Dr. Gordon Silver was an angler in Nova Scotia whose family owned a house on one of the pools on the St. Mary’s River. The pool is known as Silvers’ Pool. Dr. Silver was the local doc for Sherbrooke, and I believe the house was built by his father (also a Doctor I think).
Anyway, I believe Doc Silver fished the St. Mary’s back in the 40’s or 50’s, but my history on this is pretty limited. I recall reading somewhere a quote along the lines of “Indeed, you knew it was time for the salmon to arrive when Doc Silver was attached to a Silver Doctor”, the latter fly not named after the Doc of this story.
However, recently Logan from FAOL posted that he was planning a trip where he might get a chance to fish the St. Mary’s. I used to fish Silvers Pool with my dad and grandfather a fair few years ago. I started searching the net for some information, and I found the following fly pattern, Doc Silver’s Special! I’ve never heard of this fly, but apparently it was one that Gordon Silver found exceptionally productive on the St. Mary’s. It was apparently first given to him by Ted MacIntosh who guided on the St. Mary’s (I’ve obtained all this information from the St. Mary’s River Association web site).
Doc Silvers Special
tag: flat silver tinsel
tip : orange floss
butt: black cheneil
body: flat silver tinsel
rib : oval silver tinsel
throat: black hen hackel
wing: black squirrel tail
topping: 1 strand green floss
cheeks: jungle cock
I just had to tie one up. I like the looks of this (though the cheeks might be a touch large on this one).
So, if anyone is looking for a new Atlantic Salmon pattern, this might be a good one to try. It was apparently good early in the season.
Nice tie. I do believe your right about the JC, it is a bit large for that fly. Is that black squirrel tail in the wing? If so, that’s the curliest I’ve ever seen. It also looks like the wing might be a little dense. reducing the amount of hair would give you a smaller head.
Yes, my black squirrel tail is very curly! I’ve never seen one like it either. I think it’s not naturally curly but rather it may have become “kinked” when dyed or packed or something. I should try steaming it to see if that helps.
And I agree with you on the wing as well. A bit too much hair was used. I like the black and silver look of the pattern as a whole though, and the bright orange on the tip is a nice hot spot, and a nice change from the typical yellow tips on a lot of hair wing patterns. I would think one could tie this trout sized (size 10 2x shank type of thing) and expect some decent results as a streamer.
My Squirrel tailis curly too, not only that it broke about a quarter of the way down from the tip. it has a very fragile bone structure - is this normal or due to the dying process?
Again nice fly Jeff, now, do you think that the green floss will flatten out when wet? I wonder whether it will dry flat, or spring back to a curve like it is now? What do you think?
I think the curliness and fragility might be due to the dying process. The one I have, I think the tail was left lying on it’s side when it dried or something, which seems to have bent much of the hair, and some is very curly.
As for the floss, it will probably break apart into individual strands once the fly gets wet and cast about. That will cause it to act a bit long long maraboo fibres and produce a more veiled topping look. At least, that’s what seems to happen to floss tails, but they are much shorter lengths of floss. Also, I suspect part of the “curve” is due to the floss sitting on top of single strands of curly hair. It’s proppped up a wee bit.
