Eric A - great fly

[halomidge]

Eric Austin that's a great little story on the "Proctor" thanks for the history behind the pattern.

Do you think that could have been an early "egg" pattern?

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Eric,

Great fly and wonderful history as usual. In case no one has told you lately your research into these flies is greatly appreciated. A quick question though. Did you use a different size chenille for the tag than for the body?

[kbproctor]

Micro-Chenille is what I have used for both on a #6 to #8 hook. If you tie on a #10 or #12, I have used yarn with good results to maintain the proportion. Not exactly by the pattern, but it works on the brookies!

[eaustin]

Sorry I've taken so long to answer this, I entirely missed this post. As I recall, I used microchenille for both the body and tag. Of course, if you want to be true to the history, you should probably just use ordinary chenille, that's all they had back then. The chenille flies were really fat. Maybe lending credence to the egg pattern idea.

Was it an egg pattern? You know, so many of these patterns were just experiments really, and the brook trout of the day like bright colors, and would strike at almost anything. That said, I read a passage in some old book about the Rangely Region where the author talked about fishing a pool on one of the tributaries. The first day they caught fish almost at will, but by the second day the fish had already learned what not to eat and they had a tougher time of it.

I've been very busy lateley on a couple of projects that I'll talk about in a litte while, pretty exciting things that have taken a lot of my time. I'll try to do better with the board here, sorry guys. Appreciate the kind words, and thanks for checking in with the column every once in awhile.

Eric