Some Bucktails

All about flies Fly Tying
1

Hi everyone.

Last week I was down at the local fly and picked up a number of colours of bucktail. When I first started tying flies, I didn’t have any red quill feathers to tye up some Parmachene Belle’s, so I tied a few bucktail style, but used hackle fibres instead of bucktail. These were fairly small, size 14 type things. Anyway, on my last fishing trip, I tied one of these early flies of mine on and it caught a few fish. Since it had been slow up until that point, I was quite pleased. So, I decided I would tie a few more patterns up, hence my latest purchase.

Now, I got to thinking of when I was a kid and the flies my grandfather used and recommended. He was a big fan of the Parmachene Belle, though he just called it a “P-Belle”. He also liked a “P-Beau”. Now, my memory of the P-Beau is different from the pattern I see on the net (which is a Parmachene Belle with an peacock herl but and junglecock eyes). What I recall, and this could be entirely a false memory, is that the wing of the P-Beau was red-white-red, rather than white-red-white as for the P-Belle. Also, and this is more vauge, but I seem to recall it being a silver bodied fly rather than yellow.

Anyway, here’s a bucktail version of what I recall:

If anyone knows what this is called, please let me know!

For comparison, here’s the P-Belle:

The Parmachene Belle is an excellent Brook Trout fly, very popular back in Nova Scotia (and probably the North East of the USA as well). 100 years ago, the book “The Tent Dwellers” was written, and this told the story of a fishing trip to the wilds of Nova Scotia. The Parmachene Belle is one of the flies mentioned.

Also mentioned was the Jenny Lind. Jenny Lind was an opera singer who made quite a splash back in the 1800s or early 1900s. A Mrs. O’Connel from Halifax designed this fly and named it after her.

The Jerry Madiddler isn’t really a married wing pattern. Rather, it’s normally a mottled turkey wing with small slips of red swan tied in along side. However, I figured I would try a version of that as well. There’s a wee bit of red burried under the brown bucktail, honest!

  • Jeff
2

And of course, a collection of bucktail streamers for trout would be incomplete without a Mickie Finn. This is another hugely popular fly in Nova Scotia. I’ve had some luck with it here in New Zealand on rainbows as well.

On the St. Mary’s River, where I spent many hours casting hopefully to unseen salmon, there’s a pool called “Silver’s Pool”. It was named after a Dr. Silver from Halifax (I think that’s where he was from). Apparently he fished a Silver Doctor a lot (not named after him). So, I put together a simplied bucktail version of that too:

  • Jeff
3

The next three patterns are just ones I put together without following a specific pattern. The 2nd one is similar to a trout fin. The last one I call the Rainbow fly.



  • Jeff
4

And finally, although these aren’t bucktails anymore, I tied up a couple squirrel tail streamers as well. All the previous flies were tied on size 12 2x shank hooks. These 3 are on size 10 2x shank.

The first one I call a “Golden Minnow”. The body is gold tinsel with fine gold rib. Tied on the sides are white hackle tips. There’s a yellow tail and red throat tied in.

This one, the “Green Fry” is constructed similar to the above, but uses different coloured materials.

Finally (honest), this is one of the first patterns I ever put together, although I used grey squirrel tail first, now I use either grey or black. Anyway, the body is silver with silver rib, then layered on the sides are a blue, white, and red hackle tip tied in; each one shorter than the last. These are a pain to tie, but it can probably be simplified if you glue the 3 feathers together before attaching them to the sides.

Anyway, these were great fun to tie. Streamers can be great fun to fish. Tight lines.

  • Jeff
5

that’s cool.
I’ve been tying some up to imitate dace in a favorite stream.
nice work keeping them sparse.

6

Jeff -

VERY nice series of streamers. Really enjoyed the commentary / history to go with the pics. No doubt those would do some damage in the places I fish. Geessshh - if only I had the patience and skill to do flies like that.

John

7

I agree - they are very nice. Question - Mickey Finn or Sunset Fly - what’s the difference?

8

Jeff,

Very, very nice. I’m not much of a streamer fisherman, but I appreciate great patterns and well tied flies when I see them. Your skill at wrapping a smooth floss body is enviable.

REE

9

Jeff,

I sent you a PM with a couple of website addresses that show the Parmachene Beau.

Larry :smiley: —sagefisher—

10

Jeff
Your sparse wings will help you catch fish! I think most tiers use at least twice as much wing as they should in bucktails. Less is always more!

A friend ties a silver salmon fly and literally counts 7 bucktail hairs for each fly… And claims they fish better when they lose half of that!
art

11

here’s one I tied for a swap elsewhere…

12

Thanks everyone. I agree that sparse is the way to go with all hair wings. I could probably reduce the hair in the squirrel tails a touch. I think they produce more motion when sparse, and also there would be a more translucent look to them.

Gringo, I don’t know the sunset fly? Could be another name for the Mickie Finn. It was originally called the Assasin back in the 30s when it was “first” tied.

REE, I’ve been using DMC Rayon Embroidery floss recently. This has about 8 strands to it, and I separate it down to single strands. Usually I then take two strands and wrap them together. This material fans out nicely to give a really smooth body.

  • Jeff
13

Nice one Mr. Blurr. What’s the name of the pattern?

=- Jeff

14

Jeff - Brilliant flies - absolutely brilliant! – where did you get your Bucktail from? was it here in Auckland? I have yellow, red, blue and natural. But your colours are fantastic! I have looked for different colours but have not found any, I found a lot of coloured Elk in the South Island when I was last there, but no Bucktail. And are the tails large or small? I could only get small pieces of the tail.

Mr. Blurr. Your fly is also brilliant.

Thank you both for sharing.

Jeanne

15

Hi Jeanne,

I picked most of the bucktail up at Rod & Reel in New Market. I think I found the blue at Manakau Rebel Sports. Oh, Rod & Reel in New Market is having a fly tying exposition on June 14 & 15. There will be fly tying demo’s and films, etc, and some harder to find materials available, etc.

  • Jeff
16

Jeff, what a treat! thank you. i’ll print out the names and photos and get right to work.

and a Nor-Vise makes quick work of those long floss bodies, especially if you’re tying a batch for a swap.

17

I call it a bucktail.
no name, just something I tied up to imitate

local speckled dace.

I like the juju of the jungle cock and peacock.
it works well.

18

Hi Mr. Blur,

I suppose you could just name it after the initials, local speckeled … hmmm, maybe not! Perhaps it could be called Lucy In the Sky? ha!

I like the look of the junglecock eyes as well. Peacock sword makes a nice topping as well, and of course there’s golden pheasant crest.

  • Jeff
19

ha LSD it is.

20

Hi Gringo,

I did a google search for Sunset Fly, and found this Tasmainian pattern:

http://www.flylife.com.au/library/ttatf/sunset.html

but it doesn’t look like a Mickie Fin? Looks like a good fly though and I might just tie some of them to try here.

  • Jeff