Traditional Skunk

Meet The Skunk.

The prevailing theory is that this fly originated on the North Umpqua, but the exact original tier is a matter of debate. Wes Drain is mentioned. It is one of the original flies used for steelhead in the Pacific North West.
This fly, once very popular, has fallen out of vogue and was eclipsed by the Green Butt Skunk.

I tied this one according to a number of different sources. The fly is usually tied with a black chenille body, but the original may have used peacock herl.
So, I started with a dyed golden pheasant tail. The body is peacock herl and black ostrich herl spun together with fine silver oval tinsel. The wing is polar bear.

I was priveleged enough this fall to see and touch some actual 3/0 to 5/0 skunks purchased directly from Joe Howell's flyshop on the North Umpqua.

Some more hairwing flies

Based on the British Governor and Coachman patterns, this version of the Improved Governor was used on the Eel river as far back as 1910. It sports a bronze mallard wing with I have reinforced by an underwing of black bear.



Black Prince: An old pattern tied with hand dyed wool. This pattern is believed to have originated on the Umpqua around the turn of the century.



Unnamed original. A brighter fly to catch the eye of steelhead. The orange glows through the swept back black hackle and wings and the yellow butt acts as a spotlight. Good searching pattern.



My attempt at creating a traditional looking fly that can tempt steelhead in our colder water spring environment and be large enough without the use of flash or synthetic materials led to this Ackroyd with reduced dressing and using polar bear for the wing.

Hairwings set #2

Hairwing flies set #2

As promised, I tied and gathered more hairwings from the old fly boxes. There are both more traditional flies in this set as well as some more modern flies from the PNW in the style of Syd Glasso. I need something to keep me occupied as I watch our society fall apart…


The first fly is the Black Doctor. A very old pattern for Atlantic Salmon in the British isles, the black doctor works well both as a small summer fly and tied as a winter fly. It has a bright red ostrich herl butt, combined with blue hackle and yellow floss to provide visibility. I tied this one with fox squirrel for a wing. This fly was probably tied in 2001 or so.


The next fly is an unnamed original by me. It uses coral dyed merino wool for a body and pink dyed gold pheasant for a throat. It has a butt of peacock herl. This was one of the first hairwings I ever tied.


This fly is another old pattern called appropriately the grizzly king.
It has a green floss body that I added a bit of peacock herl to just because, and grizzly hackle. It sports a wing of gray squirrel. It is a very good low water fly or a good comeback fly. It also catches trout in smaller sizes as a traditional wetfly.



Here we have another old favorite, the rusty rat. The rust body is formed of burnt orange floss, the tail is of peacock sword, the thorax is of peacock herl, and the wing is gray squirrel while the hackle is natural grizzly. A fun fly to tie and fish. Once again, it’s more natural coloration make it a good low water pattern or comeback fly.



The next fly in this series is the fall favorite.
It is tied with flat silver tinsel for a body, to which I added a rib of silver oval to keep it from unraveling. The wing is orange kid goat, while the hackle is red. A popular fly in the PNW and very simple to tie. In its larger sizes it makes a good winter fly.



This fly is called the night dancer and was conceived by Frank Amato.
It has accounted for thousands of steelhead on the Deschutes at first and last light. The concept is that a dark fly shows up better against the lightening sky at those times, but it has caught fish at every hour. A popular fly, it adds a bit of color attraction by using purple hackle.



This next fly is an unnamed original by me. It shows a PNW ‘spey’ style combined with extreme low water body style of peacock herl. The wing is black kid goat while the hackle is dyed red golden pheasant. It is untried but was conceived as an extreme low water fly in runs where the fish are more ‘trouty’ or highly pestered.



This fly is another unnamed one by me.
It is tied in the more glowing and bright colors, and the style of elongated tag, butt, and seal body with fiber tail are in the tradition of the late Mr. Glasso.
The body is purple haze SLF. I used fibers from a dyed golden pheasant for the tail. I prefer doing it this way because it sits in a curved upright position, more like the golden pheasant crest that it is imitating. Saddle hackle fibers sit straighter. This example is tied as a summer fly on a light wire hook. Good for a searching pattern in big water or slightly off-color water. Proven on the Klickitat when the water was ‘green’.



The next fly is another original by me, this one is called the summer day.
It was conceived at the same moment as the autumn twilight, but uses seal for the thorax. It is a bright fly and has caught fish on the Milwaukee (look closely at the photo on the post “meditation on the swung fly”).
I like it for big water searching as well as for fast riffle water, but I tend to fish darker flies most of the time.



The next fly gets a little more complicated, and is called the nova.
Its lineage traces back to the flies tied by Glasso and McNeece.
It has an optically blended color pattern designed to effect an interior glow. The purple hackle folds back over the orange rear when in the water, and it shimmers and glows. The wing is of orange kid goat topped by purple arctic fox. The body is of orange SLF followed by purple SLF ribbed by an orange saddle hackle and gold oval tinsel. The veiling over the hackle is natural guinea fowl.



Here is another more traditional fly called the black max.
It originated with Shewey and is a modification of the max canyon. It also resembles a reduced steelhead ackroyd and many of the patterns originated by Ed Haas. I nailed a nice 18 pound steelhead on this one in September of this year, but it had a white feather wing. (it would not have made any difference what I used ;)

Short notes on style:

The more traditional style of hairwing uses a full body tied back to the hook gap or barb, and a wing that extends to or slightly past the bend of the hook. It should be tied fairly sparse, and not over dressed. The low-water style represents a shrinking of the fly. The body begins in front of the gap, the wing is sparser and the hackle shorter. It is like tying a size 4 fly on a size 2 hook for lack of a better explanation. It is designed to be used in clear water and/or low water and is dressed sparsely so as to not spook the fish.
The modern style (Glasso) is more flamboyant, and uses materials and dressing styles found on Dee flies from Scotland. They are a blending of modern and the 19th century.

Hairwings set #1

As promised, I have started tying hairwing steelhead and salmon flies again.
There is something about the simple elegance of these flies that intrigue me. They are relatively easy to tie, and sit in the water like nothing else. The hair acts as a catcher of the current, and rights the fly. The heavy wire hook acts as an anchor. You don't see these flies fished as much as in times past. In the day, lets say the 1940s through the 1980s they were predominant for steelhead in the PNW. Now all one sees are Temple-dog flies, string-leeches, tubes, and flies with a lot of motion that are 2-3 inches long. I catch summer-run steelhead out west with these flies in size 2, 4, and 6. Believe it or not, the fish do come up for them! On our local waters, given that the water is clear enough, they often get the nod as well. I like my hairwing flies to be traditional, not too bright, and with little or no flash. I like traditional materials too. It is also amazing how quickly the larger hairwing flies sink. One can fish the waters around here with a dry line and a 1/0 hairwing with ease. In effect, a hairwing is a reduced and simplified version of the late 19th and early 20th century featherwing flies. Hairwings originated in England, Ireland, and Scottland, but then were later adopted for North American Atlantic Salmon and finally Steelhead. Tiers such as Syd Glasso, Walt Johnson, Ed Haas, and Dave McNeese, amongst many others took the concept and ran with it. I tend to disdain the use of chenille as well. I prefer wool. Several years ago I procured about 30 patches of Merino wool from Royce Dam. I dyed them with Veniard and RIT dyes, causing my kitchen sink to sport lots of colorful spots...oops! The dying was fun, but was really intended to supply me with colors that I could not find. Kingfisher blue, rich yellows, and highlander green were first on the list. I started experimenting with blending the wool colors by hand much as was done in the 1800s with 'Berlin Wool'. This allowed me to achieve that hard to find look of olive and brown mix in a Lady Caroline. Wool dubs extremely easily, and sits flat on the hook, unlike seal or it's substitute. Seal has it's place too, but some patterns call for a more svelte body style.

So, here are some hairwings and their origins and commentary. Part one of a series.



The Blue Charm

This is one of the most famous Atlantic Salmon flies in history.
In Sylvester Nemes' book Six months in Scotland, a book is detailed which recorded which details the fishing of one Sherrif Dallas, who fished primarily the Dee. He used greased line tactics, and knew AHE wood quite well. According to the fishing log, the Blue charm killed 38% of all the fish caught on flies! Of course, it might have been because he had that fly on his leader and in the river more than any other, but, it does make one think.
The fly consists of a black wool body, silver tag and ribbing, yellow floss butt covered with golden pheasant crest, and blue collar hackle. The wing can be any shade from brown to natural fox squirrel. I used black bear just because. In my experience, it is an excellent 'low-water' fly.



The next fly is the Gold Demon.

This fly is an early example of North American hairwings. It shows up well in off-color or high water, and may have been intended as a winter fly.
It has a body of gold tinsel ribbed by gold oval tinsel, Hackle of orange, a golden pheasant crest tail, and wings of brown to tan, depending on which book is consulted. Jungle cock nails are optional, but do help with the overall lines of the fly. It sinks fast due to less water resistance.



This fly is called the Autumn Twilight.

The Autumn Twilight is an original clear or low-water pattern by your's truly. I have landed the largest steelhead of my life on this fly. When the water wraps the blue hackle back over the black and purple body, it glows very subtly while not being too bright. It is a good Deschutes type pattern, but I also have hooked fish in Wisconsin water with it in a larger size.
The body is purple antron floss and black wool in near equal proportions ribbed in gold oval tinsel. The hackle is kingfisher blue, and the wing black dyed squirrel. black bear, or kid goat. This one sports a kid goat wing.



The next fly is the Green-Butt Black Bear.

Again, one of the most famous flies and very effective, the Green-butt Black Bear (or the yellow-butt as I tie it), is famous on the Miramichi for Atlantic Salmon. It is tied both with a tail and without, as well as 'cossboom style' with the hackle in front of the black wing. An excellent low-water or clear-water pattern, it is primarily black, and shows up well in the water. Iuse yellow floss for the butt because I find neon-green to be too modern. Once again, the body is of wool, the wing of Black Bear,and the hackle is black saddle.



This fly is called the 'Patricia' and is tied by Randle Stetzer originally for use on the Deschutes.

It is as simple a hairwing as possible using red and white as a color scheme. The body is red wool ribbed by medium gold oval tinsel, the hackle is red saddle, and the wing is Polar Bear or substitute. Very similar to some flies tied by Ed Haas.


The final fly in this first series is a varient of the above 'Patricia' and sports a black wing in place of the Polar Bear. It is called 'The St. Estephe' and is named after a wine region. It's popular colors of claret and black assure us that somewhere this fly is named something else as well. Once again it is a versatile pattern.

That is it for this post. More later, have to get to the vise! I wonder what hairwing I should tie next?