Partridge & Yellow

[DOUGSDEN]

Excellent, excellent stuff Steve! I was particularly glad to see the "soaked" photo of your beautiful pattern! It makes all the difference! I also loved the prose in your above piece! Two big thumbs up on that one!
Dougsden

[Stendalen]

Brilliant and beautiful!

[Old Hat]

Great topic Steve. The fly is simply gorgeous, well constructed and coupled with your description of your thoughts while on the vise makes it all the better.

Thoughts on the color and the dark hook. When it boils down to it, we really have very little understanding of what the trout see or what might trigger a strike. The black hooks definitely darken the color of the light silk when wet. Especially when seen underwater. Some may think this diminishes the desired effectiveness. It certainly is less like the color most are after when tying with yellow. However, I strongly believe contrast can be an important component of a strike trigger. I have no scientific idea really of how or when it may be important to the fish. Tying the light yellow on the black hook, even though the yellow color is compromised a bit, still provides a greater contrast than the yellow tied on a bronze hook. Can this help separate it from the miasma? Maybe. At times can a highly contrasted pattern can be a bigger trigger than a perfectly color matched fly or even a natural. I have seen it happen many times. We fly fishers are a conjecturing bunch. We all develop our individual approaches based on our own experiences. We constantly debate what the trout desire at any given moment when we really have no idea. This is all part of the fun. In reality, the best we can do is to tie our offerings with a teaspoon of skill, a tablespoon of experience and cup of the mojo Steve mentions.

[Mike62]

Very cleanly dressed fly. It may be my computer screen and it's color rendition, but the yellow silk has a slight green tint to it, as if it were waxed with cobbler's wax. Just curious if that was the case. Beautiful fly.

No, not waxed. The shading on the silk in the photo is from my fingers. No matter how often I wash my hands while tying I've never tied a clean Partridge & Yellow. No Matter. I read somewhere that the fingers of Yorkshire farmers impart the perfect color to Greenwells. Somebody gave me the black hooks, though I usually tie on cheaper bronze. Here it is soaked. Not too much different than the effect with bronze. Might not be the prim yellow a fly tyer may want to see, & it wouldn't be my first choice for a light pattern, but it strikes me as very life-like as an AP, & the trouts seem to agree.
wet 002 (600x568).jpg

Yorkshire farmers, you say? I know the problem well. As a farmer myself my hands are permanently stained and cracked from the rigors of farm life. You never get the detritus out and the cracks in your fingers act as unwanted dubbing brushes. Sounds like I should just quit worrying about it.

[UC Steve]

[/quote]

Yorkshire farmers, you say? I know the problem well. As a farmer myself my hands are permanently stained and cracked from the rigors of farm life. You never get the detritus out and the cracks in your fingers act as unwanted dubbing brushes. Sounds like I should just quit worrying about it.
[/quote]

Mike I don't think it's a problem.

[UC Steve]

Great topic Steve. The fly is simply gorgeous, well constructed and coupled with your description of your thoughts while on the vise makes it all the better.

Thoughts on the color and the dark hook. When it boils down to it, we really have very little understanding of what the trout see or what might trigger a strike. The black hooks definitely darken the color of the light silk when wet. Especially when seen underwater. Some may think this diminishes the desired effectiveness. It certainly is less like the color most are after when tying with yellow. However, I strongly believe contrast can be an important component of a strike trigger. I have no scientific idea really of how or when it may be important to the fish. Tying the light yellow on the black hook, even though the yellow color is compromised a bit, still provides a greater contrast than the yellow tied on a bronze hook. Can this help separate it from the miasma? Maybe. At times can a highly contrasted pattern can be a bigger trigger than a perfectly color matched fly or even a natural. I have seen it happen many times. We fly fishers are a conjecturing bunch. We all develop our individual approaches based on our own experiences. We constantly debate what the trout desire at any given moment when we really have no idea. This is all part of the fun. In reality, the best we can do is to tie our offerings with a teaspoon of skill, a tablespoon of experience and cup of the mojo Steve mentions.

Amen

Carl, you eloquently express an important element of design seldom mentioned in the literature. CONTRAST. Writers beat 'translucency' like a drum. An ambiguous term. I think 'contrast' is a major trigger as well. Good you brought that up.

[Bazzer69]

Mike and Steve, I’ve been a manual ( blue collar) worker for most of my life. The last twenty and more as a fly fishing guide, and I appreciate what you say about “grimed” hands. However the traditional way of tying a Greenwells is using Primrose Silk well greased with cobblers wax. It turns the light colored silk into a beautiful translucent olive which doesn’t change colour when wet. As a side note who’s got any real Greenwells hackle and Coch-y-Bonddu for that matter? ( I’ll pay a good price for either)
Opps, just reading my one of the first self published Brook and River Trouting, in which Edmunds and Lee says to use Yellow number 4 and not Primrose! Damn, I’ve got a couple dozen tied with Primrose, not only that they say to use Cochybondu and not Greenwells hen, is this a misprint? Now I need Cochybondu more than ever. Does the quest for unattainable materials ever end?

Barry

[redietz]

not only that they say to use Cochybondu and not Greenwells hen, is this a misprint? Now I need Cochybondu more than ever. Does the quest for unattainable materials ever end?

I believe that the mean of Cochybondu has changed over the years. It was at one time synonymous with "furnace" (black list only) but has more recently come to mean black list and tips.

The photo shows a hackle with a dark list and no black on the border -- i.e. furnace.

[UC Steve]

not only that they say to use Cochybondu and not Greenwells hen, is this a misprint? Now I need Cochybondu more than ever. Does the quest for unattainable materials ever end?

I believe that the mean of Cochybondu has changed over the years. It was at one time synonymous with "furnace" (black list only) but has more recently come to mean black list and tips.

The photo shows a hackle with a dark list and no black on the border -- i.e. furnace.

Bob, I use furnace for Greenwells. You'd have to search the world & pay a bundle for the black-tipped version. The whole affair probably meaningless to fish. If one insists, the hackle can be tipped with a black marker.

Barry, if you need some furnace for Greenwells I have some extra.

[redietz]

I use furnace for Greenwells.

So do I. Not only doesn't it matter to the fish, it's probably what the Canon had in mind in the first place.