Eunan Hendron Streamer Collection 2014

Eunan Hendron Streamers

We have been treated to a wonderful set of Ghosts tied up by Eunan Hendron. Anyone versed in streamers will tell you there are countless variations that have stemmed out from Carrie Stevens' Gray Ghost. Streamers originating from this branch are fully dressed and feature a silver pheasant shoulder, or another strongly barred feather. Many of the variations include golden pheasant crest tied over the body and include peacock herl either in the belly or as an underwing. The Pink Ghost, Green Ghost and Red-grey Ghost all fall into this group.

Leslie Hilyard's Jungle Ghost is a visual striking Ghost which combines 12 regal jungle cock nails under a rainbow floss body and topped by a traditional Gray Ghost wing. Eunan tied this one in hand, as well as the White Ghost and the Gray Ghost, to honour the skills required by the early fly tyers.

The Super Ghost is a nod to Joseph Stickney's Supervisor pattern.

Mike Martinek is well know for his fully dressed ghost patterns, most notably his Red Ghost and Mickey's Ghost. Eunan chose Mike's Great Caesar's Ghost to be included in the collection. It's a full dressed ghost tied in Mike's style which includes a schlappen topping tied in between the wings.

Babb's Ghost was created by Jim Warner in 1946 for George and Helen Babb of Alton Bay. Jim was tasked with tying a Gray Ghost streamer which incorporates the primary colours yellow, red and blue into the design. The bucktail should be mixed so that no one colour is seen distinctly.

The other popular source of inspiration for Ghost streamers comes from Herb Welch's Black Ghost. These streamers are sparser in their dressing and lack a shoulder feather but include a tail, something the Gray Ghost did not include. The Silver Ghost and Galloping Ghost both follow this convention, the Golloping Ghost complicating things by using the hard to obtain and pricey tricolour Bali duck shoulder in the wing.

The Yellow Ghost strays somewhat from the above conventions and there are a couple different versions floating around out there. Eunan has covered the 2 most prominent versions. The Gray Wolf version was used in the original Streamers 365 project, and the second version is presented in this collection. Different versions of the second appear in 'Trolling Flies for Trout and Salmon', 'Flies' and in 'Fish Flies; The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art'. Versions vary slightly from one to another sometimes with a white bucktail belly, sometimes lemon wood duck shoulders rather than the barred wood duck. It's been used for both salmon and bass successfully.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the Ghost patterns. Literally hundreds of different Ghosts can be coaxed from the pages of streamer books and many of these can be found in Don Wilson's 'Tandem Streamers' (178-183). Leslie Hilyard's 'Carrie Stevens: Maker of Rangeley Favorite Trout and Salmon Flies' has a nice section of related patterns which includes many ghosts, and Paul Schmookler's 'Forgotten Flies' contains many ghosts in the 1000+ pattern reference section. Happy ghost busting.

Thanks Eunan for sharing your streamers with us.

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