One day in the dead low water of summer, having nothing better to do with my evening, I decided to tie up some reduced Atlantic salmon flies. I would fish with these in the morning using a floating line and taking care to keep them up in the surface film.

Some had uncomplicated wings, such as Thunder and Lightning and others were traditional low water dressings, but a few had the reduced married wings that are so attractive in the water and give the flies a multiplicity of bright colors. One fly was the Black Dose - the English version, not the Canadian.

I remember because I tied it on at the load of the Elbow Hole on the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River where I spend August whenever I get a chance. And if you think I am next going to tell yogu about a giant steelhead I hooked and perhaps landed, you are wrong. I cast the fly to the far side on a long, light leader and made the first of two mends, waiting for the fly to sink on its Partridge hook and begin to fish its way slowly through the pool I had taken a fine fish in just the day before. But, the fly hung up on a rock just beneath the surface and my line never straightened out. Twitch and pull as I might, I could not free the fly and had to break it off. That hurt. From then on I've kept my beauties in a box and have never fished salmon flies, except my worst failures which I usually fish with a vengeance on a deeply sunk line - my goal being to lose them.

I've since thought that this is not the best route. We who love full dressed salmon flies and spend hours on them do not wish to risk them on mere steelhead and salmon. But there is a compromise possible and it is not new. It is tie them as fishing flies. Generally this means full bodies but greatly simplified wings. Wings traditionally are of hair, not feathers, and can be tied quickly; when you loose one you do not cry.

The tradition of hairwinged salmon flies with full bodies goes back a long way. As soon as I state what I think is the beginning, somebody more knowledgeable will find a source a full fifty years before mine, so I will only say I first encountered such patterns in Herter's Fly Tying Manual when I was a boy, which was a long time ago. There, some buff substituted a variety of colored hairs, tied in layers for the mixed or married feather wings. I must say, considerable effort was made to maintain the order and colors of the traditional wing. In order to tie these a boy could buy calf tail dyed in all the regular colors (Highlander Greed, Silver Doctor Blue, ect.) that he needed and Herter would profit directly. I followed this route only part of its 1ength. Others went farther than I did and made it into an art form. I've always thought Walt Johnson's Spectral Spider was a hair-winged version of one of Preston Jennings's flies, probably the Lord or Lady Iris.

Early Herter catalogs can still be found throughout the country and the patterns for hair-winged "fully dressed" Atlantic salmon flies are at the Back. They are curious items. Then, back in 1976, Hardy Brothers came out with some startling ties in their new, oversized catalog. This coincided with their introduction of fiberglass rods, I recall - a real departure. A tear sheet from the catalog still hangs in an obscure niche in my study - it pictures a series of "Hardy Moose Hair Salmon Flies." (This is about the same time certain materials became difficult, if not impossible, to get in England such as bustard, swan and "summer duck".) Hardy said their flies were available in sizes 2/0 to 8 and the patterns listed are Jock Scott, Silver Doctor, Hairy Mary, Thunder and Lightning, Dusty Miller and Green Highlander.

The flies are interesting. The lags are tied with flat silver tinsel and the floss portion occupies as much space at the tinsel. Tails and bodies are about what one would expect of production ties. The wing is moose mane: for the most part with the whitish butts and occasional single pale hair mixed-in. This is brittle material. Moose body hair would have been better if long enough, and might have been used by Hardy in the smaller sizes; it is nicely darker, too. The main impression of these flies is their sparseness. On ordinary salmon hooks, one can be assured they will sink fast and present a slim silhouette.

Poul Jorgensen lists hair-wing versions of many full-dressed salmon flies in chapter four of his book Salmon Flies: Their Character Style and Dressing. I think it was from Jorgensen that I got the idea of using fox squirrel for wing material. It is a plentiful material and not expensive. It has a nice reddish cast in the water - perhaps a little too red. Like all squirrel it absorbs water readily and sinks fast. It is relatively lifeless in the current, however, at least to many of us who use marabou for many of our fishing flies. Then, in a grab bag of materials in a fly fishing store, I found some similar material that had what seemed to me a better color. I bought a couple of pieces then asked the shopkeeper, "What is this stuff?

"Pine ;Squirrel", he said.

I returned home and tied up some sample flies along with ones in the Rat series and Cossebooms in a range of colors. I like the pine squirrel salmon flies very much. Gray fox might be just as good as with the Rat series, but I like the tone of pine squirrel. Try some; look at it in the current. Squint your eyes. Doesn't it contain about the same spectrum as the full-dressed salmon flies, right down to the crest topping?

Tying such flies, I admit, does not advance the fly tyer's art but it gives you good practice in tying bodies, ribbings and hackles fast. Then, with a quick wing laid in, you have a fishing fly that will not break your heart when you bang the hook point on the rocks behind you or lose the damn thing on the river bottom!

I had been mulling over and over in my mind some really novel approaches to this topic, i.e. "Atlantic Salmon Flies - For Fishing" for some time. So I finally sat down and forced myself to share a few thoughts which may be new to some, useless to others, but, hopefully at least interesting to all.

A few seasons back having caught the Atlantic salmon fly "bug" I decided to and see if sea-run cutthroat or steelhead would go for some of the salmon patterns I was tying at the time. Being from Oregon, I know there are vast opportunities to try for anadromous fish and warm water species as well.

As you may be aware, there are a number of popular trout patterns which take "sea-runs", grey hackle yellow, Royal Coachman, Conway, etc. - almost any bright pattern. And in fresh water they will take numerous dry patterns as well, especially the yellow Salmon Fly or Hopper in agy reasonable size.

After some experimenting and pondering, I decided to sit down last winter and tie up some atlantics to see how they would do in the upcoming "follies".

Because of the decline in sea-run numbers I waited until October in one of my favorite streams for the best chance of at least getting their attention. To my surprise I was able to hook or land numerous cutthroats on the following patterns:

1. Durham Ranger - #6
2. Gordon
3. Blue Chatterer (in low, clear water) - #6
4. Orange Dee - long shank SEB #4
5. Yellow Dee - long shank SEB #4

So far I have found that the best results are obtained when fishing these patterns in dark, deep, undisturbed holes (with water, of course!).

Having satisfied my curiosity about "sea-runs", I'm now on the trail of a steelhead or two. This past autumn I hooked or landed three steelies on pink Chinn specials or purple hare's ears (weighted) - Hmmm... Let's see now... how about a pink Eagle or maybe a purple Jock?!

In closing I'd just like to encourage any members who haven't tried this approach to see what results they come up with. Who knows, someday the Jock Scott may become the next ultimate Walleye killer! ! Move over Bill Dance!!