A set of 3 classics finished today: Jock Scott, Green Highlander and Black Doctor, all tied on Partridge M2 #2/0
These three are ending up framed, but I’ve tied them as a fishing fly: so “break in case of emergency” applies to the frame!
3 Classics
Jock Scott #2/0 for fishing
Even with winter upon us here in Norway the season is getting closer, and every so often I get a order of classics to fish with. I enjoy tying these since I know they will swim in a river, chasing silver somewhere in Scandinavia!
When tying for fishing I make sure to enforce the fly to make it as fishable and durable as I can: a bit of superglue to get the but to sit correctly, reverse-hackle the bodyhackle, a few extra turns with well waxed thread to make sure the wing will sit where it is supposed to, and: substitutes for many of the materials.
The body veiling is Swan, Crow is Ken Sawada substitute and I use Kingfisher instead of chatterer.
Tied on Partridge M2 #2/0: http://flyhooks.org/partridge/m2-heavy-salmon-single
Jock Scott for fishing
For the 2019 season I’m tying up some smaller classics to go fishing with, first up is a Jock Scott on a Partridge M2 #1
To ensure it will hold up and fish without breaking up I have chosen to do a wool butt and reverse-hackled the black body hackle. The materials in the wing and body is also substituted and somewhat changed if you look at the original recipies: http://flypattern.org/search?s=jock%20scott
The wing is peacock, swan and turkey, the underwing is a brown and not white-tipped turkey, sides is just a single-strip of wood duck instead of a married section of wood duck and teal. All this is done to create a easy to tie pattern that has all the main parts of a Jock Scott in it, but at the same time doesn’t have a enormous amount of material in it.
flyhooks.org – Hook boxes
On flyhooks.org I have collected a lot of hooks: now counting more than 1100 images of different hooksizes. Having these as a reference is of great help to the many that now visit the site every day, but there is always more to help with the identification or history of the hooks.
The boxes where the hooks come in is a history of its own: when did a hook come on the market, was it in a different batch than before, what material did the box come in (paper, plastic, hard-box or soft), what was the original writing on the box and much more. I’ve been collecting these as well as just hooks, so today I’ve uploaded 109 images of hook boxes to flyhooks.org
I look at this as a natural part of the history of the hooks, and include both old and new boxes (today’s boxes will at one point be of historical interest). I have more boxes (mostly more recent) yet to be photographed, but I’m starting with the first 100+ today.
I will try to create separate entries for the hooks for the different batches of hooks where the hook has evolved from one package to the other, to see if there are differences in the hook itself when it comes to where it comes from.
The URL is http://flyhooks.org/boxes and is linked to from the frontpage of flyhooks.org in addition to be a part of the “Other” menu point at the top of the page.
And yes: there will be one more thing… but I’ll save that to another day ;)
Black and Teal
“The Spey Tyer” group on facebook have the concept of “New shanks day” where new patterns are presented and given as a challenge for the community to tie up. I enjoy these as they are digging up patterns that I wouldn’t normally go for immediately, and you get to see the different interpretations of the same pattern.
The Black and Teal is from Francis Francis “A book on angling“, and appears in “Farlows Salmon Flies”, where the first body section also is described with yellow or red instead of the orange from Francis.
- Tag: Silver twist and golden floss
- Tail: Golden pheasant topping
- Butt: Black herl
- Body: Two turns of orange floss, then black (either floss, horsehair, mohair, or sewing silk), in large flies fur is often used
- Rib: Broadish siver tinsel
- Hackle: black over three parts of the body
- Throat: Gallina – black with large white dots
- Wing: Double jungle-cock with a golden pheasant topping over. Two good-sized teal, or small black partridge feather, one on either shoulder to form a body to the wing
- Head: gold thread
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