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DarkMontreal.jpg

Dark Montreal

 

Nearly every list of fly patterns for the last century includes at least one pattern named the Dark Montreal (or simply the Montreal). Like so many other popular patterns, it comes in a number of variations.

 

The following history is found at http://flyanglersonline.com/features/canada/can98.php, by Sheldon Seale.

 

“Credit for the Montreal is usually given to Peter Cowan, a Scot who came to Canada as a young man in the 1830s and settled in Quebec's Eastern Townships sometime before 1836, where he built a home on the banks of the Yamaska River. The town of Cowansville, where he was sheriff between 1866 and 1880, was named in his honour. He chose the area partly because there was good trout fishing to be had in the local streams. We are reasonably certain he was fishing the pattern that would become the Montreal by the 1840s and was having very good success with it. He seems to have given the pattern to a number of other fly fishers, who also found it very effective. Eventually, the popularity of the pattern grew so much that Cowan showed the pattern to a professional fly-maker in Montreal around 1850, who started to supply the demand.

 

That fly-maker could have been William Forster, an American who began tying flies professionally in Montreal in about 1849. Forster claimed to have originated the pattern himself and named the mainly claret coloured wet fly the Montreal in honour of the city in which he lived at the time. There is no conclusive evidence for either Cowan's or Forster's claim, but there is no doubt whatsoever that it was originated and developed in Quebec.

 

The popularity of the Montreal (today generally referred to as the Dark Montreal) grew as Cowan invited the English army officers stationed in Montreal to fish with him. The officers sent the pattern back to England where the local fly-makers were soon making and selling the Montreal wherever trout fishing thrived (which, thanks largely to the British, was practically everywhere).”

 

Although it doesn't appear to imitate anything in particular, it represents many things; aquatic insects, emergers, small baitfish or even water-logged terrestrials. After 150 years, the Montreal is still a widely recognized pattern and a favourite among wet fly anglers worldwide. That it has stood the test of time is indicative of its success.

 

Dark Montreal

 

Thread:                      UTC G.S.P. 50 Denier black thread

Hook:                          Mustad 3399A size 6 - 14

Tag:                            Flat silver tinsel

Tail:                             Claret barbules

Rib:                             Flat silver tinsel

Body:                          Claret floss

Throat:                       Claret hen hackle fibers

Wing:                          Mottled turkey

Head:                         Black thread finished with glossy head cement

 

Please stay on the line …