Ed Mitchell Outdoors

The “Eighty-Eight”, a Forgotten Fly

See newer link https://edmitchelloutdoors.com/2024/10/24/a-forgotten-fly/

A while back, I was looking though Paul Schmookler’s massive tome Forgotten Flies. Wow, what a fascinating book. There I came across a picture of a streamer fly I first learned of while fishing a fairly remote spot in northern New England. With me at the time was a professional guide who knew the waters well. We were focused on landlock salmon, at the time. So naturally I asked him what he felt would be the best fly. He relied an “88”.

The Eighty-Eight, a Forgotten Fly

An “88”? Damn, I told him I had no idea what that was! He smiled, opened his fly box and hand me a small, slim, flat wing streamer.  The body was made of red and green copper wire. The wing was a mallard flank feather. Not much else to it really, but it immediately proved its worth, catching several landlocks. Since then I always carry a couple “88”s

Schmookler’s book offers no details, instead referring readers to Dick Steward & Bob Leeman’s book Trolling Flies for Trout and Salmon. There you will find the following dressing. Thread– brown; Body – 2/3 red wire- 1/3 green wire; Wing– lemon wood duck flank tied flat on top; Collar -a few turns of soft grizzle hackle; Comment– Considered a casting fly for brook trout, often tied with red and green floss instead of wire.  

Red & Green Wire Body

Steward & Leeman make no mention of the fly’s origin or creator. Hoping to find out more, in the intervening years I asked quite a few anglers, including some professional fly tyers, if they had heard of the “88”. The answer has always been – a resounding “no”. In fact I have never being able to discover anything more about this forgotten fly. It is not in Eric Leiser’s Book of Fly Patterns nor is it in Colonel Bates big book Streamers and Bucktails. Know anything?  

Ready for the Wing

I tie it mainly on a size 8# Mustad 9575 streamer hook. A fine choice for most any streamer.  Yeah, I’m no exhibition tyer so I don’t always stick to the recipe. My thread choice is red to start, switching to black for the head.  Don’t have any red and green copper wire? There are a slew of other materials you could substitute. Under the wing I may add a few strands of  pearl flash and a small touch of white bucktail. (see above) But I never add the collar. Still at times I do get fancy – coat the wire with clear acrylic, spray the wing with fixative, maybe add decal eyes.  None of that is really necessary. I fish it as I was shown years ago – short strips with pauses. It works, believe me. A small sleek streamer can be deadly.  

The Hendricksons are Coming

Spring is the time of year when what is arguably the best dry fly action of the season is set to come off. I’m referring to Ephemerella subvaria, the mighty Hendricksons. Like all hatches on freestone rivers, the Hendrickson hatch is a bit difficult to precisely nail down. In his book Trout Flies and Flowers, Ivan Mahoney connects the hatch with appearance of violets in the spring. Yet I have heard other people connect it to forsythia. (See 2021 Update here)

In their 1975 book Hatches, Al Caucci & Bob Nastasi say that in the mid-Atlantic states the hatch occurs as early as the first week of April. Farther north into Southern New England, they report the hatch is typically delayed until the final weeks of April or even the opening days of May. North of there, the hatch can go well into May or even early June. This varied schedule is attributed to differences in water temperatures. Caucci & Nastasi write that the required temperature is between 50-55 degrees.  Adding that the hatch usually occurs in early afternoon until as late as 6pm.   

Lady Beaverkill Spinner

A Little Dry Fly History: The well known Hendrickson dry fly was created in 1916 by Catskill tier Roy Steenrod, who had studied tying with Theodore Gordon. Roy named the fly after his angling buddy Albert E. Hendrickson. Many years later Art Flick developed his famous Ephemerella subvaria dry fly – the Red Quill. (He borrowed the name from an old English fly) Flick felt his fly was a better imitation of the male Ephemerella subvaria, and Steenrod’s fly a better match for the female. During the hatch, Art believed one riffle might have only males duns and the next riffle downstream only females. For that reason he urged anglers to carry both patterns. By the way Ephemerella subvaria is the only mayfly with a distinct male and female. Note a popular fly called the Lady Beaverkill sporting a yellow egg sac just forward of the tail. The origin of this fly are murky, but some say DuBruce Blacksmith and George Cooper developed it around 1890. It is tied both as a dun and a spinner.

The Klinkhammer

The last fly I’ll mention is the Klinkhammer. This is a more recent fly originally created in the 1980’s for grayling. It is a unique dry fly in that the tail slopes underwater to represent a dun struggling to leave its nymph shuck. You might call it a dun/emerger.  Learn more here.  An excellent fly.   See Update here 

More on Soft Hackles

Been fishing. Unbeknownst to me the stream had been stocked the day before I arrived. That’s the good news. The bad news is everybody else in town must have known. The place was packed with anglers. Oh well, that’s the nature of public waters. And sometimes it isn’t just angling pressure you face. Many public waters have multi recreational uses. Tubers, canoers, kayakers, and swimmers. They can all get into the act. Grin and bear it, I guess.

Well last time out, I started out with nymphs. But after a half hour of no strikes, I decided to try a soft hackles. Bingo, first cast!  Wow soft hackles are great. We covered them a few posts back , but lets take another look at them. This time we’ll examine how they are constructed. And I’ll tell you a little about the one I tied above.

The materials are pretty basic. A straight shank wet fly hook. Partridge hackle, typically. And a body material of your choice. That’s it. Now I’m going to add a tungsten bead. It is purely optional, but it helps get the fly down a bit. Some folks put the bead up by the eye.  I’m going to place it father back. Why? When tied behind the hackle it splays the hackle out, giving it more action in the water.

If you opt for a bead, you’ll want to use the right size. Here is some general advice. A size 3.6mm (5/32″) bead for a size 10 hook. A 3.25mm (1/8″) bead for a size 12 hook. A 2.7mm ( 7/64″) for a size 14 hook.  And a 2.0mm (5/64″) for a size 16 hook.

Now hold on. There is one more thing to consider.  You have to check if the bead will actually go on your hook bend! Some hooks can be a problem, believe me. Test your hook first to see if things are going to fit. I’m using a Mustad 3769. 

Put the bead on the hook. Then tie a thread base about a third of the way back from the hook eye. Build up the thread until the bead gets snug when forced on to it.  I like to put a drop of glue on the thread and then jam the bead on it. Next tie off your thread and cut it off. Move it behind the bead and tie in a body material of your choice. Wrap the body forward and tie off behind the bead. In the fly I tied above, I used silk button hole twist. It is easy to work with. Comes in a wide variety of colors, and doesn’t change colors when wet.

Cut your thread again and move it forward of the bead. Prepare a hackle as shown below, stroking the fibers back to expose the tip of the feather.  Then tie the tip in forward of the bead.  Using your hackle pliers, make two or more turns of hackle. Your choice. Tie off. Whip finish. Your done.

As you can see in the fly I tied above, the bead tends to splay the hackle fibers outward. I like that. How long should the fibers trail back? Some commercial flies use only a hook length of hackle fibers. I tie them much longer.  Around 1.5 time the hook length. But its your choice. Good luck on the water.