Save Our Salmon Flies

Protected Geographical Indication is an EU protection given to food stuffs that must come from a specific area and have specific sets of rules about how they are grown or the ingredients used to make them.  Anyone selling Jersey Royal Potatoes must have grown them, or bought them, from the Channel Island of Jersey.  Armagh Bramley Apples must be "...grown within Archdoicese of Armagh,  Northern Ireland. Products must be harvested between early September and late October." Stronoway Black Pudding is; "limited to products produced using a traditional recipe with a prescribed ratio of ingredients and within the vicinity of the Isle of Lewis or "the surrounding 'Stornoway Trust' area"".  I dearly wish sometimes that salmon flies could be given similar protection.

These past 10 years or so, it has become very easy to start tying flies.  The amount of videos on Youtube and people willing to offer advice and help over various social media outlets such as Facebook or Forums, anyone starting out has never had more good information available to them.

When I started tying, it was done by trial and error with error being the key word here.  No one sat me down at a vice and showed me anything. I tried things, sometimes they worked but most of the time they didn't.  It is really only this past 3 or 4 years, after tying over 25 years, that I am finally getting things to look something like I want them to.  I don't mind that though and I wouldn't change anything.

An early attempt at a Cascade and a more recent version

The social media aspect of tying has had a downside too in my own opinion.  There seems to be competition.  One person trying to outdo another. People selling flies trying to extort those who don't tie with the next 'must have' pattern, which is the same as one that already exists but with badger hackles. People showing flies, trying to sell materials as they are part of a 'pro team'.  Then someone ties something that someone else has claimed to have 'invented'.  That can turn nasty and the threats and name calling begin.  Worse than kids on a playground. I have no time for any of that at all.

Suddenly everyone's an expert.  I know people who are selling flies and making comments on some of the outlets who have literally never caught a salmon in their life on fly, but now have a 'Joe Bloggs Fly Tying' page on facebook and are selling 'named' flies that may not even have half the materials in them. I find that quite sad.

I have only very recently discovered that I am an intorvert.  After a full life of not really feeling part of this world, feeling I was very different than almost everyone else, it turns out I was right. But now everything makes so much more sense.  For the first time in my life I can see why I felt so outside of the rest of the world. It has been liberating.

My mind never stops with ideas and thoughts constantly bouncing off each other.  On the outside, I'm quiet, I never speak much, I don't really enjoy interaction with other people a lot of the time and I keep myself to myself.  This is in complete contrast with what's going on in the inside.  Introverts need quiet time and solitude.  We do a lot of reading on different topics and writing things.  These are only a few of the times that we can quieten or brain.  It is how we re-energise.

Suddenly, my love of fly tying makes complete sense.  I have always said that I could give up salmon fishing tomorrow but I could not see my life without fly tying.  I now know the reason why.

My shed is my quiet place.  I can go out there, put on my small radio (not too loud mind) and start tying something.  When I really get lost in my tying, I only know the hours going in by the number of times I've heard the news at the top of the hour.  My mind is quiet. The more complicated the pattern is, the more I lose myself, the more time passes.  Absolute bliss.

It is this intorversion that has led me to become so protective of our salmon flies.  When not tying flies, I like to read about them.  The internet is great for this and you can read up on the history of a fly pattern from information given by those that tied them.  Ally Gowan's on what brought him to create his famous Ally's Shrimp and Cascade.  How the famous 'Willie Gunn' came to be from reading interviews with Dusty Miller.  One of the most interesting pieces of information I have ever seen was on facebook where a photo of a hand written pattern for the 'John Anthony Shrimp' was shown as described by his son.  The history of a fly, the story behind it, I find so much more interesting than many modern day attempts at tying them.

The website, 'Salmon Fishing Forum', used to be fanatastic source of information on the history of flies.  You had many of those famous ghillies and fly tyers on there including Ross MacDonald, who created the Park and Calvin's Shrimp,  Robert Gillespie who is most certainly up there among  the finest dressers of flies in the Island of Ireland, if not the world, and Peter Kealey who I would say is my own personal favourite.  Peter's Shrimp flies are the best I have ever seen and I am delighted to have a couple of Wilkinson Shrimps tied by Peter in a small display box in my shed.  For whatever reason, these people stopped posting, as have most others and the Salmon Fishing Forum is a bit of a waste of time now.

There were some great posts on that forum though.  I remember Robert Gillespie telling how he came to tie his shrimp flies with a shorter front hackle, rather than a longer front hackle (than the middle hackle) as was traditionally the case.  Or how the modern McCormick's Shrimp came to be.  The story of a forum member talking to the brother of Lawrence Cunningham, the creator of the local favourite, Green Silk.  He said that the shade of green used for the rear body was not important.  The important thing was that the green stayed the same shade when wet.  If the rear body went dark when it got wet, it could not be called a Green Silk.  He also said that if the pattern was tied without Jungle Cock, it could not, and should not, be called a Green Silk.  I absolutly loved information like that.  It is a great pity we don't have information like that from Pat Curry for example, or any of the other great fly dressers from years gone by.

The reason I hold information like this so dear is because I feel that there is a real chance that we will lose it.  With so many people out there now tying purely for profit and trying to outdo someone else, the actual patterns themselves seem to be becoming irrelevant.  This is nothing new mind.  I have never been able to find a definitive pattern for the 'Original' Green Highlander.  No one seems to know what it is.  Likewise, the Fiery Brown.  There seems to be no end to the variations and different materials used but which is the first one?  No one knows these days.

There is one pattern that I hold in a higher regard than any other.  It is one that I hate to see basterdised or people claiming to have put their 'own twist' on.  That fly is the Curry's Red Shrimp.  There are probably more attempts made at the Curry's Red than any other of the shrimp patterns.  Well, the Wilkinson Shrimp isn't far away either I suppose.  To me, the Curry's Red is the perfect shrimp fly.  The colours and materials work so well and have accounted for thousands upon thousands of fish over the years.  It is impossible to improve on perfection in my opinion.

Curry's Red Shrimp tied with Silver Badger (top) and Creamy Badger (bottom)

From my reading,  I understand Pat Curry tied his Red Shrimp to begin with, with the vielings at the sides.  I am not 100% sure if it was Pat himself or someone else who decided later that the vielings should go on top and below.  I have tied it both ways.  I can tell you that the profile of the fly in the water looks very different with the vielings at the sides but I have caught fish on both so I don't know if there is a right or a wrong way.  The point is, there MUST be vielings.  I know that 'Cock O' the Rock' or 'Red Ibis' isn't readily available in your local tackle shop but add hackle points, swan strips or something.  Like Lawrence Cunningham said about Jungle Cock on a Green Silk, if you don't have vielings on a Curry's Red then you haven't tied a Curry's Red. You have tied a Badger and Red at best.  I hold the Curry's Red in such high regard that I have never tied a single one that I am 100% happy with.  I feel I have yet to do the pattern the justice it deserves.


At the end of the day, salmon are not picky creatures.  A salmon does not know what a fly is.  I caught as many fish on my poorly tied flies as I have on my recent better tied ones.  Well, maybe that is not strictly true as it could be argued that I'm actually catching more fish now, even though I am fishing much less.  A salmon will take a Badger and Red as quick as a Curry's Red.  A salmon will take anything that is put in front of it if it is curious enough.  Presentation, depth, speed, size  etc. I feel, are much more important than the fly itself.

I know I am in a minority.  However,  I'll try to do my best to keep those original patterns alive for future generations.  If a pattern calls for crystal flash or angel hair then by god it will have it, but it won't be there if it isn't called for.  The same with Glo Brite heads, neon beads or Lite Brite bodies.  The simple use if the word 'variant' covers a multitude of sins and helps my blood pressure!

I'll do my best to remember the original patterns in memory of those who created them.  I feel I owe them that.