Partridge Breadcrust

[Soft-hackle]

Partridge Breadcrust

Hook: Mustad 3399A #12
Thread: 8/0 Orange Uni Thread
Hackle: Partridge
Body: two feathers taken from the Bastard Wing area of the Partridge. They are stripped off on the darker side, leaving the other brown mottled side. These are then trimmed with a scissor, close to the stem. When wrapped the trimmed barbs should stand out as seen. Wrap one stem first, then go in-between the wraps to fill-in the gaps of the first stem.

I've been fishing this fly for a couple years, now, as I liked the Bread-Crust tied using split, clipped grouse tail. However, tying the fly using this feather was a real pain. So I substituted partridge wing and hackle and found it easier to do. The Bread-Crust, tied this way, or the old way is murder on my home river.

[willowhead]

Sweet fly. Question: is there any reason why you don't just use a skinny genetic saddle hackle (say a Cree feather), to do the same job as two feathers. i mean you could wrap the turns as close as you like and keep goin' all dang day.....so why the way you did it.....in terms of an advantage if there is one? Just curious.

[Soft-hackle]

Hi Mark,
Heavier fibers are needed for this fly. If you look at the original version, you will see that the wrapped Grouse tail had rather flat fibers which are much heavier than any hackle fibers. To compensate for this when using Partridge wing, I used two feathers. The original Breadcrust body looks like a pine cone and really imitates a cased caddis quite well.

Mark

[willowhead]

OH OK.....i get it now. Thankx for the clarification.....undoubtedly i've seen that (old time) fly somewhere in a book or something.......but it didn't bring a picture to my mind...........not to worry, it aint nothin' but the onset of Alzheimers.
i was tyin' at Dambury one year.....actually the first year he had the Nov. show, which had nothing to do with the CFFC&M back then........and i guy wants me to do him a dozen flies that will be UNSINKABLE, and he offers to pay for them. He's gonna use 'em in a stocked pond where he catches hybred stripers and the ONLY thing they'll take, is a real pellet or a pellet fly. So i do him these pellet flies.....using a course dubbing just the right color that has been saturated in floatant, as had the thread, and then i tightly palmered a color matching hackle all through the body, and then trimmed it very closely, after which i saturated the entire fly again with floatant. Turns out the fly "Worked Great!" He actually ordered some more again. BTW, when doin' dubbed bodies for dry flies, usin' natural materials.....i usually use floatant rather than wax on the thread and the tips of my fingers. You don't gotta over-do it.....but it's much hipper than wax.....kills two birds with one stone. Oscar Feliu (the very well known tyer/casting instructor/musician/etc.), gets the credit for hippin' me to that. He's tyed at the FFF I.C. every year for over 30 years, lives in Florida and imigrated to the U.S. from Chile in 1959 i think it was.....he sings opera and pop tunes as well.....always performs at the Ending BBQ Sat. eve. at Conclave every year. Great guy.....and extremely innovative tyer.

[CreationBear]

Very cool, just point me to the "bastard wing" and I'll be good to go.

At any rate, the Bread Crust seems to go about mimicking cased-caddis a lot like our famous "Yallerhammer" does down here in the South--I was actually giving my hen pheasant skin the once-over to see if I could find some suitable subs for the original Northern Flicker, but your partridge solution sounds a bit more streamlined.

[Soft-hackle]

Hi CreationBear,
Yes, The "bastard wing" is also called the "alula". It is on top of the bird wing. See the diagram, below. There can be a number of usable feathers on that small portion.

diagram.jpg (72.67 KiB) Viewed 6765 times

Mark

[CreationBear]

Great diagram--that helps a lot. I'd love to know the etymology of "bastard wing," though.

[hankaye]

Howdy Mark;

Happy to see that someone else (Thanks CB!), asked about the "bastard wing",
Have it safly tucked away into my files.
hank

PS. That IS a narley lookin' fly ... bet ya catch a lot with it.

[William Anderson]

Mark, that is a really nice fly. Cased larva is what I was thinking too. I must have seen your version a couple years ago and sometimes rise to the surface without my awareness. My memory is so poor that I love to buy movies and I can watch em a couple of times and I swear I wont know how they end. (true story).

Thanks for posting your fly, all the information and the diagram. It's a great pattern. I'll have to make a stack of them and try them out.

w

[Soft-hackle]

William,
Yours looks just as good. I used the orange thread, I think, because there is another version of this fly using orange wool or fur with a quill wrapped over it like a ribbing. I don't think it is the original pattern which used the split grouse tail feather. I like the idea of the orange thread showing through just a bit.

http://clarksclassicflyrodforum.yuku.co ... crust.html
This version is by Mike Valla-well-known author who has a great book on Catskill dry flies(He's writing one on wets, too.) Notice the difference? Myself, I'd prefer one of our ties, or the original one using the grouse tail. It is a pain getting the feathers ready for wrapping.

Mark