Louisiana Mickey Finn
Tail - Barred wood duck
Butt - Orange chenille
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Silver tinsel chenille
Wing - Yellow, red, yellow bucktail
Shoulder - Barred wood duck
Eyes - Painted red over yellow
Perrault's Standard Dictionary of Fishing Flies - Keith Perrault
Forgotten Flies - Schmookler & Sils
York's Kennebago
FC Minnow
Rib - Medium red wire
Body - Gold tinsel
Wing - Brown bucktail over red bucktail
Tomorrow's Fish: And The View from My Vise - R E Long
Northwest Jack
Hook - 4x Long streamer hook, size 4-8
Thread - Black
Tail - Moose body hair
Rib - Medium gold wire
Body - Silver Mylar
Throat - Dyed red golden pheasant tippet
Wing - Black bucktail over blue super hair*
*I substituted blue krystal flash
Tomorrow's Fish: And The View From My Vise - R E Long
Dr Mummy
Hook - Mustad 9671, size 4-6-8
Tying thread - Body - Black nymo; Head - Red
Tail - Golden pheasant tippet
Butt - Peacock herl
Ribbing - Oval gold tinsel
Hackle - Hot orange
Under wing - Pheasant tail fibers
Over wing - Gray mallard flank
Cheek - Jungle cock
Note - The above recipe is from Montana Trout Flies by George F Grant (Spiral bound paper back)
Dr Mummy
Hook - Wilson Salmon, TUE, Size 4-6-8 or Mustad 9671
Thread - Nymo or monocord, black
Tip - Flat gold tinsel
Tail - Golden pheasant tippet
Butt - Peacock herl
Ribbing - Oval gold tinsel
Body - Black floss
Hackle - Hot orange
Under wing - Pheasant tail fibers
Over wing - Gray mallard flank
Cheek - Jungle cock
Note - The above recipe is from Montana Trout Flies by George F Grant (Hard back with color fly plates)
Ausable Queen
Hook - Dry fly
Thread - Black
Egg Sac - Green yarn
Body - Peacock Herl
Wing - White deer hair or substitute
Hackle - Ginger
This is a little-known pattern of Ann Schweigert. The pattern is from the 1950’s.
Ribbing - Yellow silk
Body - Gray fur
Hackle -Yellow
Wings - Brown mallard
Trout - Ray Bergman
Martin
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Yellow floss
Hackle - Deep yellow
Wing - Widgeon or gray mallard ***
Trout - Ray Bergman
** The written recipe for the tail is ‘yellow and black-alternate.’ Differing from the usual listing for a married tail, Dr. Burke’s painting indicates a separation at the end of the tail, revealing a married tail of yellow and black with left and right sides.
*** The wing may also be teal.
Governor Alvord
Tail - Dark scarlet
Body - Peacock herl*
Hackle - Brown
Wing - Slate married to cinnamon*
Trout - Ray Bergman
Don Bastian Note
* The Governor Alvord has the unique status of being the only peacock herl-bodied fly in all of Ray Bergman’s books with a married wing. When two colors are listed for a married wing as on the Governor Alvord the sections are normally equal in width.
Golden Girl
Roderick Haig-Brown, 1940s
Tip - Gold oval tinsel (fine)
Tag - Orange silk
Tail - Golden pheasant crest
Body - Gold flat tinsel
Hackle: Yellow
Wing - Orange polar bear hair*, two golden pheasant tippet feathers
Topping - Golden pheasant crest
*I used orange bucktail
Classic Steelhead Flies - John Shewey
The preeminent British Columbia fly-angling historian, Arthur Lingren, produced two editions of Fly Patterns of British Columbia, one of several titles he has released through Frank Amato Publications. The original edition found a waiting audience in 1996, and then in 2008, Lingren again demonstrated his grasp of historical research methodology in an expanded edition timed to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Roderick Haig-Brown, the pioneering, British-born angler who fell in love with the waters of British Columbia and penned some of fly angling’s most poignant and powerful words. Lingren’s expanded volume was subtitled The Roderick Haig-Brown Centenary Edition and it is replete with captivating details about Haig-Brown and other prominent fly designers of British Columbia.
Of the Golden Girl, Lingren informs the reader that Haig-Brown devised this fly chiefly for winter steelhead; he wanted a simple fly dressed in shades of red and orange that would bear some resemblance to the ornate feather wing Atlantic salmon flies he knew so well from his British upbringing. “The pattern Haig-Brown developed,” explains Lingren, “was a combination of the slim-bodied Red Sandy and the golden pheasant tippet-winged Durham Ranger without many of the frills.”
Lingren notes that the original dressing had a tail made from the small red feather of the Indian fruit crow (a South American bird of the Cotinga family), but that eventually Haig-Brown opted instead for a golden pheasant crest feather (a “topping,” to use the Atlantic salmon parlance) for the tail. Indeed, the topping-tailed version is the familiar pattern, though the fly looks nothing short of riveting when the golden pheasant crest tail is itself topped with a layer of fruit crow feathers or substitutes, such as small, scarlet-dyed hen neck feathers or likewise dyed golden pheasant throat feathers. In later versions, Haig-Brown also included a tag of orange silk, which is made all the more lustrous if underlain and tipped with flat tinsel. As evidence to that variation, Walt Johnson (in the 1990s) supplied me with copies of steelhead fly recipes submitted to the Washington Fly Fishing Club in the 1950s and 60s, including a page of patterns submitted by Haig-Brown.
For the Golden Girl, Haig-Brown specifies a tag of orange silk, and says of the fly, “This is primarily a winter steelhead fly. Have also taken cutthroats and summer steelhead on it in sizes down to No. 8.” The other flies he included are the Quinsam Hackle, Silver Brown, and Stickle-Back.
Waters
Extended Body Grannom Caddis
Balloon Caddis Variant
Hook - Curved or straight shank
Thread - Gray
Soo Nipi
Hook - Mustad Heritage
Thread - Black
Tag - Gold tinsel
Ribbing - Gold tinsel
Body - Black silk floss
Hackle - Light blue
Wing - White
Trout - Ray Bergman
Lake Green
Hook - Mustad Heritage
Thread - white under floss body, black head
