Beautiful Grouse skin and some pattern's from it.

After I started tying these old spiders, a new world of materials appeared, thin silk threads and gorgeous skins from various game birds. My latest supplements for tying these flies is a lovely Grouse skin that came in the mail a few days ago.

Soft hackle feathers that contain a vast range of barred ginger and brown hackles, perfect for tying some of the famous and not so  famous flies from the past containing Grouse feathers. When you read the old and new books about soft hackle flies, there can be some slightly different variations in how to dress them. But if you stick to the book "North Country Flies" written by T.E. Pritt and  Sylvester Nemes book "Two Centuries of Soft-Hackled Flies"  there are plenty of original patterns to choose from.  

Light dressed, short thin body with silk and maybe dubbed with soft fur. The hackle, two turns at the most....sure looks like a spider when you see it from the front. 

         

  

The August Brown.    

Body: Light brown silk, dubbed sparingly with hare's face, ribbed with yellow silk,  dressed hacklewise with grouse's feather.  

The Grouse Spider.

Dressed with a mottled feather from the grouse, and body of orange silk.  

                                                                                 

Keeping the tradition alive.

 "first there is the spare body, dressed with tying silk only, with or without wire ribbing, or lightly dubbed with soft fur.....then a small and lightly dressed soft hackle, two turns at the outside....."    
                           G.E.M. Skues

I must admit that I have developed a great enthusiasm for these flies .... called North Country Spiders. The fly box with spiders has got its own special pocket in my fly fishing vest next to the pocket with the box containing comparaduns and parachute flies. These North Country flies' simplicity has probably led many modern fly tiers and fly fishermen to ignore them in favour of more complex patterns that look more like the real thing - seen by human eyes. The long soft hackle representing both wings and legs on an insect, the sparse dressed body, not to mention the historical aspect of these flies with a Background of several hundred years was very fascinating to me.

So since I would like to tie these flies as close the original pattern as possible, the hunt for the right materials could begin. The tread used in many of this flies was Pearsall's silk, the same I use in winding the guides on my bamboo flyrods. The problem was the different kinds of game skins, from birds such as..... Snipe, Waterhen, Grouse and Magpie among others, stuff that my local fly tying shops did not have....luckily there's something called internet, so after some checking around I found Steve at Cookshill Flytying  who sold some lovely game skins from the birds I was looking for. 
      

And with most of the materials in hand, I could continue my adventure with the North Country Spiders, reading old books, have a sip of whiskey while I tie spiders and plan how to fish that perfect riffle I know of.

Some new ferrule plugs and a glimpse of the magical powerfibers.

When I see pictures of the rods to the old masters, there is one thing that always impresses me and that's their simple, yet elegant ferrule plugs. So when you cut the finished glued butt section to get the right length, there is always some shorter parts of bamboo left, perfect for making Bamboo ferrule plugs.

They are quite easy to make, and they protect the inside of the female ferrule when not in use. 

Another thing is that you get a nice view of the magical power fibers inside of the bamboo flyrod.......pure eye candy.