CLASSIC FLIES
I am constantly amazed at the plethora of the fly patterns that fill volumes of books, fill web pages, magazines, and CD’s and DVD’s. What’s even more amazing is that someone, somewhere, even as I am writing this, is hunched over a fly tying vice concocting another new ‘killer’ pattern that is certain to revolutionize fly tying and forever change fly tying as we know it. Perhaps it will make a splash in a fly-tying magazine or be the latest hot fly in this year’s fly and tackle catalogue, but, like a meteor that streaks across the sky, it will quickly fade and be relegated to that ever increasing list of patterns filling our written and audio-visual media.
Then, there are the old ‘go to patterns’ that we reach for year after year when the latest and greatest just doesn’t get the job done. Patterns that we find in some of the oldest books on fly fishing and that are still written about today. They are the patterns that, when you are staring at bin after bin of flies in your favorite fly shop, are always there year after year. They are the standards, or, if you will, the classic patterns that have withstood the test of time. No matter how many new patterns come and go these old standards always seem to have a place in the knowledgeable angler’s fly box.
At the top of my list is the Adams. I would not care to hazard a guess about how many trout have fallen victim to this fly. It certainly is not a complicated pattern and even a beginning fly tyer can turn out an acceptable representation with only limited instruction. It does not require exotic materials for its construction, and in a short time even a marginally proficient fly tyer can manage to tie enough finished flies for a season of angling.
The original pattern was created by Leonard Halladay, of Mayfield, Michigan. Halladay was born in 1872 and spent the last 60 of his seventy years living near the Boardman River in Michigan. The Adams fly got it name when Halladay gave some of them to C.F. Adams, an angler that had a summer home near the Boardman, which he fished regularly for twenty-five years. Adams said that the fly was a ‘knock out’ and asked Halladay what he called it. Halladay replied that, “He would call it the Adams, since he made such a good catch on it.”
Over the intervening years the Adams has been tied in a variety of ways, but the original pattern is still as effective today as when it was originally tied by Halladay. Here is the original pattern as Halladay described it.
“The tail consists of two strands from a golden pheasant neck feather. The body is gray wool yarn, the wings are narrow neck feathers of Barred Plymouth Rock rooster, and they are tied “advanced” forward and in a semi-spent manner. The hackle is a mixed of the neck feathers of Barred Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island Red roosters.”
Later muskrat fur was substituted for the gray wool body and a mix of Barred Rock and Red rooster hackle fibers. The wings were pushed upright in the standard dry fly tying method or eliminated entirely. A ‘female’ version was added later which was the basic Adams pattern with a yellow egg sack wrapped just in front of the tail.
Although the Adams is nearly one hundred years old, time has not diminished its effectiveness or popularity. The Adams follows the principle of simplicity of form and subtlety of color. In form it represents a variety of types of insects from mayflies to midges and even caddis. Its overall drab coloration, a combination of brown and gray, is suggestive of many of these types of insects. When tied in a variety of sizes it gives the angler the ability to imitate a number of various hatches without the necessity of carrying an infinite number of different patterns.
In addition to the standard tie I also tie the Adams using the parachute style of fly construction. In the larger sizes it is a good imitation of several of the large ‘drake’ type mayflies, and in the smaller sizes it is an excellent imitation for some of the smaller Baetis mayflies and midges. I tie all my Adams with a dubbed muskrat body, hackle fiber tail, and brown and grizzly hackle. Unlike the original pattern I do not put wings on all my Adams.
The Adams is the type of fly that should be included in every fly fishers fly selection. While primarily a trout fly it can be used to catch a variety of fish including warm water species like bluegills. If you don’t have this fly in your box I would suggest that you set down and tie up a few for the coming season.
Note: Details about the origin of the Adams were taken from Fly Patterns and Their Origins, Harold Hinsdill Smedley, 1950, 4th Edition, Westshore Publications