This small grey fly from Halford, circa late 1800s,
looks to me like it would fish as well today as it
must have then. What interests me so much about this
fly is the technique used to make the body. Halford
calls it heron herl, and it's much like peacock herl
or better yet, pheasant tail feathers made into a body,
as is done on the pheasant tail nymph. Alice Conba, the
great Irish tier, made me aware of this technique when
she sent me an Iron Blue Dun she had tied. I couldn't
make the body look like hers no matter what I did, I was
trying to dub it, and it wasn't close. She wrote me and
told me that she had used a strand from a heron feather,
wrapped around the hook. What a revelation! You can make
these neat, segmented bodies with a strand or two of a
feather! Not the center quill, as in quill body flies,
just the strands themselves. Of course, it helps to have
one from a big feather, with wide herl, like that from a
heron or pheasant. Golden pheasant was also used for bodies,
chaffinch tail feathers, adjutant (thought that was a kind
of general, guess it's a bird), grey goose (thought that
was Vodka), and horse hair.
Halford specifies Snipe for the wings, but as I haven't
been on a Snipe hunt since camp, I went with grey mottled
quills from some unidentified bird that I dug out of my closet.
The quill feathers looked like the picture of the Autumn
Dun in the Mary Orvis Marbury book. You can also use mottled
grey turkey, which is readily available. In fact, J. Edson
Leonard specifies that in the first two of three recipes
found in Flies.
As you might imagine, this fly has morphed considerably
over the past 125 years or so. I'll give Halford's recipe,
then three from J. Edson Leonard. Mine is as faithful to
Halford as I could make it, and for all I know, that
bird from my closet might have been a Snipe.
Halford's Autumn Dun
Wings: Snipe.
Body: Heron herl undyed.
Hackle and Whisk: Palest blue dun.[The Whisk
refers to the tail]
Hook: 00 or 000 [These are size 16 and 17 respectively.
I tied mine on a TMC 100 #18 hook, which is about a 17, maybe
even closer to a 16. It was obvious to me that Halford wanted
this fly to be small, as the BWOs are in the fall.]
Leonard's Autumn Dun #1
Wings: Gray turkey.
Hackle: Grizzly.
Body: Black floss, yellow floss rib.
Tail: Black.
Leonard's Autumn Dun #2 (Orvis)
Wings: Gray turkey.
Hackle: Gray dun.
Body: Black dubbing, tan thread rib, gold tip>
Tail: white.
Leonard's Autumn Dun #3
Wings: Teal Breast.
Hackle: Gray dun.
Body: Black floss, yellow floss rib.
Tail: Black
Credits:
Favorite Flies and their Histories by Mary
Orvis Marbury; Flies by J. Edson Leonard;
English Trout Flies by W.H. Lawrie.
~ Eric Austin
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