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Highland Gem
Highland Gem (Kelson) Not surprisingly another fly from Kelson’s The Salmon Fly. Haven’t been really impressed with the pattern before but I’ve seen few takes on it that opened my mind. I tried to get a bit lower profile like on the William Chinn’s flies I adore. The fly doesn’t really allow you to hide…
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No. 1 for the Suir
Francis Francis’s No 1 for The Suir This one’s an interesting little fellow from Francis Francis’s A Book on Angling. Pretty sure this was not the way it was tied back then but I liked the look of it this way. I was amazed how nicely the Red Claret floss I used and Lt. Orange…
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Blue Charm Variation
Blue Charm Variation A bit different take on the famous all-round salmon fly The Blue Charm. This one is pretty small fly in modern standards since it was tied on a #2 vintage hook. Most featherwinged flies you see today on the internet are from 2/0 upwards. It’s kind of misleading since they were tied…
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Ephemera No. 10
Ephemera 10. First fly to this blog from Edward Fitzgibbons (written under the pseudonym of Ephemera) magnificent The Book of the Salmon from 1850. Fantastic little pattern that would be a good killer on most rivers in my mind. I dressed this on a size 2 antique hook and think the pattern works best on…
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Floodtide
The Floodtide (Kelson) A bit more unusual fly from George Kelson’s The Salmon Fly. Unusual because of the Eagle hackle which is not so commonly used on salmon flies today and because of the unusually complex wing for an Eagle fly. Eagles are heavily protected here in Finland but luckily the feathers are easily substituted…
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Black Doctor from T.E. Pryce-Tannatt
Black Doctor as per T.E. Pryce-Tannatt Another well known classic salmon fly. Most salmon fishers can point out a Doctor fly when they see one but there’s so many variations today that I think it’s good to tie it once in a while following the old recipes. There are of course older versions of the…
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Baron
The Baron One of the legendary patterns from T.E Pryce-Tannat’s book How to Dress Salmon Flies. I took some artistic freedom with the excecution but here’s the pattern as described in the book. Tag:Silver thread and ruby red floss Tail: A topping, Indian Crow and Blue Chatterer Butt: Black herl Body: In two equal halves…