For viewing Rube Cross

[Updtate]

P_20220112_104925~2.jpg (204.97 KiB) Viewed 6570 times

A Spider tied by Rube Cross himself!

Reuben R. Cross - Rube at his Fly Tying Desk! - Screenshot 2022-04-25 154404.png (409 KiB) Viewed 6570 times

and Rube at his tying desk.

[newriverspey]

Wow! Thanks for sharing this with us and it is great to know the history behind the picture.

[letumgo]

Thanks for sharing these pictures with us Tom. How did you come by this fly? What can you tell us of its history?

Is that honey dun hen hackle?

[Updtate]

This fly a White Spider was given to me by a great friend and fishing historian Dr.Freid of Livingston Manor N.Y. Many years ago.
Tom

[Partsman]

Neat bit of fly tying history, thanks for sharing.
Mike.

[Mike62]

There's something about that photograph that keeps drawing me back. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's that I'm looking at Rube Cross, one of the seminal tiers of the glorious Catskill age (of any age), in his natural environment. But maybe that's it, his 'natural environment' is so... provincial; almost quaint. It's a sepia tinged black and white of the days of yore. A time that was entirely, and very specifically, different that the one we live in today.

I've tried to digest his tying space, the way he sits, his tools, his body language, the sparseness of the materials he has hanging on the wall; ...and I feel so inadequate. Here is a man, doing things with very little. Things that we still talk about today, over half a century after he conjured them. I have a thousand times more stuff than ol' Rube ever imagined could exist, and my tying will never hold a candle to his. There is a wonderful lesson in this photo, if only I have the sense to listen.

I read somewhere, ...that he could be a difficult man to know; that he guarded his secrets religiously. I don't see any of that in the picture. I see a man confident in his skills, doing so much with so little.

It's a wonderful picture, it really is.

[DUBBN]

I can guess what the reviews of his pattern would garner today.

I am not saying it is a bad thing , but art seems to trump functionality in todays tying circles.

This is the first I have heard of Rube Cross

[Ron Eagle Elk]

There's something about that photograph that keeps drawing me back. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's that I'm looking at Rube Cross, one of the seminal tiers of the glorious Catskill age (of any age), in his natural environment. But maybe that's it, his 'natural environment' is so... provincial; almost quaint. It's a sepia tinged black and white of the days of yore. A time that was entirely, and very specifically, different that the one we live in today.

I've tried to digest his tying space, the way he sits, his tools, his body language, the sparseness of the materials he has hanging on the wall; ...and I feel so inadequate. Here is a man, doing things with very little. Things that we still talk about today, over half a century after he conjured them. I have a thousand times more stuff than ol' Rube ever imagined could exist, and my tying will never hold a candle to his. There is a wonderful lesson in this photo, if only I have the sense to listen.

I read somewhere, ...that he could be a difficult man to know; that he guarded his secrets religiously. I don't see any of that in the picture. I see a man confident in his skills, doing so much with so little.

It's a wonderful picture, it really is.

My first thought on seeing the picture of the fly was that many would call it over dressed today. Personally, that's the way I like them.

I was, and am still, struck by the simplicity of his tying area, tools and materials. Then I look at the mountains of materials in my tying area and I start to wonder where I went astray. Perhaps it's time to go back to simpler, sepia toned times and tying.

[Variant]

P_20220112_104925~2.jpg
A Spider tied by Rube Cross himself!

Reuben R. Cross - Rube at his Fly Tying Desk! - Screenshot 2022-04-25 154404.png
and Rube at his tying desk.

Tom,

That spider pattern is indeed special!
I know that Cross was very fond of just tying dry flies, this is A great example of his skill as a fly tier.

Thanks , Lou