We all know the famous Silver Doctor Salmon fly, and a hairwing version of the full dress fly
tied by Dick Talleur was previously shown on FAOL as a fly of the week:
flytying/fotw2/091701fotw.php
The wet fly above is one of a number of reductions and variations on the original. I've done a version
of the original salmon fly here for comparison:
There were several famous salmon flies that appeared in the States and Canada, brought
over from England and Scotland. It was natural for them to be done in smaller, less complicated versions, as
wet flies for brook trout. The wet fly at the top is from Ray Bergman's Trout, and there are other similar
reductions found therein as well. In the coming weeks I'll do pairs of flies as I've done here, showing both
the smaller wet fly version and the full dress fly.
The wet fly from Bergman is very close to Henry P. Wells' version of the fly shown in Mary Orvis Marbury's Favorite
Flies. The golden pheasant crest tail is mysteriously missing on the fly shown in the book, an oversight I think,
and there is no guinea hackle on what purports to be Wells' fly. However, Mrs. Marbury goes on to say "We believe
Mr. Wells now adds the gallina hackle outside the blue hackle on the lake fly as well as on the salmon fly,
but this was learned too late to be shown in this plate."
James Wright created the Silver Doctor salmon fly in 1850. He lived in Sprouston, Roxburghshire, Scotland,
close to the banks of the river Tweed. Wright was quite possibly the greatest fly dresser to have
ever lived. He was responsible not only for a large percentage of the famous salmon flies done in
the 1800s, but for the legendary trout fly, the Greenwell's Glory as well. The Silver Doctor, one
of just a handful of silver-bodied salmon flies, was enormously popular with anglers then, and
remains so today. The fly was exported to the Americas where it became more popular still,
finding great acceptance in Canada and the northern U.S. Many versions have been done of this
fly over the last century, including hair-wings, bucktails, streamers, wet fly reductions, and
countless variations of the feather wing salmon fly itself, and have tempted brook trout,
rainbows, steelhead, muskies, smallmouth bass, and of course, salmon, for decades.
Now for my own rather painful Silver Doctor story. On the cover of the "Universal Fly Tying Guide" by Dick Stewart
is a Silver Doctor. After resuming fly tying in my 40s I got to the point where I thought I was getting
pretty good, and decided to do that Silver Doctor, a fly that I perceived to be the culmination of the fly tier's
art. I started with #8 salmon fly hooks, smaller than hooks I tie wet flies on now, and over time graduated to
larger hooks, 1/0 and finally 2/0. I tied over 75 Silver Doctors, always hoping against hope that this
one would be the good one. The good one never came. I became so despondent that I stopped tying all together
for two years. When I resumed, I vowed never to do a salmon fly again, or worse, another Silver Doctor.
After awhile I started working on wet flies, with the idea in the back of my mind that maybe they
would be a good stepping stone toward the dreaded full dress flies. Sure enough that proved to be the case, and this
week I tied the fly shown above. The operative word here is perseverance. So hang in there, and when you're
ready, give this one a go!
Silver Doctor Wet Fly (Bergman)
Tip: Scarlet floss and gold tinsel
Tail: Golden pheasant crest-dash of blue
Ribing: Oval silver tinsel
Body: Flat silver tinsel
Hackle: Blue and guinea (Kenya crested guinea shown here)
Wing: Brown turkey, teal, blue yellow
Silver Doctor Salmon Fly (Wright)
Tag: Silver twist and yellow silk
Tail: Golden pheasant crest with a chatter feather over
Butt: Scarlet wool
Ribing: Oval silver tinsel
Body: Flat silver tinsel
Throat: A blue hackle and gallina
Wings: Strands of tippet, summer duck, pintail,
golden pheasant tail, swan dyed light yellow and light
blue, bustard, mallard and a topping
Horns(optional): Blue macaw
Head: Scarlet wool
Credits: Universal Fly Tying Guide by Dick
Stewart; Classic Salmon Flies by Mikael Frodin;
Favorite Flies and Their Histories by Mary Orvis
Marbury; Trout by Ray Bergman; ~ EA
About Eric:
Eric lives in Delaware, Ohio and fishes for brown trout in
the Mad River, a beautiful spring creek. More of his flies
are on display here:
Traditionalflies.com -- Classic salmon and
trout flies of Europe and the Americas.
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