A minimilist fly

If anyone wants more info on this type of fly -
http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/page153.html

and here is another version of the fly -
[img:630d952eb7]http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/_wp_generated/wpba8bc92e_1b.jpg[/im...

It is a type of fly used on the River Tummel in the 19th and early 20th century.
The idea was to get fly down quickly by in effect using the bare hook as an aid to quick surface penetration and sinking. It is probably the sparsest type of fly ever used, even more than the Clyde style. There is not much info on them, except for W. H. Lawrie in "Scottish Trout Flies" and one picture in Skues "Way of a Trout with a Fly" of regional variations of the Blue Dun and (quote)' I have known Scottish burn fishers to fill bumping creels with just such simple patterns busked before setting out'(unquote). But Lawrie and Skues is quite a good recommendation. I am in the process of tying more of the flies for the article in my web-site.
I have tied a Greenwell and maybe a Blae (Blue) Dun and a couple of others.
They did not have the range of hooks we have now-a-days nor the aids to sinking flies we have. I have published most of Lawrie's comments from his book, still very appropriate today.