I came across a fly fishing book published in 1913 and one of the recommended flies is the HE. The author guesses that there were at least "200 patterns" in existance at the time of his writing.
Anyone know when the Hare's Ear first appeared?
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I came across a fly fishing book published in 1913 and one of the recommended flies is the HE. The author guesses that there were at least "200 patterns" in existance at the time of his writing.
Anyone know when the Hare's Ear first appeared?
It is a very old pattern and has certainly been around for over two centuries. No one knows with certainty who originally designed the fly but it is attributed to the Victorian tyer James Ogden. It is believed that Frederick Halford popularized the pattern in the late 1880s as a dry fly, but later dismissed it as it did not represent a specific insect. The vogue at that period was for flies to match the hatch exactly. Traditionally, to give it it's bug like appearance, the pattern used fur from a hare's ear, mingling the longer guard hairs with the lighter colored under fur and dubbing for a body.
The fly called the 'Hare's Ear' probably does go back to Ogden,
but H.E. as a dubbing material is probably as old as fly fishing.
One of most common body materials on old Scottish and North Country wet flies well over two hundred years old.
I believe the hare's ear is as old as the hare it is on; no?
;)