I have been looking at this site -
http://www.rareandunusual.com/classic12.html
And I wondered about the flies with the whole feather wing, is one feather used, or two back to back.
Donald,
The dyed red Guinea appears like it may be two tied back to back but the others I can’t tell.
In the book Favorite Flies there are many plates of these bass flies. They are drawn of course, not photographed.
Some obviously have double wings, on others it’s hard to tell.
Donald,
Incredibly pretty flies. Look more like Salmon Flies than what we use for bass today. Surely a more genteel time.
In all my bass fly books, they NEVER use just one feather for a wing of that style.
The ‘thinking’, if I read it all correctly, is that the natrual curve of the feather needs to be balanced, so the fly tracks straight in the water.
Can’t tell too well from the photos, but I’d be greatly surprised if they used just one feather.
Good Luck!
Buddy
Thank you gentlemen.
And Buddy, I thought if just one feather the fly would propeller through the water, but it is hard to tel from the picture, of course they are tied as ornaments and not for fishing. I have quite a lot of Guinea Fowl dyed in various colours and thought I would tie some copies on modern hooks and try them on stocked rainbows of quite large size here. Just for a bit of fun, I am allowed to fish ‘catch & release’ for them. You know how gormless stocked fish can be.
Donald:
There is a good article on Bass flies in the most recent edition of Fly Tyer Magazine. I don’t know if it will answer any of your questions but it’s good reading none the less.
I am afraid I let my ‘Fly Tyer’ lapse and it is not available over the counter here. Never mind I was only puzzled by the wings, we don’t have fresh water bass here so it is a moot point. If and when I tie up some flies I’ll post them here for the necessary critique.
I do have a copy of the Orvis book.
One of the authors of the article in Fly tyer has a web site here:
http://www.geocities.com/mehama_mike/mikes_site/marbury/gallery.htm
Thanks halomidge, I’ll add that site to my collection,
the trout flies will get a trial also.
