OLD FLY, NEW DAY

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

This came from the old PA Angler, 02, February 1962. Many thanks to John Sheehan for this bit of nostalgia.

"Tying Flies

With STUART DUFFIELD

Here's an all-season dry fly that will work from the opening day until early in the fall. It combines features found in two old favorites—the Dark Cahill and the Dark Hendrickson. I like to tie this on a number 14 hook but in warmer weather it's a good idea to have some No. 16's and possibly No. 18's in your box.

 

For the dressing:

Tail—red cock spade hackles

Body—gray fur from either muskrat or red fox

Wings—wood duck

Hackle—brown and blue dun mixed.

 

To facilitate the casting of this fly, try a leader of the following dimensions. It's an easy tie to remember. All you have to do is remember the number “30” and then step down each section by five inches.

Butt:

30" of .019;

25" of .015;

20" of .013;

15" of .011;

10" of .009;

Follow this by a tippet section of 18" of either .008 or .007.

You can readily make this a good wet fly leader by merely saving off the tippet section. I work off this basic leader all season long. Carry additional coils of leader material with you and you can tailor your leader right on the stream. You will find the quickly-tapered (soft) leader will lay out a fly in as neat a manner as you would want.

To further exploit the potential of this comprehensive fly, you may go to the nymph version - a close adaptation of the dry version. It would be dressed like this:

 

Tail—red or brown

Body—gray muskrat or the gray from the red fox

Hackle—gray (blue dun), either bearded or tied in one turn

Wing pad—brown hackle tip tied flat and covering the upper

third of the fur body. Only tie in the section directly back of the eye of the hook.

 

To guarantee success with this nymph I would begin with a fine tippeted leader, the terminal end measuring .006 and smaller. Cast slightly above the cross stream angle and let your nymph float naturally. As your nymph completes its swing down current, slowly raise your rod tip and impart the slightest palsied motion to your hand. At the completion of the float leave your fly in the water a few seconds.

At this point, slowly release a little excess line held in your left hand. This will let your fly float unrestricted downstream a few feet. As you release your line, lower rod tip. When the additional line is taut again, slowly raise rod tip. Do this several times until you are certain there is no fish following your nymph.

 

Finally, slowly retrieve the fly using the hand twist retrieve and again imparting just the slightest palsied motion to the rod.

 

This method will get fish if you will remember to fish your cast slowly and with care. Watch line where it joins your leader for any unusual movements. This could be a fish. Don't be impatient to cast again, since very few fish are ever caught with a fly in the air. Most fish will be taken near the end of the nymph's float while raising your rod tip."

[Bruce Tomaselli]

No Photo?

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Actually, no.
These old works often had no photo, because it was expected the tyer knew the basics. If there was an illustration, it was normally a line drawing and not a foto.
In this case, the author assumed a thorough description would suffice.
It's an interesting notion, certainly.

Today, we have a wealth of new materials, the internet and resources unknown just a few decades ago... but are left adrift without a hi-res, megapixel show and tell to get us through the job.