THE BLACK SPIDER
 |
| COPYRIGHT MATS OLSSON - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED |
Designed by James Baillie in 1835 but made known to a broader public by W. C. Stewart in his book "The Practical Angler" in 1857. A proper fly to illustrate the main thoughts that Gunnar Johnsson and his coauthors wanted to convey in the book "FLYMPHS and other soft-hacled flies" that I presented in the previous post.
This fly I've tied according to the instructions given by W. C. Stewart in his book "The Practical Angler" which reads as follows and I quote:
"Take the hook firmly between the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, lay the gut along it's shank, and with a well-waxed silk thread, commencing about the centre of the hook, whip it and the gut firmly together, till you come to the end of the shank, where form the head by a few turns of the thread. This done, take the feather, and laying it on with the root end towards the bend of the hook, wrap the silk three or four times round it, and then cut off the root end.
What remains to be done is the most critical part of the whole operation: still holding between the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, take the thread, lay it along the centre of the inside of the feather, and with the forefinger and thumb of your right hand twirl them round together till the feather is rolled around the thread; and in this state wrap it round the hook, taking care that a sufficient number of the fibres stick out to represent the legs; to effect this it will sometimes be necessary to raise the fibres with a needle during the operation. Having carried the feather and thread down to where you commenced, wrap the silk three or four times round the end of the feather, and if there is any left cut it off, and finish with a succession of hitch-knots, or the common whip-fastening."
As you probably understand I used a vise etc. to tie the fly but essentially it's tied according to this instruction and with the same materials (without tying on a gut), making it quite durable to be a spider pattern. Since this fly has been acclaimed as the best fly pattern ever by a lot of well known fly fishers I'll certainly going to give it a shot this season.
This fly I've tied according to the instructions given by W. C. Stewart in his book "The Practical Angler" which reads as follows and I quote:
"Take the hook firmly between the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, lay the gut along it's shank, and with a well-waxed silk thread, commencing about the centre of the hook, whip it and the gut firmly together, till you come to the end of the shank, where form the head by a few turns of the thread. This done, take the feather, and laying it on with the root end towards the bend of the hook, wrap the silk three or four times round it, and then cut off the root end.
What remains to be done is the most critical part of the whole operation: still holding between the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, take the thread, lay it along the centre of the inside of the feather, and with the forefinger and thumb of your right hand twirl them round together till the feather is rolled around the thread; and in this state wrap it round the hook, taking care that a sufficient number of the fibres stick out to represent the legs; to effect this it will sometimes be necessary to raise the fibres with a needle during the operation. Having carried the feather and thread down to where you commenced, wrap the silk three or four times round the end of the feather, and if there is any left cut it off, and finish with a succession of hitch-knots, or the common whip-fastening."
As you probably understand I used a vise etc. to tie the fly but essentially it's tied according to this instruction and with the same materials (without tying on a gut), making it quite durable to be a spider pattern. Since this fly has been acclaimed as the best fly pattern ever by a lot of well known fly fishers I'll certainly going to give it a shot this season.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
CLICK THE PICTURE TO ENLARGE
nice post... tying by hand would be impossible for me, my hands are always so dry & the thread always snags on my fingers. I bet they didn't tie many small flies. ha.
SvaraRaderaThanks for your comment Nate! I wouldn't be able to tie flies with the hook in my hand either. My hands are to shaky so thank's for the invention of the vice! I watched a famous tier of classic salmon flies using the material that was used in the 19th century and his hands shaked like mine but he hold the hook in his left hand. He has published a book on the matter a couple of years ago. His name is Sven-Olov Hård and he lives in the same city as I do currently - Gävle.
SvaraRaderaI've got a few of those in my box, though I have never fished them.
SvaraRaderaSimplicity.
Thanks for your comment Alan! I tied mine a couple of years ago but this year i'll try them out. It think they'll do just fine.
SvaraRaderaExcellent. I have had great fishing with them, especially in smaller waters. I usually fish them upstream and let them drift back to me.
SvaraRaderaThanks for your comment! That's the way W. C. Stewart recommends also. I'll try them out trapped in the surface of a small lake first and then we'll see what happens.
SvaraRaderaThat should work. Additionally, I tie some of them on light wire hooks and others on heavier weight hooks.
SvaraRaderaGood idea because I don't like the idea of using some kind of weight om this fly. Thanks for sharing!
SvaraRadera