While sport fishing for steelhead may not have as long a history
as say, Atlantic salmon or even trout, its West coast history extends
back to the 1800's. One of the men credited with pioneering sport
fly-fishing for steelhead was John Benn, an Irish immigrant who
eventually settled near San Francisco. He later purchased
a home near Scotia and became one of the great Eel River fly tiers.
At first the majority of fly-fishing for steelhead was done using trout
flies from Europe and back east. The names of these flies would be
very familiar to trout fishermen today. Flies with familiar names like
Royal Coachmen, Parmacheene Belle, Montreal and others were the
norm in fly boxes. This started to change when Mr. Benn along with
other early tiers started tying flies specifically for local steelhead. One
of Mr. Benn's earliest flies was the Martha, a fly named for Benn's
daughter. In addition to the steelhead flies tied for surrounding local
rivers, Mr. Benn also had many customers for his trout flies. One of
those customers was Mr. Ramon Wilson who named Mr. Benn along
with some of his flies in a letter to Mary Orvis Marbury for her book
Favorite Flies and Their Histories. Mr. Wilson also
mentions in his letter that he preferred his flies tied on hooks with the
eye turned down.
After seeing photos of early steelhead flies tied on hooks with
down eyes, I decided to used a down turned eye for my version
of the Martha as well.
Martha
Tail: Red hackle
Body: Rear half, red floss; Front half, yellow floss.
Rib: Oval gold tinsel.
Hackle: Brown
Wing: Mallard flank.
Credits: Favorite Flies and Their Histories by Mary Orvis Marbury;
Steelhead Fly Fishing and Flies by Trey Combs ~ LB
About Larry:
My mother always said that I got my love of the outdoors from
my grandfather and it was this love of the outdoor life and to be
near the great hunting and fishing that led me to relocate to Lycoming
County of northern Pennsylvania. While I have been a fisherman
since I was six, I have only been fly fishing and tying for the past
15 years and consider myself at best only an average fly tier and
fisherman. I started teaching myself fly fishing and to tie flies by
reading books and talking to other fly fishermen and as I learned
about the nuts and bolts of fly fishing, such as casting, drag and
matching the hatch, I slowly developed an appreciation of the
history and great tradition of the sport. While learning about the
history and tying these old wet flies has given me hours of enjoyment,
my real enjoyment and memories comes from fishing with and sharing
with others information about these historic flies. ~ LB
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