What is a Catskill Dry?

[buckeyetier]

This may come across as a ridiculous question to those that have been around fly fishing for a long time, but what exactly is a Catskill Dry fly? I recently joined the beginners swap and on the shcedule for flies to tie are classic dry patterns that "don't have to be Catskill dries." This has really gotten a hold of my curiosity and is driving me nuts. I've tried looking at flies that I've heard refered to as Catskill Dries, such as the Light Cahill and the Coffin Fly, but all I seem to be able to gather from this is that they are all tied with fairly narrow bodies, upright wings, and sparse hackle. Am I on the right track here, or is there a formal definition that I haven't been able to figure out? Any help would be greatly appreciated, because right now I'm completely stumped.

uh-oh.

mgj

[Jim Hatch]

Hey buckeye,

Darned good question! As I recall, that
question came up a couple of years back and
generated a lively thread. Over 100 posts
I believe. But, if a concise opinion was
ever agreed on, I must have missed it.*G*

Generally, they were I believe a group
of patterns that were popular in the
Catskills Region of New York back in the
day. I believe the thread discussed the
various tyers who were responsible for the
evolution of the patterns and such. But
for the life of me, I can not remember ever
reading a definitive answer to the question.

Perhaps Tyeflies will be able to give
you the short answer. I believe him to be
pretty knowledgeable in that area as I have
a box of catskills from his bench and they
are quite impressive. As I recall, he
was heavily invested in the catskills thread.

But before you get too worked up on the
catskill flies, you should know that no less
than the ever popular Fly Tyer magazine has
declared that catskill flies are obsolete.
Another topic that generated a bit of
discussion.*G* Good luck Buckeye. Hope you
get a concise answer. Warm regards, Jim

[LadyFisher]

You might try this: [url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/oldflies/part359.html:aeb9b]http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/oldflies/part359.html[/url:aeb9b]

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LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL

[Jed]

if you go to [url=http://www.cffcm.org/history.htm:97280]http://www.cffcm.org/history.htm[/url:97280] you will see that in early 1900's a group of fishermen created a distinct school of fishing in the catskills. They developed patterns that were unique at that time. [url=http://flyfisherman.com/ftb/dhcatskill/:97280]http://flyfisherman.com/ftb/dhcatskill/[/url:97280] I believe a characteristic of the dry flies was alotof hackle which had them float high on the water. If I am not mistaken, Art Flick's Streamside Guide has many of them highlighted.


jed

[This message has been edited by Jed (edited 08 December 2005).]

[AgMD]

Once upon a time flyfishing in the US was wet fly fishing. Arround the turn of the century a number of Catskill fly fishermen, among them E.R.Hewett, inspired by our British cousins, started experimenting with the use of the dry fly. Since many of the Catskill waters were fished by fishermen from NYC, at that time the seat of magazine and book publishing, this new "dry fly" thing got a lot of press. It was a time of experimentation and inovation. Many of what are today standard dry flies got their start on these waters. We could say that the Quill Gordon, for example, is a Catskill fly since it is believed to have been created by Theodore Gordon in the Catskills.
There almost certainly was similar dry fly experimentation in other watersheds, but since the Catskills were fished by a particularly literary community of fishermen, and since many of them were part of the NYC publishing community, they got to write the history.
AgMD

[saltydancindave]

Was of the opinion that a Catskill dry fly was tied in a certain manner, specifically the way the wings were tied in. With wraps around the base of each bunch of wing material to get them separated & standing a little forward of upright. A very classic tying technique that formed a distinctive thorax wrapped with hackle. Referenced from : The Dettes A - Catskill Legend by Eric Leiser.

buckeyetier,

There have been lengthly discussions about the Catskill dry fly, from a 'style' and a 'pattern' point of view. The obvious result is that there will never be a definite answer although there may be some consensus.

Anyway, and I don't mean to put you off, if you are interested you'll have to do some legwork and see for yourself. In the 'Keyword Search' (top of menu on the left) just type in Catskill and look among the resulting references. Here's one that I found: [url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/:dc13d]http://www.flyanglersonline.com/[/url:dc13d]

As others have pointed out, there were several threads that was quite exhaustive and very interesting on this subject.

Good luck and good reading. Maybe you can solve this Gordian Knot type question.

Allan

[mantis]

Jim, Morgan Lyle wrote the article BUT he did not say they were obsolete, but only posed the question "Are they Obsolete". It stirred up a lot of people who mis-read it to 'they are obsolete'. Funny how people do that...Read things into stuff that isn't there. I see it in posts here all the time...lol.
Morgan raised the question because of all the new , or relatively new styles of tying and the proliferation of synthetic material.
Of course Dave K loved it as it generated a lot of 'letters to the editor'.

[MOturkE]

I know nothing about Catskill flies.

However, I believe a fly is only obsolete if the fish not only refuses to take it, but walks out of the stream and hooks it in YOUR lip.

Otherwise, tie another one on! (...so to speak.)



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There's almost nothin' wrong with the first lie, it's the weight of all the others holdin' it up that gets ya'! - Tim