Bergman Conversions
New Streamers
By Tom Giglio
It all started with Raske.
Way back when, before Raske's Streamer Page joined GFF, he popped up with a feature where he took some traditional and well known atlantic salmon fly patterns and adapted them to streamer form. A few years later, we followed that lead with another feature where we did something similar, only this time instead of converting the patterns to featherwing streamers, we tied bucktails along the lines of "little bucktails for brookies".
I guess it's only natural that we followed this path to the classic wet flies made popular by Ray Bergman's seminal book "Trout". In the winter of 2004, the gang of streamers@ held a swap of flies where each tyer would submit a "conversion" of a classic wet fly pattern into bucktail form, and optionally the pattern tied in it's natural wet fly form.
Converting a fly from one form to another is certainly an educational process, as it requires you to look at materials in a new way, especially the wing materials. A wet fly that calls for a wing of mallard flank or mottled turkey has no obvious equivalent in a hairwing fly, so the tyer has to sort through their bins of junk looking for something that strikes there eyes.
Before we move on to the flies, I think it is worthwhile to spend a few moments reflecting on the life of Ray Bergman and his contributions to the world of fly fishing. For that, we turn to the words of Don Bastian, who's credentials are beyond compare when it comes to Ray Bergman and his flies.
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Ray Bergman wrote four books. Just
Fishing (1932) Trout is the only fishing book ever written to remain continuously in print for more than 50 years. The first edition was reprinted 13 times. Second edition (1952) revised, enlarged, with two new chapters on spinning. Third edition of Trout was done in 1978. In the year 2000 the Derrydale Press published a fourth edition with a new forward by Gary LaFontaine. "Trout" in all its volumes and editions has sold more than 225,000 copies; a feat that will probably never be surpassed by a fishing book. The first edition of Trout was entirely a fly fishing book. When Trout was published, it contained the largest collection of illustrated fishing flies ever published, more than 600 patterns; 440 of which are classic wet flies. All the color plate paintings in Bergman's books were painted by Dr. Edgar Burke, noted author, artist. Bergman was angling editor of Outdoor Life magazine from 1934 until 1959 when he retired. Born 1981, died 1967. His name and gravesite was just this past year, placed on a "Cemetery Tour" of notable people in the history of the area of Nyack, NY, the place where Bergman was born, lived, and died. He operated a mail-order fly tackle business called "Ray Bergman's Angling Specialties" from 1934 until he retired. He had his own line of fly tying hooks made by the Martinez Company in Redditch, England, sold as Nyack Brand, Ray Bergman Fly Tying Hooks. There were Red Label, Blue Label, Yellow Label, and others. Before and throughout his tenure with Outdoor Life Bergman made annual fishing trips across the UNited States and Canada. He along with his wife, Grace, fished for all types of fish in nearly every state in the country. His favorite method was dry fly fishing to rising trout with flies he personally tied. However, he was not about placing a worm on the hook when all else failed. As Angling Editor of Outdoor Life, Bergman wrote about all types of fishing with all methods. His position with this popular magazine at a time when there were no fly fishing publications on the market had much to do with the fact that Ray Bergman was practically a household name during his later years of life. Don
Bastian |
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Admiral |
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Babcock |
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Bergman Fontinalis |
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Blue Jay |
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Brandreth |
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Hopatcong |
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Kineo |
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Murray |
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Prime Gnat |
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Rio Grand King |
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Sassy Cat |
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Telephone Box |
