A Philosophy of Fly Dressing

Most fly dressers specialise in particular types of dressing or patterns. However, I have an extensive library of 100,000 – 250,000 patterns and I can tie every one of them. Even if I have never tied a particular pattern or type of fly before, it never puts me off; I usually perfect the tying within three attempts, even if it is quite complicated. Whilst I would certainly encourage any newcomer to the art of fly dressing to study tradition, nevertheless I find that modern materials and techniques can in some cases produce patterns that are more effective than the older ones. I do not believe, for example, that there is any particular magic in tying a body with Chadwick's 477 wool. Whilst this might be recorded for posterity as the original dressing, it most likely happened to be the only material available at the time. Today, we have many more choices of materials available to us, and many of them are superior to the materials used in the original dressings.

The idea behind the use of animal fur for dubbing is to simulate the translucence of an insect body, though it should be borne in mind that some insect bodies are opaque. Seal's fur is popular because it is a translucent fibre, which refracts light and thus enhances its colour. However, some synthetic materials that are pliable enough to form a body are more capable of simulating a translucent body—latex skin, for example. I use both fur and synthetics.

The wings of mayfly duns and other upwinged dry flies used to be exclusively fashioned from feather slips. For practical purposes, we have more or less abandoned that style in favour of the paradun style, using a synthetic fibre wing post. In such a case the resultant fly may be named as a variation of some known pattern if other characteristics of the original have been retained, perhaps principally the original colour.

There is a moral issue in deciding whether to use synthetic or natural materials. While the animal-rights groups affect indignation and outrage over the use of natural materials, I believe they are mired in muddy thinking rather than treading the high ground. The use of synthetic materials, most of them derived from the petrochemical industry, is definitely eco-unfriendly, unlike the use of natural materials that are readily replaced by Mother Nature. So the question becomes a conflict between practical ecological values versus fabrications of the human imagination. Either way, commercial exploitation of natural resources is involved. Only fools might believe that the global exploration, drilling, transport, refining, and manufacture of petrochemicals results in fewer animal deaths than the direct taking of a handful of birds and mammals for fly dressings.

Returning to the dressing of traditional patterns: There are many instances where a pattern can be traced back to its original designer and a well-documented original dressing. Often, however, well-known patterns have a number of established dressings which might be regional or attributed to individual fly dressers. Take the Partridge and Orange. Any Yorkshire purist will tell you that this is one of a range of "North Country spiders" and will point out precisely those feathers from the body (not the wing) of a partridge skin which "should" be used for the hackle. On the other hand, a renowned Irish dresser will tell you to use the feather from the shoulder of the wing, which is not allowed in Yorkshire. It is therefore not strictly meaningful to refer to the Partridge and Orange without also stating the version. Clearly, anyone is free to choose his own dressing, though he should be consistent about it—at least in the nomenclature if not in the dressing.

With regard to the dressed length of bodies on the hook shank: I am of the opinion that where a material or method is calculated to simulate an insect body, it does not make sense to then stipulate that it should only occupy a limited portion of the shank, leaving a long undressed portion. The short body has aesthetic appeal but is logically wrong. So where some particular patterns are concerned, it will be seen that the bodies even go ‘round the bend' or extend to the rear above the bend.

Of late—thanks to tying many patterns for Gary Soucie's forthcoming book Muddler Magic—I have become particularly adept at tying many patterns that feature a head of spun deer hair, such as was first popularised in the American Muddler Minnow, a pattern and style that has swept the world since its inception in 1937. Many competent fly dressers draw the line at spinning, packing, and trimming deer hair, and I am ready to help them fill their fly boxes with Muddlers and the myriad contemporary variations on Don Gapen's theme.

About Mark Hunter
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