A proper Dunt

I finally found some white wing turkey feathers in matched pairs and put them to good use.
Here is a 3/0 Dunt Dee fly. Should look good stuck in a tree in the Bone Yard run... which is why I don't fish these in our river.

I will be conducting a casting clinic at Greenfield Park in West Allis on Tuesday May 12th @ 5:00 pm for the Milwaukee Lake and Stream Fly Fishers club. Everyone is invited to come and join the club in tuning your fly casting. The more the merrier. You might be in for a treat, and watch me throw tailing loops! ;)

The Dunt Dee fly

Another Dee fly, this one is named the ‘Dunt’

According to Kelson, the Dunt originates with W. Murdoch who contributed to the Fishing Gazette, and wrote the book Moonlight On The Salmon.
He (Murdoch) says of the fly “There is not a better all-around fly of the plain sort than the Dunt put upon the Dee in spring or Autumn.”
The Dunt is a bit more somber fly than some of the loudest and brightest Dees, but still has inner body colors that glow through the long waving hackle.
I tied this one with dyed blue eared pheasant and used a more traditional scissor-wing style with turkey feathers. The body is yellow blending into orange and claret seal substitute. I used angora goat. This is the dressing according to Kelson. The original dressing probably was orange blending into fiery brown.
The word ‘Dunt’ according to the Imperial English dictionary means ‘to strike a blow or a blow’, but the actual origin of the name comes from the Scottish idiom for the “Proper thing”, a “Proper Dunt.”
The background is a plate from the Lindisfarne gospels.

Here is an excerpt from the fishing gazette written by Murdoch;
Dawson is responsible for the invention of several flies. Seven years ago when he was fishing the Kineskie water we used of an evening to drop down to see him work, and have a chat with him in piscine and piscatorial matters. When we got down to the river we used to call out to him from the top of the bank, “Have you got anything, Dawson?” and invariably his reply was, “O ti.” “What did you get him with,” we then queried, and he used jocularly to reply. “The proper dunt.” This led us to invent a fly which we christened the “Dunt,” to perpetuate Dawson’s “Proper Dunt,” which means the “proper thing.” That the Dunt has proved the proper thing no one will deny. It is a particular favourite everywhere on the Dee, and in one day more fish have been killed with it by one and the same rod than any other rod has got with any other fly in one day on the Dee within the last seven years – to wit, nine fish by Lord Strathallan on the Cambus O’May water some years ago in the spring.. MAC.

The white winged Akroyd 3/0

Meet the Akroyd. Named for Charles Akroyd, this fly is a classic of the Aberdeenshire Dee, a river in Scotland which gave us a whole style of fly, and perhaps my favorite: the Dee fly.

Long before waddinton shanks, tubes, temple-dog flies, intruders, and etc. large flies for winter, there were Dee flies. Originally tied on very long shanked hooks, these flies were heavy and sank well to temp dour Atlantic salmon in spring flows. ( The Dee is a springer river.) This fly is size 3/0 tied on an Alec Jackson hook. It is a bit short, but whatever. It is sparsely dressed, but with long hackle for movement. For us, this is a winter fly. Fish it on the Olympic peninsula or the Skagit with a dry line and McMillan methods of presentation and mending. It worked for dukes and earls, the royal family of G.B. and army officers and gentlemen fishing the Dee, and it will work for you too. If you are scared to fish it for fear of losing it, then simply dress it in a reduced fashion.

The original Akroyd utilizes white-tipped turkey for the wings, but I don't have any :(, so I tied it with white wings, as many have done before me, back to the 19th century. Believe it or not, Charles Akroyd referred to this fly as "The poor man's Jock Scott."

He wrote;

From “A Veteran Sportsman’s Diary” by Charles Akroyd, 1926. The following is an entry for 1875.

“Major Traherne tied a beautiful fly, and it gave me great pleasure to watch him. He took the most extraordinary pains to dress them perfectly, and I am sure I have seen him taking an hour trying to get a feather to sit properly. I always used to dress my own flies, but I dressed for speed, not for appearance; never the less my rough and ready affairs caught fish every bit as well as Traherne’s fancies. I hardly ever dressed two flies alike; I just sat down and dressed away just as the spirit moved me. This was the year in which I produced the “Akroyd” fly, which I am told by those who at the present time are fishing the Dee with it catches more fish than any other pattern. It is not dressed now in quite the same way as when I dressed it. Where the fly-dressers now use a cock’s hackle dyed yellow, I put in two long golden pheasant’s crest feathers running all the way down, my idea being that the glitter was more attractive than the dull hackle."

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They are a bit complicated to tie, but worth the effort. I used extra large dyed blue-eared pheasant for the hackle, and I blended my own dubbing for the rear of the body (SLF and orange angora goat). It turned out pretty good, but the Golden Pheasant tippet sort of got separated, and I left almost too much room for the head.

So, you don't just have to use 'Jig and Lure' flies to catch your winter fish. However, I for one would cry if I lost this damn thing on a piece of rebar or a salmon carcass ;)