Earliest Reference

[narcodog]

I'll have to say that Allen is correct about the gauges. I have I think 6 vintage gauges including the Dette gauge. None of them measure the same.

[aged_sage]

Byron,


Also, you ask, "You mean that Elsie Darbee may have sold Mr. Overton someone else's flies?" Answer - Of course! She may have sold her own, Walt's, Mary's or a tyer they employed. All that sentence states is that she was the one who 'sold' them.
Allan

I rest my case based on Allan's comment. Furthermore, I find it hard to believe that Art flick would buy his own flies from someone else to photograph for his own book. That doesn't make any sense at all!

[Royal Wulff]

Allan, RW again

Try Ernest Schwiebert's "Matching the Hatch", first published in 1955. He gives detailed recipes for 48 Eastern mayflies, male and female, particularly those that are prolific on Catskill streams like the Beaverkill, Wilowemoc, Neverskink, Esopus and northern Pennsylvania streams like Brodhead Creek. These recipes include wing length, tail length and body length to the eighth and sixteenth of an inch; plus colors and shades of material. Color Plates are included. Pages run from 25 to 98. If there is anything similar out there I've never seen it and you know what kind of library I have. Hell, I even bought a couple of books from you back in the day,. This book was where the term "matching the hatch" originated. Everything is subjective, of course, But I'll bet many authors and fishing writers since 1955 used Schwiebert's book for reference when writing their own books. I mean, why do the research when he aready did it and layed it out in such a clear and concise way. I think it answers your question completely.

Hope to see you soon, RW

[Allan]

RW,

Schwiebert's 1955 book, Matching The Hatch, is indeed an excellent resource for mayfly measurements. However, knowing how extensive a library you have, I'm willing to bet you have an even earlier book (about 20 years), by an American author, that gives the measurements of the: a)wing; b)body; and c)tail, of many male and female mayflies. Here's a clue to the identity of the author - He was inducted into the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum Hall of Fame in 2007. If you can't identify the author, I'll post his name tomorrow at about this time. You'll probably kick yourself (lol).

Anyone else care to guess?

Found another book that predates Schwiebert. Doesn't appear to have the measurements for as many individual mayfly Genus and Species but many nonetheless. Book is by Bill Blades, Fishing Flies And Fly Tying(1st ed, 1951).

I guess you can extrapolate the 'proportions' from specific measurements.

Allan

[narcodog]

Preston Jennings

[Allan]

narcodog,

B I N G O!!

Allan

[Steven]

I was looking at Valla's book again, the pictures of the flies from the original "charmed circle." The D&D's seemed to care about proportions. For just about everybody else, it seemed to be a case of "well, that's close enough."