Dean Sage, of Menands, near Albany, New York, was a famous
salmon angler and the Sage fly was his creation. He wrote
about the Atlantic salmon in the volume, Salmon and
Trout, 1902.
Mr. Sage was also the author of The Restigouche and its
Salmon Fishing. At an auction sale of books in New York
in 1909, after Mr. Sages death, a copy sold for $180.
The Sage has a yellow dubbin body; silver rib; a tail of widgeon;
scarlet, green and orange or yellow hackle; and a dark widgeon or
mallard wings.
Mr. Sage formed an exquisite angling library which was inherited
and augmented by his son, Dean Sage, of New York, who in 1942
disposed of it at public auction. The collection had many of the
earlier books, including fifty-eight different copies of Izaak
Walton's Complete Angler, two of which were of
these first edition of 1653. At the sale one of these brought
$975 and the other $950, a new high for this "one-and-sixpenny
pook." The value in 1850 was estimated at $63.
Sage
As tied by Ray Bergman
Head: Black.
Tag: Silver tinsel.
Tail: Scarlet, insect green, gray mallard.
Body: Yellow wool.
Rib: Black silk thread.
Hackle: Orange.
Wing: Dark gray mallard.
Credits:
Information from Fly Patterns and Their Origins by Harold
Hinsdill Smedley. Photo from Forgotten Flies by Paul
Schmookler and Ingrid V. Sils.
|
