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Looking through the Alfred Ronalds listing of fly patterns I find the term "to make buzz" appearing regularly. What tying technique is required to achieve this effect? Is this the same thing as what we call palmering?

That's my understanding. Maybe the concept is related to Hewitt skaters.

wsbailey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 27, 2018 9:04 am That's my understanding. Maybe the concept is related to Hewitt skaters.

https://youtu.be/NqTB2EbCnxY

I think it's probably older than Hewitt, Bill. Did some on-line research and found this in a feature called just old flies and stuff on the Fly Anglers On Line website. The piece was called "Marlow Buzz" by Deanna Birkholm and included this:

"Seth Green, in 1879, wrote that a 'buzz' was made with the 'hackle standing out the whole length of the body.' That would be like the present-day palmer tie."

Related not originated. The Cutcliffe Devon style flies would seem to me to qualify and they are very old. They are wet flies but that's because they sink in the fast water of the Devon rivers.

I have interpreted 'making buzz' as palmering when reading old texts but am not that sure about it anymore; several turns of hackle - yes, but maybe not palmering.

(You will find Neil Norman's version of Marlow's Buzz here, palmered: http://softhacklepatternbook.blogspot.c ... -more.html).

To make you more dizzy, check this: https://thelimpcobra.com/tag/buzz-hackle/

I have no access to my memory right now and this is happening more and more often...

dd

Bill,

Your initial question sent me on a quest, to find the meaning of to "make buzz". Here are some of the interesting references I came across, during my search.

Terry Hellekson's book entitled "Fish Flies: The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tyers Art" had several references, that seemed useful.




1770 Reference "The Art of Angling" by R. Brookes shows palmered flies (probably made buzz)



This reference sent me even further back in time, to Roman times. Check out this reference to Macedonean flies.


RECIPE FOR ANCIENT MACEDONIAN FLY:


Which sent me off looking for the location of a "cock's wattle" (stop laughing...it's true)


I've gotta try tying that ancient Macedonian fly.

You've gotta love a recipe that tells you to use hackle the "color of wax". I interpret this to be the color of bee's wax (light buttery yellow). It also sounds like the two hackle feathers are tyed over the body.

To make a fly "buzz" generally refers to a palmer hackled, wingless, fly. The illustration of the Marlow Buzz fly in Ronalds shows what looks to be at least a semi-palmered hackle, although other dressings of the Marlow Buzz I checked don't specify a palmered hackle, perhaps it was simply taken for granted that "buzz" meant "palmer."

Darrell Martin cites T.C. Hofland in "The British Angler's Manual" 1838 as an early reference to buzz meaning a palmer hackle.

I know I have also seen "buzz" applied to a simple hackle dry fly, i.e. a wingless dry fly. F.M. Halford, on page 73 of "Floating Flies and how to Dress Them" says; "For a buzz fly with detached body fasten in hackle, tie in body, turn hackle, fasten point of hackle, finish at head, and varnish as before." There is no reference to palmering and on a fly having a detached body a palmer hackle would have been quite difficult to execute.

I think that "buzz" is somewhat of an ambiguous term and can correctly mean either a palmered hackle or a simple wingless, hackled dry fly.

Thanks John, for the added references. I did a quick search in Google Books and found the following, as you mentioned above.

"The British Angler's Manual" 1838





"Floating Flies and how to Dress Them"

Everything that I can recall reading where a dressing called for a "buzz" dressing meant a palmered hackle.

A detached body is one that is not formed directly on the hook shank. Think of some of the large dry mayfly patterns. Also called an extended body. I believe that Blacker was the first to describe the detached body. Halford was a proponent of the detached body and his nom de plume was "Detached Badger."