Most people enjoy
making something with their hands. We use wood, clay, thread, fabric, yarn, paint, foodstuffs and many other materials to
produce artistic and practical items. Such Items become valuable memorabilia, like “This sweater was made for my mother
by my grandmother”, or “Our family’s rocking chair has rocked 7 generations of babies”, as I was told
by an English lady last summer.
Fly
tying is another example, a satisfying and rewarding hobby for many of us. The hobby is growing, following the rapid growth
of fly fishing around the globe. Most flies are tied to fish with, but for some, there is no greater joy in fly tying than
to lose ourselves in the past for a day or so – tying an artistic classic Atlantic Salmon fly.
Recently Bob MacDonald of Mulgrave and I took such
a day to each tie a Green Highlander, a highly praised wet salmon fly from the latter part of the 19th century.
This dressing is adapted from the pattern presented in Dr. T. E. Pryce-Tannatt’s book “How to Dress Salmon Flies”
(1914). The photo shows my Green Highlander, still in the vice, almost completed. The fly is on display at River Magic
in Stillwater.
Green Highlander
Tag
Silver Tinsel
Tail
A topping (golden pheasant crest) and barred summer duck (wood duck)
Butt
Black ostrich herl
Body
First quarter, golden yellow floss, remainder bright green seal fur (or floss silk)
Ribs
Oval silver tinsel
Hackle A
grass-green cock’s hackle (palmered over the green part of the body)
Throat
A lemon cock’s hackle (we preferred a soft hen hackle)
Wings
Golden pheasant tippets as an underwing, married sections of yellow, orange and green swan, florican, peacock wing
and golden pheasant tail; outside of this, married sections of teal flank and barred summer duck; narrow sections of brown
mallard over and a topping.
Sides
Jungle cock
Cheeks Indian
crow substitute
Horns
Blue & Yellow macaw
Head
Black