The idea that the best salmon fly dressers the world has ever known are alive and working today has been promoted to the point that few people even question whether or not it is actually true. The purpose of this article is not to take away from what today's many talented tiers are doing but to perhaps offer another point of view on the antique flies which were tied and fished long ago.

Consider the following:

Due to the many technological advances which have occurred during the past sixty or seventy years, we have a much easier time of fly-dressing than did our forefathers. Now we have access to flytying threads which are very fine and extremely strong, whereas the threads available a hundred years ago of comparable strength were considerably thicker. Nevertheless, by studying antique flies it is amazing how many of these old patterns have nicely shaped heads which are proportional with the rest of the fly. When examining these ancient flies we must also account for the heavy gut which was used and remember that it was tied in so that it extended almost all the way back to the butt in order to have the strength required to land a 20- or 30-pound salmon. This obviously contributes significantly to the larger heads and bulkier bodies of antique flies. Today's salmon flies sporting tiny heads and a centimeter of ultra-thin gut tied in at the front might look pretty, but if they were ever actually fished they wouldn't hold a feisty bluegill, let alone be able to withstand the savage strike of a full-size steelhead or salmon.

Another advantage we take for granted is the rotary flytying vice. Off times when we study antique salmon flies it is easy to forget that many were dressed without a vise. Interestingly, although the vise was first mentioned in 1800 in Samuel Taylor's Angling in All Branches, Blacker (1855), Kelson (1895), and Pryce-Tannat (1914) all offer instructions for dressing flies totally by hand. Hale's How to Dress Salmon Flies(1892) as well as Francis Francis'(1867) regard the use of a vise as advantageous, but indicate that it is by no means a necessary piece of equipment. Francis goes on to state : "Professional tiers seldom, if ever use a vice. Their fingers answer for all purposes, and they get on so much more rapidly than the amateur, and obtain so much more precision, by carrying out only one process at a time when tying flies in bulk or large numbers."

It is interesting to note that while Captain Hale preferred using a vise, Kelson claimed to do better work by hand. On page 262 of the Nov. 29, 1884 Fishing Gazette Kelson writes " The vice question, I am told has been ventilated in the Gazette. I did not see the controversy; at any rate (speaking of myself again, which I always seem to be doing), I cannot work precisely with a vice, and so never use mine, even for the smallest trout flies. Of course professionals do, because they can progress more rapidly; but whether in such diminutive flies their work is up to our standard is entirely another question. That it is very serviceable to dressers who work elaborate bodies of salmon flies from the head end of the hook there can be no two opinions." It should be noted that in The Art of The Atlantic Salmon Fly, Joe Bates describes a vise given to him from the Three Salmons Hotel at Usk, in Wales, which was reportedly used by Kelson to dress many flies, most notably his Usk Grub. We will never know if Kelson intentionally misled his readers on this subject in order to appear a more skilled flydresser, or if over time the stories surrounding that old vise grew a little more impressive with every retelling. As we all know, this is a common occurrence amongst fishermen.

And now a question for the reader: have you ever tried to dress a salmon fly using only your hands? Obviously, it can be done, but it is not easy to do high-quality work. The most fitting analogy I have heard likens it to dentistry without anesthesia. If unfamiliar with this method of fly dressing, even relatively simple patterns can raise one's blood pressure to new and dangerous heights. Attempting to create a good looking, fully hand-tied Jock Scott would probably devastate your ego to the point that you would at best throw a screaming tantrum and at worst have family and friends hiding all sharp objects from you and trying to find some way to get your flytying room equipped with rubber walls!

In addition to the many high-quality fly tying vises we have available to us, we should not forget the bobbin. I am unsure when the bobbin's use in fly tying became commonplace, but all my research thus far indicates it is a fairly recent development. Eric Tavemer's Fly Tying for Salmon published in 1942 shows a length of tying thread wound on a hook with a pair of hackle pliers attached instead of a bobbin. All the old books instruct the reader to work with a length of thread held in the hand. As a youngster, I taught myself to tie flies using this method. What a joyful discovery the bobbin was for me! What a difference a bobbin makes in terms of added thread control and tying speed!

Even something as basic as proper lighting is a tremendous advantage. Keep in mind that it wasn't so long ago that there was no such thing as a light bulb (hard to believe, isn't it?), and people were either limited to tying during the daytime or else had to make due with candles. Additionally, the high-quality magnification tools available now allow us to inspect the finest details of our work at every step along the way. Many of us would be hating life without these modern conveniences.

In the heyday of the classic salmon fly a century ago, fishing for Atlantic Salmon in the British Isles was not generally a pastime for the average person. Although there were some public waters, much of the better fishing was to be found on expensive private beats. Originally, gillies tied many flies for their well-to-do clients, and a wide range of patterns could also be ordered through large companies such as Farlow's, Hardy's, etc. The people working for these firms tied classic flies day-in and day-out, it was how they put food on the table. They were paid according the number of flies they tied, and so-it stands to reason that over time they became adept at reaching that balance between quality and speed which all professional tiers must achieve. Although there are a handful of folks around the world dressing salmon flies full-time today, for the great majority of us it is an activity we squeeze in when we can. Isn't it reasonable to suppose that a person dressing flies, all day every day, would over time develop a far more intimate knowledge of materials and how to apply them to a hook than someone for whom flytying is merely a hobby?

In many cases the few antique flies which have survived the ravages of time are "working" flies which were meant to be fished. Show flies were also dressed on occasion, but unlike today this was the exception rather than the rule. Now our whole approach is different; if we spend multiple hours on a full-dress pattern, who cares? As long as the finished fly looks good we're satisfied. As hobbyists, we can be as finicky with our material selection and as meticulous with our flydressing as we desire. It is unfair and meaningless for us to compare our presentation-quality, time-is-not-a-factor flies with the fishing flies of yesteryear. We all put considerably more effort into flies we know will be framed and hung on the wall than those we plan on sacrificing to the river gods on our next fishing trip. While today's flies are in general much "cleaner-looking" than most antique flies, chances are that 100 years from now they won't look nearly so nice. We should not let the current God-is-in-thedetails mentality lead us to believe that we are any more skilled at flydressing than the tiers working a century ago. Perhaps some antique exhibition-quality salmon flies still exist. If anyone reading this knows of any, please send a note to the Salmon Flyer. It would be great to get some photos of them and have reprints available for purchase by the readership.

So ask yourself, if you were stripped of your vise, your bobbin and your specialty fly tying light and handed a candle, a blind-eye hook and a length of thread, would you be willing to go up against one of the old masters in a flydressing competition? I didn't think so.