As far as the pattern goes, its a Silver Grey (or maybe a Silver Gray, depending on what you were taught in school). I'm not sure what great salmon fly author's pattern it most represents. These days when I tie classics, I pretty much go by memory. I know most varieties of this pattern have got a silver body, widgeon throat, distinctive silver badger hackle and some form of yellow and green swan in the wing. The rest is just my whim, which suits me (and the fish) just fine.
Its one of those kind of summer days. You know... warm, muggy, cloudy. Not totally unpleasant, but still not the kind of day that really makes you want to hop up and go do something. So, today became a Silver Grey kind of day. And rightly so. The colors of this pattern almost mirror what I see outside. Beautiful greens, yellows and a hint of blue. Silver capped grey clouds. Just a perfect reflection of my environment wrapped around a hook. I've always liked this pattern. In fact, I like just about any tinsel bodied fly. I have a feeling that my spin fishing beginnings have taken root deep inside of me, and the lure of flashing metal in the water is as hypnotic to me as it is the fish. Regardless, I know that flashy metal catches fish, and that's what this fly was tied to do.
As far as the pattern goes, its a Silver Grey (or maybe a Silver Gray, depending on what you were taught in school). I'm not sure what great salmon fly author's pattern it most represents. These days when I tie classics, I pretty much go by memory. I know most varieties of this pattern have got a silver body, widgeon throat, distinctive silver badger hackle and some form of yellow and green swan in the wing. The rest is just my whim, which suits me (and the fish) just fine. Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted to my blog. Better late than never, I guess. Today, as I was cleaning up my shop (a never ending job) I stumbled across a fly I tied last fall to fish for late summer steelhead. This fly is a Tribute to two tiers who have both been a great influence in my tying style. First, Jon Harrang. Jon's pattern, the "Copper and Claret" provided the pallet for this fly. Jon is a great friend of mine and a wicked-good tier who has a knack for incorporating Northwest steelhead style into classic salmon fly patterns. The second tier is Bill Chinn. Bill has had a huge influence on my full dress salmon fly tying. He is an innovator who is not afraid to mix modern materials and techniques into classic patterns and somehow manages to make his flies elegant and sleek no matter what materials are in them. Bill gave me a genetic hackle tip winged, spey-dee style type fly that had a flashabou tail, no rib, a palmered schlappen body hackle and long throat of guinea. It was given to me with strict instructions to fish it (which I cautiously have), but it looked so good and fishy in the water, I knew the pattern and style had unlimited color possibilities. So, with all that said, the grafting of two creative tying vines has produced this fruit: A Copper and Claret, Hackle tip, Flash tail, Palmered Spey-Dee:
Hook: A long dee blind iron Tail: Copper Flashabou Body Hackle: Claret Schlappen, palmered Body: Claret seal Throat: Black pheasant rump with a turn of claret guinea over Wing: Two cree hackle tips set low and splayed, dee style |
Aaron M. OstojFeather pusher, hook tweeker, boat builder, fisherman, husband, dad..... Archives
March 2019
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