A new wire Spider + Uprights

[William Anderson]

I always have a soft spot for these historic, but relevant patterns. Thanks, Donald. These are quite nice.

Johnno, what kinds of flies did he advocate? Are they wet flies or wingless similar to those tied in the UK?

w

[Johnno]

Both William. I'll post the patterns on another thread sometime. Fairly generic and did have their sources in the Nth Country. I think that was the place he was born and bred prior to going to NZ..

[DNicolson]

Captain G. D. Hamilton was a Scot of rather aristocratic connections.
In his book he mentions fishing in the river Almond, now-a-days within
Edinburgh District Council, the rivers of East Lothian, the Tweed and its tributaries. He reminisces about his youth fishing the Border rivers.
Here are the five flies he recommends.


No. 1, red hackle, light-brown mallard wing, yellow-silk body.

No. 2. turn of brown partridge hackle, hare's ear body, light woodcock wing, put together with yellow silk.

No. 3. black hackle, grouse wing, brown silk body, put together with brown silk.

No. 4. spider, black hackle, tied with brown silk, brown silk body.

No. 5. spider, brown partridge hackle, hare's ear body, put together with yellow silk.

They all look very familiar to me, especially No. 4.

You can find his book as a free download on the Book Archive.
I've been reading it for about a month now. A very good read.

By-the-way, the Captain Hamilton hooks are still available over here, one of my favourite hooks.

[letumgo]

Donald - Once I saw these flies, I had to go directly to my vice and give No. 5 a try. Here is my attempt to recreate this pattern.



Notes on the construction:
There was no mention of hook size, so I started with a size 10. For some reason, I think this should be tyed on an even larger hook size. I am tempted to try in in a size 6. This fly was tyed with a Mustad R50/Size 10 hook. I think one of the older limerick bend Mustad 3666 would give the fly a more distinctive look.

My fly was tyed as follows:

- Cast on the tying silk
- Prepare and tye in the partridge feather (fibers left on both sides of the stem)
- Wrap back to the bend of the hook and attach the tail
- Wrap silk forward to the eye
- Dub the silk and wrap towards the bend of the hook, forming the body of the fly
- Wrap the hackle back over the body of the fly
- Wrap the silk forwards through the hackle, reinforcing the hackle and ribbing the fly
- Whip finish the head

[DNicolson]

An excellent job Ray, in NZ the brownies that they had brought with them from the UK and the
rainbows from the USA, had grown to prodigious sizes, so the small flies they used back in the
old country probably grew in proportion.

[Johnno]

From my knowledge of the older New Zealand wets, depending on water size and conditions, those flies would have been in the #8 - #12 range - maybe sometimes to #14

If you look at #4 think Stewart....... Not tied Stewart's way but OTT it's his fly... I have wondered over the years if thats where Hamilton got it from.

[Jerry G]

From my knowledge of the older New Zealand wets, depending on water size and conditions, those flies would have been in the #8 - #12 range - maybe sometimes to #14

If you look at #4 think Stewart....... Not tied Stewart's way but OTT it's his fly... I have wondered over the years if thats where Hamilton got it from.

Johnno in viewing the flies I had to wonder about the #4 myself. I'll bet there were others that picked up on it also.

Ray I really like the looks of that #5 you tied.

Regards, Jerry

[hankaye]

Ray, Howdy;

Great looking fly. Think it's neat that you can look at one such as #5 and go streight to the vise and tye one up. One day, someday, maybe...

Johnno, Howdy;

From my knowledge of the older New Zealand wets, depending on water size and conditions, those flies would have been in the #8 - #12 range - maybe sometimes to #14

If you look at #4 think Stewart....... Not tied Stewart's way but OTT it's his fly... I have wondered over the years if thats where Hamilton got it from.

Just to go off track for a short question...
What does "OTT" mean? Still figureing out some of the 'code' that floats by from time to time...

hank

[DNicolson]

These flies, almost certainly have Scottish pedigrees, you can find identical flies being used
to this day in Scotland. The tendency is to use larger sizes when loch (lake) fishing.
From what I gather, Hamilton went to NZ in 1860, if he learnt his fishing in the Border country
and the Tweed, he would have been very familiar with all these styles of flies.
The 'Spider' flies were not invented by Stewart, he had been shown them by Bailley long before his
book was published. A lot of fly patterns which had been familiar to the local anglers on the Tweed
were later 'claimed' by others, the Professor, Greenwell's Glory etc for example, although to be fair
to Stewart, he gave full credit to Bailley in his book. It was named the Stewart Spider after his death.
Hamilton was a weathy landowner in NZ, with aristocratic landowning family connections back in
the old country. He obviously had been able to afford to travel back to the UK for visits and convinced,
Hardies to design a hook, to his specification.
He was a tough old bugger, he ran the Maori scout company for the army, that is why he was a captain.
In his book he shows how to kill a wild boar with a longish knife and one good dog.
Luckily, we still have his like around, they are known as Seals and SAS, as Bin Laden found out.

[letumgo]

Hank - I believe "OTT" is short hand for the phrase "other than that". At least that is how I read John's post.