According to Headleys book "Flies of Scotland" :the Kate Mcclaren was originally tied by William Robertson of Glasgow. Kate Mclaren was the mother of the late Charles Mclaren ,longtime proprieter of the Altnaharra Hotel. on loch Hope and renowned seatrout fisher.
I always thought Charles Mclaren invented it or was it tied to his suggestion by William Robertson as was the Greenwells glory which was suggeted by Canon Greenwell , but first tied by James Wright?
Anyone know who first tied (or claims) that modern variant the Greentailed Kate?
Col
First tyed by Robertson in 1934 according to Tom Stewart in 'Two Hundred Popular Flies'. No idea on the green tailed.
QuoteAnyone know who first tied (or claims) that modern variant the Greentailed Kate?
Me......... :) Well I might have but I certainly do not claim so.
I have been messing about with originals for years, tails hackles body. All have been tweaked & changed at some point. Most confined to some dark corner of a fly box after a few casts. Now & again one rises to the occasion but sadly few & far between. Point I am making is that most fly changes come by way of accident & some like the Green Tailed Kate would be in the same vein. Oh no doubt someone looking for a wee bit of kudos will claim to have invented a variant or indeed something new but mostly they will come by accident & by multiple persons at around the same time. Beauty of tying your own I guess. Now where did I put that old fly I never use now......silly name too The Medicine......will never catch on :roll:
When someone comes up with a variant while tinkering it is almost certain that out there somewhere someone else has had or will have the same idea. Many years ago I had exhausted my supply of red game hackles tying Kate MacLarens and tied a few up using a blue ( teal blue and silver shade ) hackle instead of the game. It turned out to be one of the most successful flies I had ever used for wild loch browns, fished on the bob as I would a K/macL. I called it a "Katie Blue". Several years later it appeared in FT&FF submitted by someone in one of those competitions where you have to send in a trio of patterns of your own design, and the bloke who came up with it was down in England somewhere. He hadn't a name for it other than a K/MacL variant, but it left me somewhat deflated, particularly since it got the thumbs up from the panel of judges.
I tend to think nowadays that when it comes to new patterns there is nothing new under the sun, and that somewhere someone probably already has the "variant" in their box already.
Greenwell
QuoteIt turned out to be one of the most successful flies I had ever used for wild loch browns, fished on the bob as I would a K/macL. I called it a "Katie Blue". Several years later it appeared in FT&FF submitted by someone in one of those competitions where you have to send in a trio of patterns of your own design, and the bloke who came up with it was down in England somewhere. He hadn't a name for it other than a K/MacL variant, but it left me somewhat deflated, particularly since it got the thumbs up from the panel of judges.
That's a pity, sometimes your the pigeon & other times your the statue. Still we know that you did it & that is all that counts.
Tight lines
i have a later copy of Charles Mclarens book The Art Of Sea Trout Fishing.the following appendix says "the Kate mclaren was first tied by William Robertson of Glasgow and named after John Mclarens wife Kate (the authors mother)." no mention of Charles inventing it,but as his father and mother ran the Kinlochewe perhaps Wm Robertson was a visitor and named it in her honour.
cheers Garry
Will get back later on this. Should be able to find the answer.
that means yi have had a malt or twa
If only, superrscot! It means that I can't confirm anything until Mrs McLaren, Charlie's wife, comes north again in the Spring.