It seems that I've been seeing,in print,and hearing the proclamation that a dry fly that has hackles wound around the front of the hook shank is a CATSKILL style dry fly. The great Catskill tiers, Gordon, Christian, Steenrod, Cross, Jennings, the Darbees' and the Dettes would have all objected to such a simple minded statement. They developed and refined the Catskill style but were not the first to tie a dry fly that way. Here's the story:
Theodore Gordon communicated via letter to the great English fly tiers of the day, Fredric Halford in particular, (early 20th century) and was able to secure instructions AND materials to tie English dry flies. Their dries, created decades before American dries, had hackles would around very close to the eye of the hook and Gordon copied that but objected to the poor quality English hackles and the fact that these flies copied English insects. The other great tiers mentioned above changed everything. First, they insisted on the stiffest hackles. Second, they moved everything BACK from the eye of the hook and Third, they tied a slim, sparse dry fly much different from the English style. That is the Catskill style as seen in the photo above of a Dark Cahill which, as the story goes, was first tied by Dan Cahill, a brakeman with the Erie Railroad. Cahill has another claim and that is that he was the brakeman on a train that had a load of rainbow trout from California. The train broke down and he convinced the crew to save the trout by dumping them into Callicoon Creek, a Catskill stream, where they established themselves. The rest is history.
God only knows how many trout have been taken with this style. We do know one thing and that is that this imitation of an adult mayfly is not as popular as it was decades ago. That's probably because we know now that the rises that we see are rises for the emerging insect and not the adult. Also, this fly will get beat up after a fish or two. I switched over to the comparadun over 30 years ago because it represents the adult and, with it's body stuck in the surface film, the emerging insect too. It will float forever! It also survives riffles and fast water very nicely, a fact that is still not accepted in dry fly circles.
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The Rivers
Does anyone know how to do a rain dance?? Maybe I should plan a family cookout or hand wash and wax my Jeep or start painting the house or how about renting a cottage on the beach for a week??? All those activities usually result in a flood. All we can do is smile and fish where we can.
The Swift is chugging along at 125 cfs and it will stay that way until we get rain. The other rivers.....?
Ken
11 comments:
Ken
That's interesting. I never really looked to deeply, but was always of the impression that the key to a "Catskill" style dry, was not the hackle, but a bit of space from between the head to the eye of the hook. Literally a little bit of bare shank in there, between those points. But that doesn't seem to be the case either. Perhaps the style of the wings being a bit more utilitarian that fan wings or what not is a player. Regardless, that's some interesting history in your post, thanks for sharing that.
Agreed on the rain. It looks like it will dump out there right now, but the weather folks seem to feel it's not for those of us in central MA. We could really use it! Wash your Jeep or have a BBQ indeed :)
Keep well
Will
Will,
I remember looking at some Gordon Dries and the hackle was jammed against the eye. The others moved it back a bit. They were all tied to represent the dun and not the emerger. We've come a long way in insect representation.
Ken
Took a drive along the Westfield from Westfield to the far end of huntington yesterday. I walked up the river to knightville and outside of the outflow near the dam, the water was 2 feet at its deepest. Didn't see a fish, the flows are miserably low and water was terribly warm. I think its tailwater time from here on out. Beat the crowds at the farmy Tuesday night and connected w a 18 inch brown on a mouse. Fun stuff!
Hi Ken,
It was great to finally meet you in person on the Swift yesterday. Managed to only get a couple looks from a few rainbows, but the Brookies were a thrill as always. I’m hoping to start getting out there at night and covering a bunch of water to find one of those big browns on the prowl.
Did you and your client do well last night?
Hope to run into you on the rivers again soon!
Jared
Jared,
It was a pleasure meeting you too. We got a couple of brookies but the night was slow. I do have browns on the brain and if this drought continues I'll be stalking them on the swift.
We will meet again.
Ken
The intent of the original tiers of the Catskill dries was to imitate duns, but as several writers have pointed out, they do a poor job of that. The hook point breaks through the film and pulls the tail with it and the points of the hackle also tend to break through the surface. The tail and hackle are much too heavy to effectively represent a mayfly's tails and legs. The "flaws" of the design may well be it's saving grace... the "tail" can pass as a shuck and hackle can create a sense of movement (a dun struggling/fluttering) or imitate a wing caught in the film (cripple, knockdown, failed hatcher, etc).
Marinaro improved the style with his thorax design, but it still leaves a lot to be desired as an imitation of a "perfect" dun. In fact, the imitation of a perfect dun seems damned near impossible, but thankfully, as you point out Ken, the fish are nearly always more interested in emergers, cripples, etc.
None of this is my original thinking... I'm just paraphrasing Datus Proper, Peter Hayes, Don Stazicker, and others. Another commenter a while back offered an excellent recommendation for the eBook Trout and Flies--Getting Closer by Hayes & Stazicker... I haven't finished it yet, but it covers a lot of this ground with excellent photos and videos documenting trout and fly behavior.
Brendan,
Very good points.
Datus Proper, along with Sylvester Nemes and his SH an an emerger, changed my views on fly presentation.
Ken
Ken, thanks for mentioning Nemes, who should certainly have been on my list. He didn't invent soft hackled flies, but he certainly understood them better than anyone before him, recognizing their versatility and effectiveness imitating caddis and midges in addition to the mayflies many were first tied to imitate. I also love Nemes' emphasis on the fun of fishing his technique... fishing large, heavily-weighted nymphs can certainly be effective, but it doesn't compare in terms of the artistry and joy that come from casting and fishing an unweighted soft hackle. Allen McGee recently wrote a nice book on soft-hackles, but Nemes' book remains the standard in my opinion.
Hi Ken - That was me in the car who waved coming in to the gauge parking lot. Today was super packed by any measure. I did manage a couple of fish, but the crowds and the higher water limited options. I guess I just missed the moose that was right at the rte 9 bridge. I came down the trail and 2 people had cameras and said “did you see it?”, nope. I must have walked right by it. :). Anyway, there seems to be one hanging around so be careful.
I have always enjoyed fishing Catskill style flies. I like how they ride high in the riffles and sometimes that back end that sinks looks like an emerger. I would have to I am a fan of all “parachute” patterns for mayflies and ants as the ride nice and low in the water. I prefer Elk hair patterns for Caddis as they wake better for skitting across the surface.
Lastly, hopefully this crowding, and the associated bad crowding behavior, will end with the Covid. I really hate to be the bad guy here, but it looks like people are beginning to tolerate other people being way too close. Also, I notice, especially above rte 9, people tend to get a spot and never move, casting to the same fish for an hour. While that seems boring to me, whatever floats your boat, but it means literally every fish hold spot has a designated person. That isn’t fly fishing. It’ golf or something. I continue to pray for a fall closure to protect the Redds and spawning Brookies. :)
Falsecast,
Nope, I haven't seen a moose but someone saw a bear below the Tree Pool two days ago.
Crowds - you must be talking about above route 9 because below Route 9 it's a ghost town. That may end when they stock for 7/1 but now it's a pleasure to fish. Few fish in the water but we are still catching them. Your observation of people fishing for an hour(s) in one spot above Route 9 has it's equivalent at the PIPE and the Tree Pool. As you said, it's not REAL fly fishing!
Ken
Thanks for the historical reference to the Catskill tiers. An additional reference is 'Catskill Flytier'... a great book about Harry Darbee. Good historical pictures as well as an illustrated step-by-step of his 'Two Feather Fly'. Copies of his book show up on eBay once in a while.
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