Most of the time when I am glancing through articles or publications related to salmon flies I can identify most of the flies. Having spent way too many hours reading and rereading Kelson, Hardy and other founts of patterns, I have become familiar with even some of the less popular patterns.

I recently came across a couple that I did not recognize right off. Occasionally I will not recognize a pattern, but as I start to construct it in my mind by reciting the materials as they appear on the hook, I am suddenly able to identify it.

It is at this point that I realize that the reason I didn't recognize it in the first place is because one or two materials have been changed, but the basic fly dressing is still the same. I must admit that I did no research regarding these flies in an attempt to identify them. However, neither of them look familiar at all, particularly since they come from a catalogue and thus should be fairly popular flies. I leave it up to the readers to ferret out the names of the following patterns.

Please note that I am listing materials from a photograph, not always a reliable source due to light and color constraints.

Tag: Fine oval silver tinsel and golden yellow floss.

Tail: Golden pheasant crest veiled with Indian crow.

Butt: None.

Body: One quarter (no doubt two turns by Kelson standards) golden yellow floss, remainder black floss, ribbed with flat silver tinsel, oval silver tinsel (and perhaps oval gold tinsel). The oval silver tinsel is wound so that it falls neatly between the turns of the flat silver tinsel, with the other tinsel counterwound. Stylistically here, we have a Spey type dressing.

Hackle: Black heron from the black silk floss.

Throat: This is a long brownish red feather with the fiber length almost as long as the heron. My guess is Golden pheasant breast. Defuiitely not a feather from the chicken family.

Wing: Golden pheasant tippets back to back, with yellow and red swan, blue macaw in narrow strips at sides. (There is one other color strip in the wing between the red swan and blue macaw, but it may just be a repeat of the yellow swan.) Topped with two golden pheasant crests.

Sides: Jungle

Horns: Blue macaw

Head: Black

What throws me about this pattern is that I do not recall the combination of heron hackles and golden pheasant tippets in the wing being used together. Size on this fly is large.

Tag: Fine oval silver tinsel and red floss (although from the picture it could be red wool).

Tail: Golden pheasant crest veiled with what appears to be a stump of red floss!? Either that or it is a substitute feather for Indian crow that is wholly dark red. Or, it is just a dark red feather. There may or may not be a woodduck veiling here. See wing description.

Butt: Black ostrich herl

Body: Black floss, with a rib of fine oval silver tinsel (and we are talking fine as in tagging size) starting at the midpoint.

Hackle: Black, very sparse.

Throat: Badger hackle dyed yellow.

Wing: Mixture of woodduck, teal, pintail. I don't believe this wing is married. It's a "clumper" folks. There is definite height to the wing so the clump must not be held in a round fashion to be tied on, but rather flattened so that height is gained without width. After tie in, I would guess the wing was stroked so that much of it is now married, but I don't believe for a minute someone tried to marry this before tying in. It is hard to tell whether fibers in the wing mix with the tail or if there is a tail veiling. My guess is a tail veiling. There is also a rough taper built into the back of the wing to follow the outline set up by the tail. Remember some of those drawings in Kelson where a mixed wing fly (a doctor I think, as one of the practice flies) shows a wing of mottled feathers? Well, here was one in real life. Topped with a golden pheasant crest.

Horns: Scarlet macaw.

Head: Black

That's it. Good luck coming up with the names. If you should find out, drop a note to the editor so that it can be printed in a later edition. As a couple of added notes, there is a fly with a wing made of tippets and white tipped turkey. The white tipped turkey (which sits outside the tippets) clearly shows the metallic portion of the tail. Not something you see too often. There is also a Thunder and Lightning that has an awesome wing of bronze mallard. I don't know who tied this fly, but you only see wings this clean on trout flies tied with mallard primaries. If there is an underwing, it isn't visible. Better start practicing that bronze mallard winging technique! It can be done!