I was recently re-reading one of Sigurd Olson’s books, “Reflections from North Country”. In there he refers to the “Ambrose Bucktail” fly, which was particularly deadly on the bass in the boundary waters canoe area. Does anyone have an information on this fly?
I looked for the pattern, and all I came up with is that it was originaly tied by Helen Shaw and is in her books. I found her books on ebay and amazon for preaty low prices. Sorry couldn’t be much more help. Good luck!
A photo of the Ambrose Bucktail appears in a color plate of streamer flies in McClane’s New Standard Fishing Encyclopedia. The pictured fly was tied by Harry Darby, as were all the flies in the plate.
Although the recipe does not specify a hook type or size the fly pictured is obviously tied on a up-eyed salmon fly hook. The tail is of mixed scarlet and white bucktail. The body is yellow chenille ribbed with flat gold tinsel. The hackle is tied on prior to the wing and tied fairly full, wet fly style, consisting of one scarlet hackle followed by a one black hackle. The wing is composed of white bucktail topped with brown bucktail. The head is black thread.