here is what i was thinking 10 tyers tie one fully dressed salmon fly send them to me and i will send a different one back to every one let me know what you think of it. if its a go the dead line will be dec 1st and i will post my addy if any one joins and dont tell what you are tying
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What does “fully dressed” actually mean? I’ve seen it in a lot of descriptions but I don’t know what it means, exactly.
I went to the site. (Thank you, by the way, those are some beautiful flies!) So, “fully dressed” = fancy and complicated?
What are the ESSENTIALS of a fully-dressed salmon fly? What part of the fly, if you removed it, would make it no longer “fully-dressed”?
Not to be impertinent, but I am curious… What would a half-dressed salmon fly look like?
GOOGLE “salmon fly types” or “styles of salmon flies” for loads of information
AlbaSurf,
While I can’t answer your question with any sort of authority, when I hear or read “full dress atlantic salmon fly” I immediately imagine a few key elements. Yes, the elaborate look is one of them. Among others:
-A fairly intricate tail, usually containing golden pheasant crest, and many times with a veiling of indian crow.
-A tinsel tag below the tail
-A tinsel rib over part or all of the body…many times an intricate, multi-strand, multi-type tinsel rib
-A body comprised mostly of a combination of silk floss and/or seal’s fur
-Black ostrich herl as a dividing visual element between different parts of the body
-A complex wing, usually either a married-fiber wing with fibers from several different birds, or several colors of feather OR a multi-layered wing if complete feathers from a variety of birds
-Usually a golden pheasant crest topping
-Generally tied on large black salmon fly hooks
-Many times tied on blind (no eye) hooks, onto which a traditional silk gut eye has been added
I’m sure I’m mistaken or somewhat inaccurate on some of this, but these are the visual cues that scream “full dress” to me. Many of the feathers used are extremely, extremely rare/expensive or illegal to own outright, and as such are often imitated by more common materials.
Thank you Cold! That was very helpful!
davidm,
Sorry for hijacking the post! Count me in for the swap if it goes down!
David hasn’t shown any activity on FAOL since last November, which Ironically was right after he acknowledged receiving all the swap flies for a deer hair swap that HE started, then never to be heard from again. No activity on line, no replies to email and PM’s, and no response from ANYONE to a snail mail letter addressed to “Whom it may concern” (with SASE) sent to the address all of flies went to (letter was not returned either).
If something happened to just him, you’d think his family would have replied to the letter and used the SASE. If something happened to the address (fire, flood, etc God forbid), you’d think the Post Office would have forwarded or returned the letter.
Anyhow, I would certainly be very skeptical of sending a full dressed Atlantic Salmon fly to a less-than-known entity. Just the opinion from someone who got burned on a swap.
like bass bug, i would be very weary of this swapmeister and his method of swapping flies. one way only, never a round trip!
davidm should be banned from initiating swaps on this website
Unleash the Hounds on eem…and show no mercy…sick eem is what I would tell my hound…YEP sick eem that aint cool.
I thought that was him…has anyone tried out his “Infraction”?
Yea just suprize me …Dont tell me so I will be thrilled like I was last time I stiffed all you nice tyers for all your Flies and wonderfull boxes…
Takes a real man doesnt it?
LoL, thanks bass-bug! I am laughing at myself, btw; I am so blind, I didn’t even notice that he posted that back in September of 2009! I was just going along, reading old posts, asks about what “fully-dressed” meant and completely forgot about how old that post was.
But seriously, thanks for letting us all know to be wary!
Karli-Rae
No problem at all. There are many threads without any recent activity that could be worth re-visiting. Often you’ll see a thread revived after months of hibernation. New members can often offer new insight on old topics.
Had he done with salmon flies what he did with the deer hair swap he could have been arrested for mail fraud, probably not worth pursuing for deer hair but 10 salmon flies at $100+ makes for some time in prison.