Hi,

I was reading "The Soft Hackled Fly Addict" last night and noticed something. And, I admit right now, I'm being far too pedantic, but I'll ask anyway!

Here are the two patterns in question:

3: Winter Brown
Hook: 1
Body: orange - not too bright
Hackle: feather from inside of a Woodcock's wing
Head: Peacock Hurl
As the season progresses, the wings of the natural get lighter and it is often dressed as number 4 below.

4: Little Winter Brown
Hook: 2
Body: orange - not too bright
Hackle: feather from outside of a Woodcock's wing
Head: Peacock Hurl

What struck me as odd at first is that the hook sizes seem wrong. Not the 1 and 2, because Pritt's flies were using the "new scale", which never became popular, so we still use the "old scale". A 1 and 2 would today be called a 14 and 13 (did they make odd number sized hooks? I've never seen them). Anyway, what I thought "odd" was that the "little winter brown" is tied on the larger hook!

The next thing I found odd is that the feathers from the "inside" of a Woodcock's wing are lighter than the feathers from the "outside" of a Woodcock's wing. Inside are dusty off white while outside are a rich reddish brown.

It seems to me that the patterns for the Winter Brown and the Little Winter Brown are mixed around.

Obviously it doesn't really matter, but then I got to wondering, is this how Pritt originally described them (original "mix up") or did it get mistranscribed into the new book?

- Jeff