The variant is a style rather than a pattern, and according to
Fly Patterns and Their Origins, any standard
pattern can be tied as a variant. The variant is defined
as "more lightly and with longer but less hackle and called
them 'long-hackled, sparsely dressed flies'."
While the photo shown here is about one and a half 'normal'
hackle length, most variants were tied with twice the normal
hackle length.
This long hackle design is credited to Dr. Wm Baigent of Yorkshire, England,
in 1875. Reputed to be one of England's most successful anglers, is
credited with eleven patterns. They were all dressed with "natural
Old english game cock feathers" with long hackles, giving them
buoyancy and high riding qualities, in which position he claimed
the rays of light played upon the iridescent fibres and made them
attractive to fish by "life and form." The eleven patterns included
four spinners, four variants, light, dark red and rusty, and a black,
a brown and an olive.
As a further development he registered a set of twelve patterns as
"Refracta Dry Flies." The hackles were separated; short for pattern
as legs, and long, for floating qualities, to disturb the water and
produce an altered refraction.
The pattern is:
Hook: Dry Fly hook.
Tails: Calf tail or body hair.
Body: Stripped peacock herl quill followed by thick herl.
Hackle: Brown.
Wing: Calf tail or body hair.
~ Thomas C. Duncan, Sr.
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