Many of you are familiar with a company in Scotland specializing in antique tackle by the name of Timeless Tackle. For years this outfit was run by the notorious Jamie Maxtone Graham, but is now operated by his son, Rob. When his son took over, many items surfaced which had been buried for years, including hundreds of antique salmon flies. Although most of those old fly wallets and gut-eyed beauties were sold quickly, I did get ahold of some old small doubles in smaller sizes as well as a few larger patterns.

Almost all of the large flies were totally moth-eaten; in most cases only the bodies remained. My intention was to strip them down and re-use the hooks. Fortunately there were one or two flies which were fairly well preserved. One of them was a huge Ackroyd, probably a 7/0 or 8/0. The other fly looked unlike any salmon fly pattern I had ever seen, so I decided to try and look through my many salmon fly books in order to determine if this fly had a name. After several tedious hours of searching I came up empty. It is entirely possible that this is a known salmon fly which is recorded in a book somewhere, but to the best of my knowledge this is the first time this fly's dressing has been recorded. You heard it here first, folks.

Tag : Oval gold tinsel and light yellow floss
Tail : Golden Pheasant crest
Butt: Red wool
Body : Rear Half - Flat gold tinsel ribbed with oval gold tinsel and veiled above and below with toucan, butted with red wool in front. Front Half - golden yellow floss ribbed with flat gold tinsel and gold twist.
Hackle : Yellow hackle over front half of body.
Throat: Orange hackle with orange dyed guinea fowl in front.
Underwing : grey turkey tail
Main wing: Married fibers of yellow, red and blue swan, Speckled Bustard, and Argus Pheasant, with a Golden Pheasant crest over all.
Sides: Jungle Cock and Chinese Kingfisher Horns: Blue and Yellow Macaw
Head: Black tying thread

How amazing to think that this fly pattern was almost lost to historyl It's rather miraculous that this fly didn't get destroyed by insects, while all the flies with it did, and that it was sent across the ocean to someone who actually cared about preserving antique salmon flies!

Although it is true that the dressings for most of the salmon flies in use during the 19th century never were recorded, I'm very happy that I was able to save at least one. I would encourage any of you who are lucky enough to possess antique salmon flies to look through your collections and see if you have any that you think might be unique. If so, jot down the dressing and send it to the editor. I'm confident that the readership of the Salmon Flyer would love to hear about it!

Incidentally, I put writing this article off for may too long. It wasn't until I saw the small number of articles submitted for the last issue of the Flyer that I got motivated enough to do it. I am living proof that you don't need to be a master tyer in order to contribute something to this publication.

It doesn't matter whether you are still a rookie or the most seasoned salmon fly pro ... your input is needed. Write an article using a pen name if you wish, just write! If we all take (read articles) and do not give (write articles), this super little magazine will soon be history! Let's all do what we can to build the Salmon Flyer back up to the level of excellence achieved a few years ago! The only way to do that is for every one of you who reads and enjoys the Salmon Flyer to take a little time out of your busy schedule and submit an article!