My first fishing flies were in a plastic disc I found in my grandfather's tackle box of conventional lures and hooks.  I'd fished for trout with him for years, and never noticed the circular container.  It may have been there for decades. Some of the flies were embedded into the melted plastic of the disc, but a few had remained intact; one of these was a bumble-bee.  Armed with the disc and the rod and reel I found among discarded trolling rods and forgotten poles of various lengths I went off to find some fish for the first time with a fly rod.

Recently, my aunt mentioned some flies she found and wondered if they came over with her family on their voyage to Canada from Scotland. They may have come with her to New Jersey where she met my uncle in the sixties or seventies. Of course I was intrigued and wondered why this was the first mention of her Scottish ancestors also fishing with flies. My grandfather and uncle strictly used spinning gear and my uncle usually fished from boat by the time I was born.  In fact, that one rod, reel, and disc of flies are all the fly tackle I have ever known or seen from my family.  

Well, I won't keep you in suspense; I think my aunt was mistaken.  The "Scottish flies" are a store bought collection of trout flies, perhaps the "dozen" variety next to the six available in the disc I wish I still had - sticky with plastic melted who-knows-how, but likely just direct exposure to the sun in the back of my grandfather's station wagon that reeked of pipe smoke.  The flies were the equivalent of what is available at Walmart or other fishing stores with "some fly stuff." 

This box is all size #10 hooks and includes one of the following: Royal Coachman, Blue Uplight, McGinty, Black Gnat, Yellow May, Red Ibis, White Miller, Mosquito, Ginger Quill, Brown Hackle Peacock, a Bee, and a Coachman.  How that last one lost its nobility we'll never know as some of the flies are missing and few seem to be in the original place.  I am not going to fish these and am going to preserve the box.  They may not be a Salmon Fly in the Victorian Sense, but they are flies from a time and place in history - even though I can not verify when or where these actually came from.  I'm glad to have them and know that someone my aunt knew and loved had them before me.  I'll keep them as examples of what was available to blue collar anglers who got their flies, not from catalogues or family ghillies, but from dime stores and gas stations.  They are all in fine, fishing condition.

Fly of the Month:

Simple Bugs - Small midge patterns, like the Zebra, Black Beauty,

Lenny's F. L. Recipe 

Hook: curved, pupae, or straight in sizes #16 to #32

Thread: brown 6/0

Wire: Copper in SM

Thorax: peacock herl                               _______________________________________________________

Start the thread on the hook and add the wire with a gap behind the eye.  Wrap back past the bend and begin a tapered thread body. Wrap to the gap and to the wire at the bend.  Wrap to the gap and back 3/4. Wrap to the gap and to 1/2 back to the bend. Wrap to the gap and 1/4 back. Be sure you are leaving some space just behind the hook eye.

Wrap the wire stopping at the gap behind the eye.  

Add one peacock herl and take several wraps filling the gap. Don't crowd the eye!

Whip it; whip it good.

For a Zebra midge: replace peacock herl with a bead. Try red, black, and other colors.  Use gold, silver or colored wire, but the classics are red and black.

For a Black Beauty,: replace peacock herl with dubbing. 

Next month: LBS - Little Black Stone Fly