The Evening Star is a Salmon fly with perhaps mixed parentage.
Capt. J.H. Hale's book, How To Tie Salmon Flies (1892) lists the fly
as a Hale fly, however, other sources give the creator as Major
John Traherne.
According to the website, Fly Fishing History,
"John Traherne (Aug 28th 1826 - January 28th 1901)
was probably the most aesthetically gifted salmon
fly tyer of the nineteenth century. He was the heir
to an estate which he inherited in 1859, but he served
in the army, reaching the rank of Major, and retiring
in 1865, but somehow finding time to be a Justice of
the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant for his county and High
Sheriff in 1863. He caught his first salmon in 1850,
putting him at the front of the new fashion for
taking these fish on a rod and line and afterward
seems to have fished almost every river in the UK,
as well as ranging widely in Ireland and Norway. A
talented fisherman, the Major held the world record
for many years with a cast of 45 yards and one inch
and he caught 165 fish in fifteen days on the Namsen
in 1864.
Traherne contributed heavily to the Fishing Gazette
in the 1870s, 80s and 90s and exhibited a case of
flies at the Great International Fisheries Exhibition
in London in 1883, the only amateur to do so apart
from Kelson. It is quite likely that this is where the pair
met and Kelson was so taken with Traherne's patterns
that he began his series 'On the Description of Salmon
Flies' in the Fishing Gazette in 1884 with eighteen of
the Major's patterns.
From the 'Emerald Gem,' a riot of green and blue
macaw, with a filigree of golden pheasant topping
as wing, to the 'Chatterer' (a pattern which I have
always regarded as the definitive gaudy fly, since
it requires at least fifty blue chatterer feathers
to form its body,) Traherne's patterns were masterpieces.
More than anything else, these flies are a celebration
of the materials and artistry of the salmon fly and
although they are no longer used, it remains a
technical challenge for even the most accomplished
fly dresser to tie them well. Traherne and his
generation added the final touches to the fully dressed
salmon fly - probably unaware of the enduring tradition
they would leave when they were gone."
Recipe Evening Star:
as tied by Eric Austin
Tag: Silver twist, tippet colored floss.
Tail: Gold phesant crest.
Butt: Black herl.
Body: In four equal sections nr: 1, 2,
and 3 of oval silver each having two Jungle back
to back above and below small at the back then
larger and larger to the front butted black herl,
the last division of blue silk ribbed oval silver.
Throat: Jungle as before.
Wing: Four Amherst tippets the inner pair
longer then the outer pair.
Cheeks: The tip of a Barred woodduck and Indian crow.
Horns: Red Macaw.
Head: Black herl.
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