Quote Originally Posted by Jayatwork View Post
Must be a different Bob Carmichael or Bruce Staples is way off in Frontier Flies. He says Bob Carmichael was born in 1898 or 1899 and died in 1959.

Also on the subject of Carmichael having Martinez tie his flies, Staples says "Although a superb tier Bob was not of the temperament to grind out dozens of flies. This was performed by Donnelly, Martinez and persons under their tutelage."
Erratum...mea culpa, mea maxima culpa !!!!


I went back to the shop today and found out that it is Tom Carmicheal...Bob's son who we were talking about and is alive in Denver. Still... a sit down with Tom would be quite a history lesson as he worked for his Dad up at the Moose Fly Shop.


On another note...and it must be a generational thing....when I hear a fly referred to as a "variant" my mental image is a fly such as Donnelly's Variant or Flick's, Grey Fox Variant. These flies have specific differences from what is considered a standard dry fly, having longer hackle with short wings or no wings and tails to put the fly way up on the surface to float as high as possible. A change to materials from the original tie and referred to as a variant confuses me! Changes made to a fly by way of material substitution, in the ole days were simply noted as substitutions in the fly recipe and the fly was tied with that consideration.


Amen....but by all means keep me confused. I can handle it. Makes me giggle.