Hair Winged Salmon Flies

Two events contributed to my nearly 30 year fascination with salmon flies: receiving a gift of “Fly Tyer's Companion” by Mike Dawes for Christmas one year, and joining the FlyFish@ listserv which had many members from Atlantic Canada.

Looking back at the book now – the tying is not up to modern publishing standards – but the style and patterns of the flies were eye catching. I almost wore my copy out browsing through the pages of salmon flies and trout wet flies, mostly ignoring nymhs and dry flies. At the time I had neither the materials nor the skills to tie those flies, but the fire had been lit just the same. There is something about the form of these wet flies that were fascinating to me. I supplemented that book over the coming years with Poul Jorgensen's phenomenal “Salmon Flies: Their Character, Style, and Dressing” which, in my opinion, remains the gold standard instructional book on tying these flies. His flies are SO fishable – sleek, perfectly proportioned, they just scream out “I would swim well in the water”. His tying has always been my North Star. Other books – Judith Dunham's, Bates, Fulsher and Krom, full of so many different patterns and styles. Even when I did not tie them, I still liked to see other people tying them online, especially guys like Jerome Molloy who ties perfect flawless flies.

The FlyFish@ listserver was a hot place back in the mid 90's. Through that mailing service I met several tyers from Canada including Bryant Freeman, who was a mentor to so many and the owner/proprieter for Eskape Anglers in New Brunswick. Many of the materials used on the flies below are from Bryant – he was a great man, a great fly tyer, and generous to a fault. I miss him. I never fished a fly for Atlantic Salmon until I had an opportunity to join FF@ member Roddy McLeod on an “unnamed river” in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in the summer of 1997. I was not lucky enough to land a fish, but I did have a brief (and wild) hookup with a grilse which remains a vivid memory to this day. Thanks for spotting for me, Rod. What a thrill.

I used to fish the tributaries of Lake Ontario quite often in the Fall for lake run Pacific Salmon and Steelhead and had the dream of landing one of those fish on a traditional Atlantic Salmon fly. The largest chinook I ever landed chomped on a Warren Duncan Undertaker, but I fished it on a dead drift vs a traditional salmon style swing. I never have caught a steelhead on a traditional fly, and at this point probably never will, but for awhile it was fun. I had a box full of Rats and Undertakers and other traditional steelhead flies (Purple Peril, Polar Shrimp, man oh man – love those flies) that I always packed with me.

Fast forward to late winter 23-24 when my wife and I planned a trip to visit my daughter in England. I was browsing eBay as we tend to do these days, and noticed that it is possible to get old Wheatley fly boxes in the UK for pretty cheap, but shipping to US can be more than the cost of the box! Shipping to UK address is dirt cheap, so a few clip boxes wound up at my daughter's place in Whitley Bay to be picked up when we visited. One was a clip box of large 7's, five rows of 7 clips on each side of the box. I knew exactly what I wanted to do – fill it with hairwing salmon flies. A couple evenings with those old books looking up patterns and making a list, ordering a few spools of Danville 6/0 and some hooks, and we were off to the races! I used some materials for these flies that I have not touched in decades! (sometimes fly tyer pack-rat-itis pays off) It was great fun. I chose to two of each fly – learn on the first and try to nail it on the second. I wanted a good assortment of flies in the box – which I think I achieved – but there are SO MANY more patterns to choose from.

The patterns in this article come from the following sources.

• “Flies for Atlantic Salmon”, Stewart and Allen
• “Hairwing Atlantic Salmon Flies, Fulsher and Krom
• “Salmon Flies: Their Character, Style, and Dressing”, Poul Jorgensen

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Some general tying notes

• Unless specifically stated, all heads are black thread
• Hooks used were size 4 traditional heavy wire salmon hooks. TMC7999 is fine.
• Thread used was Danville 6/0 waxed. The ability to flatten the thread is very helpful, and the combination of strength and stretch helps secure components with minimal thread wraps.
• All heads were finished with UV resin. The days of multiple coats of head varnish are over!
• While jungle cock is optional on all flies, for a few it is intrinsic to the pattern (e.g. Poul Jorgensens's Blue Rat).
• Palmered body hackles are usually from a chinese neck, with a tapered hackle length when possible. Those are getting increasingly hard to find, however, so hen or other feathers can be substituted.
• Collars and throats are of a webby hen hackle – not necessarily hen saddle but feathers from a neck with plenty of web. Good hen is harder to find than good dry fly hackle it seems. Keep an eye out and buy when you see quality – cause who knows when it will come around again.
• Sometimes a throat is “wound and pulled down and back”, meaning the hackle is wound as a normal collar, then pulled down and secured as a throat with thread before the wing is applied. Other throats are just bunched hackle tied under the head.
• When a fly calls for a wool body, the flies shown use a double layer of Uni-Yarn (down and back). It's a wonderful material for these flies – the fine size giving options for flies of many different sizes and it's fuzzy like traditional wool. Love it.
• The wings are deliberately not stacked. While there may be some finger stacking or plucking of unruly hairs, the desired wing has a staggered tip – not a straight “paint brush” tip. The length is normally to the middle or end of the tail. A few flyaway hairs don't bother me.
• The tail should extend slightly beyond the back of the hook bend.
• The tag starts at the root of the hook barb if there's a tip, otherwise slight further up the bend for a tinsel only tag.
• The tag or tip ends at the hook point.
• The “heaviness” of the dressing is mostly left to personal preference, but I tend to aim for a middle of the road density – enough body and wing so that they are in proportion to the hook – but not so heavy that it wouldn't swim in the water.
• The term “fluorescent floss” is quite generic and it probably meant Danvilly Nylon floss back in the day. For many of the flies I tied I used antron in place of floss – a little more “hair-like” for a wing or tail. Some flies that called for a body of fluorescent floss I used that crazy bright “Glo Brite” which is like a stretch floss which works very well in a bobbin.

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