Devil Crooks

[Old Hat]

Sorry, yes they are winged, but fit our historical perspective on this site. I came across this pattern earlier this spring and tied some up. I am with reservation posting them on here. The only reason I am doing so is that this pattern has done very well for me this spring and early summer, if and where I can find fishable water, and I would like to share it. I don't really know what the pattern historically was tied for, but I fish it basically as a general searching pattern like a hare's ear. I have no picture of this pattern so it is my interpretation. It is a fairly old pattern as far as I know but I have little specifics. I posted this on another site so some of you may have already seen them, the only difference is now I can attest to the patterns catching ability. I fish these just under the surface and upstream. I have also tied up some wingless versions and fished them deeper, but I must admit the winged upstream has out performed the wingless enough to make a difference. The one on the left has more of a down wing with all the hackle in front. The one on the right has an upwing with one wrap of hackle for and one behind the wing. Seems to be no difference to the fish, however, I prefer the upwing version. Hope you enjoy.

Devil Crook
Hook: #14-#16
Thread:Pearsall's silk grey 9A well waxed with a dark cobbler's wax
Hackle: medium partridge
Body: light hare
Wing: partridge slip

[willowhead]

WOW! Beautiful flies..........classy lookin'.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I really like the look of the upwing version, very much like a Clyde style fly.

Well done on both versions.

REE

[William Anderson]

OH, these are really nice. Beautiful and sparse. I like them both. Where did you see this listed under this name? Great handle.

W

[tie2fish]

Lordy, lordy Carl -- these are super; you are totally absolved ... .

[letumgo]

Wonderful contribution, Carl! I love the cackling you used on these. It's nice to see partridge with the brown banding, along with the barring. Is that from one of the wild birds you harvested?

[hankaye]

Old Hat, Howdy;

Carl, I do like your mutants, (chuckle), seems like I've seen several on the pages of Donald N's site.

Thanks for sharing them with us.

hank

[CreationBear]

Awesome color combination... A question I've always had about Clyde-ish flies, though: how do they ride in the water? Is the slip flexible enough that the pressure from the current presses it to the hookshank? If not, I'd almost expect it to spin...

[Old Hat]

OH, these are really nice. Beautiful and sparse. I like them both. Where did you see this listed under this name? Great handle.

W

William, I came across this sometime a while back, I took notes but can't remember where I found it. My notes say it dates to the 1840's and came from the Fishing Gazette.

CreationBear,
The slips become pretty flexible and usually breakup into into a clump of individual fibers. However on these, I have cemented the tips with a little cement to hold them together a bit. I think I read about this on Donald's site. Helped some but not a great deal especially after a fish or two. When fishing these upstream I have greased only the wing slightly to get it to ride up. Ungreased, I would suspect that they tumble and turn similar to a wingless. I have had no leader twisting issues.

Ray, yep those are the ones.

[CreationBear]

Thanks for elaborating; great work as always.