feather of a teal drake.
Season. A good April and May fly on some rivers.


X.

Hackle. Corncrake ; the body dressed with dark brown silk.
Wing. Dark portion of mavis wing, or the corncrake's wing.

Season. A good all-round fly.

XI

Hackle. Badger like, grizzled hen hackle.
Wing. Inside of woodcock wing feather.
Very useful fly, especially in dark weather.

XII.

Hackle. This hackle, which is my own suggestion, is taken from the beautifully tapered hackle feathers on the head and cheeks of the Himalayan pheasant, the green-sheen feathers being more killing than those with the beautiful red-bronze sheen, in my experience.
Wing. Inside of starling or water-hen wing.

Remarks. These simple flies may be regarded as general "types" of the various ephemeridae, etc., without in any way posing to be close imitations of any single one of them. I may add that, with the assortment of flies given here, I myself would feel confident to go all over Scotland and hold my own. Much of their virtue, in my humble opinion, consists in their extreme simplicity, and also in the fact that they are feathered with a sparing hand. There would not seem to be much need, in our wet-fly work, for dressing our flies in an elaborate way and with two wings, if, as I maintain, flies dressed with a single upright wing kill quite as well.

I have noticed, whenever I gave my old preceptor a few flies, dressed in Edinburgh by the late Mrs. Hogg, the wings tied in a bunch, but divided into two by means of the silk thread used while tying the fly, that he would give vent to his opinions by muttering to himself, " One-half owre muckle wing ; " and off one of these two wings would go before he would use the fly.

He was never tired of preaching the superior virtues of soft feathers as against hard hackles, such as are usually associated with the barndoor cock, and above all other feathers, he seemed to be of opinion that the small feathers sometimes taken from the outside of the wing, sometimes from the inside, were the best feathers that could possibly be used for the legs of a fly, and, when you think of it, he was right, for they have infinitely more movement ; which surely is an important matter. Try the experiment of placing two flies, one dressed with a hard cock hackle, and the other dressed with a hackle such as I have described j in a tumbler of water, and then move them up and down. The cock hackle remains unsympathetic and rigid, while there is decided "movement" in the softer hackle. The only objection to the soft hackle that I can see, is, that it does not last long ; and the man who makes this objection, need not expect my sympathy, if he is not so successful as he might be, when trout need some catching.

Finally ; the thinness of the body, consisting as it does only of the tying silk, is a feature vastly in its favour, in wet-fly fishing.


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