FLYMPH FORUM

Hi,
This is from Courtney Williams, and his quoting the Skues tying:

Iron Blue Nymph


#16 hook, crimson silk waxed with cobblers' wax, dubbed with mole, jackdaw throat hackle.... tail called for 2 or 3 (from memory - I went for three) barbs of a soft white feather, short. I went for a goose feather, I think it is a shoulder feather, and cut them down. Not sure I have got this right... but it didn't photograph too well anyway, as the fly was too precariously balanced to separate them for the camera! lol

Any thoughts?

GlassJet

Seems okay to me, ive also tied a few of these for this season and will need to see what the trout think, thanks for sharing.

Otter wrote:Seems okay to me, ive also tied a few of these for this season and will need to see what the trout think, thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Well let me know how you fish it, because I haven't fished this pattern yet. I am trying to learn how to tie the classics well, thinking that they must be good fish catchers (and they were born in the region I fish, some of them) or they would not have become such classics. Or remain that way. So it is up to me to learn how to fish them!
GlassJet.

Lovely fly mate.

Andrew,
I've never seen this fly with a tail. Always the red silk showing at the tail end.

Mark

Glassjet,
Wonderful looking Iron blue. Don't worry about the "angle" in which you have photographed this pattern. Take a look at the book by Sylvester Nemes "Two centuries of soft-hackled flies". Nearly every pattern in that book is cocked in this manner and I think it's kinda cool!
When you post other patterns in the future, consider displaying them in this same way.
This is one of my all time favorites to fish as well. Many times it has made the difference for me. You are doing well to immitate the "classics". They are classics for a reason. Like so many others, they do an excellent job no matter what part of the world you call your home waters.

Mark, the wee bit of white, soft fibers for the tail is part of the orig. receipe...I believe?
I'm fairly certain of this. I have tied and fished it both ways and it just doesn't seem to matter to the fish in my neck of the water. This white appendage (much like the hook itself)
for the tail seems odd in this mostly dark and sober pattern. I have never seen an iron blue hatch out so it's really hard to give an honest appraisal. I suspect that it might be the originators attempt at a trailing shuck much like we do today with various crinkled poly materials on the stern of modern emerger patterns. Then again, it may be an attractor built into the pattern for that very reason....to attract. Look at the British pattern "Red Tag". Again, a rather dark pattern (peacock body and dark hackle) with a bright red butt! From what I can gather it's still a killing pattern wherever fish swim. Our pal Skues had some interesting insights on the color red. Just some thoughts on a great pattern tied well by our friend Glassjet. What's your thoughts? And anyone elses?
Dougsden

Soft-hackle wrote:Andrew,
I've never seen this fly with a tail. Always the red silk showing at the tail end.

Mark

Hi Mark,
When I first tied this pattern, I copied it from Sylvester Nemes' Two centuries of soft hackled flies. There is no tail in the photo of the tying in that book.

[NOTE TO DOUGSDEN: I absolutely love the fly photography in that book, it is the best I have seen - not least because these soft hackles can be such beautiful little objects in their own right. In fact, I liked them so much I shamelessly nicked aspect of the style! The little 'stages' I set up for them are all shards of pottery and glass I pick out of my river when fishing.)]

But in my quest for authenticity (!) I was put on to the Courtney Williams' 'A dictionary of trout flies'. In there, Courtney Williams quotes Skues, whose instructions include:
Whisks: Two or three strands of soft white hackle, short.

As someone has said to me off-board, if it is supposed to represent a shuck then it is fine (this goose feather - at least I think it is a goose feather - is rather good for this, must remember that!) but I'm not sure in this case what it is supposed to represent. It does seem to strike something of a discordant note on what is otherwise a sombre pattern, I agree (Skues stipulates to use brown wax on the crimson, presumabably to tone it down?).

Edited to say:

Soft-hackle wrote:Andrew,
I've never seen this fly with a tail. Always the red silk showing at the tail end.

Mark

To be clear, in Skues' version, there should be crimson silk showing at the end as well - I don't think I accentuated that enough in that tying. I did in the other five though - honest...


Andrew

I know some anglers that use Jackdaw scalps on their iron blues , others are ardent that the neck/throat are the only ones to use. Funny old game this , no matter what advice you get ya gotta prove or disprove it for yourself.

Andrew, I would fish that without hesitation.
the profile is excellent, the hackle is right; not too long.

Again these are just my views, hardly definitive...

Something I noted many years ago, the loss of tails on wets and nymphs made little difference to the fish, having little effect on attractiveness.
I still tie them in of course;
well, I stopped and later, restarted for aesthetic reasons and authenticity; they are easier pulled off at the waterside, if req'd, than attached.
The tails on this one, Andrew, are just right for length IMHO; I prefer them to be fine, rather than fluffy.
I use a very silvery blue dun arucana rooster hackle to tail this fly as it is strong enough not to break off, yet soft.
Skues would have used Gallena,
as good as anything, having a valuable degree of stiffness, which is not excessive (Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream trout, 1939 -page 104 & 114 in my reprint)
but as you see he was not really fussy, except regarding structure of barb
I reckon the tails are white because the natural spinner has white or very pale grey tails, the dun, grey.
The nymph ready for eclosion will have a gas-filled shuck with both of the above sequentially contained within, thus, white ( or in my case, silvery grey) should match the hatch, thank you Mr Skues for your learned opinion.

I am guessing that the nymphal shuck will be olive, a common trait to Baetis.
that might explain the addition of the dark wax. toning down the crimson body to imitate what will become the Little Claret Spinner.
I build this fly, as described, for clear streams; for peaty rivers I use also claret or purple thread, waxed clear, and water rat, a variant for sure.
As to the crimson wraps at the shoulder, I see that reference in the Dictionary, yet not in the original 1939 Skues text.

A couple of years back, while health and wealth allowed me to get to the Catskill region, fishing the Beaverkill in a hatch at sundown, we had been told to use a size #18 Baetis nymph for the small BWO coming off.
Just on cue the hatch started and the browns were slashing through the top of the pool
When I went for a nymph, I did not have any in the box in hand.
Considering size to be more important than colour, I picked out a Dark Snipe, a deadly Baetis imitation for the Iron Blue in our north.
We had a busy three quarters of an hour before retiring for dinner.
So busy that the locals went home in disgust... bloody foreigners coming over here and catching all our fish


I tie my nymph a bit less fat than yours; your fly being more faithful to the original.

Good work, sir

Roy

Otter wrote:I know some anglers that use Jackdaw scalps on their iron blues , others are ardent that the neck/throat are the only ones to use. Funny old game this , no matter what advice you get ya gotta prove or disprove it for yourself.

AND that jackdaw, allegedly, has to be old and male.
again according to reports from Mr. Skues - in the 'Angling Letters of G E M Skues'

Fussy sorts; those fly dressers.