Peacock Tail, Silver Twist, Rusty Blue.
On to number 26 ... a pattern that caught the eye of my friend Jonathan Antunez and a concern that the Gaskell recreation in his book was incorrect.
He noted that III says "dark peacock harl" while XXVI says "peacock's tail". In other parts of the book talking about the stretcher flies and materials he uses, the word herl is mentioned...so why here does he say "tail"? Further, we feel it could not be herl because Cutcliffe tends to have the body colors "match" the hackle colors. He discusses blending furs to match your hackle. So if the hackle here is a "rusty blue" then bronze or green herl do not make much sense.
To help solve the problem I consulted my favorite feather merchant, Steve Cooper at Cookshill. He felt the material could be what he sells as Peacock Support Feathers which are popular today in Salmon tying circles. In the past, these feathers for sure could have been used to wrap around the hook like Pheasant tail or Heron as the fibers are quite long. The color too is a grey with a tinge of rust or red...sounds fairly close to "rusty blue".
So that is what we are going with - right or wrong?!
Body: Peacock's Tail
Rib: Silver twist
Hackle: Rusty Blue
Enjoy!
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