Old Master 1550

[Old Hat]

Hi William,
I came across this pattern a couple years ago and fell in love with the subtle bugginess of it. I have always used it in #16 & #18 as an olive pattern. I like to fish it just under the surface during a good hatch. We get monstrous hatches of olives where a dry just gets lost in the shuffle on the surface. I use to increase the size of my dry pattern to get mine to stand out among the crowd. Since I started throwing the Old Master, my hits have improved greatly in this scenario.

Great pattern, tied very well indeed.

Carl

[William Anderson]

Wow, thanks so much for the background, fellas. I've seen this pattern in a number of places in the North Counrty lists.

Donald, I didn't mean to derail your tying. I'm kind of smitten with these sparse herl/silk bodies myself at the moment. I had to force myself to pick up a mole patch and crank out some true flymphs to keep from feeling like I was in a rut. Of course I'm glad I finally tied up a set of these. Now, I need them in some smaller 16's and 18's. I wish my pic was a little less warm. It seems to make the hook/silk/hackle/herl all have a similar tone, which they do, but in the pic it looks like its due to the lighting. The truth is actually as nice as the impression. The herl and silk have exactly the sheen and subtle nuance as the woodcock undercovert hackle. It's a beautiful pattern. I'm just dying for a chance to try some out.

Carl, it's the thing that I like most about this old patterns, they are for me, the most effective patterns at times, period.

w