Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”
by Rusty Dunn
Whenever you venture astream, you carry the accumulated wisdom and technological advances of generations of angling predecessors. Your fly rod, for example, is a marvel of engineering.
It is probably made of high modulus graphite, artificial fibers as light as a feather and stronger than steel. But graphite rods have only been around since the 1970s. Before that, fiberglass was the miracle fiber of premium rods. Fiberglass was king for two or three decades, having replaced rods made of split bamboo in the 1950s. Tonkin cane from China replaced Calcutta cane from India in the early 1900s, which had previously replaced greenheart and lancewood, which had replaced … you get the picture. Your rod is the culmination of that long history of improvement, which allows a sixty foot cast of a #4 Woolly Bugger into a stiff breeze with ease.
But what about your flies? Has their performance advanced similarly over the decades? Are today’s new flies better than those of 20, or 50, or 100 years ago? You would have difficulty convincing a skeptic of that. The miracle fibers of fly design have always been fur and feather, and Mother Nature has not changed them recently. Synthetic materials add an important new dimension to fly tying, but the basic principles of fly design and presentation were explored long ago. Many of the oldest flies are still among the best.
The Waterhen Bloa is a centuries old wet fly, and a better imitation of emerging Blue Winged Olives has probably never been invented. ‘Bloa’ refers to the color of the fly’s hackle. The word derives from the Scottish term “blae”, which is a dark, leaden, slate-gray color. The wings of waterhens are blae colored, hence the fly’s name. Waterhen Bloas imitate drowned or emerging olive duns and are outstanding when fished just under the surface during a BWO emergence.
A Waterhen Bloa is typical of wingless wet flies, also called ‘North Country flies’, ‘spiders’ or ‘soft-hackles’. Most wet flies prior to about 1800 had wings of quill slips, but those of the English north shed their wings during the 1800s and instead adopted a collar of soft hackle to imitate both wings and legs of emergers. Feathers of game birds have been affixed to hooks since the very origins of angling, but their development as the defining feature of a wet fly style occurred in the 1800s. A landmark book in the history of soft-hackled flies is T.E. Pritt’s Yorkshire Trout Flies (1885). It describes 62 wingless wets matched to the natural insects they imitate. Most of Pritt’s patterns reproduce flies of previous authors, but Pritt integrated the fly patterns with descriptions of emergence times and methods of presentation. Yorkshire Trout Flies marks full maturity of the North Country tradition, a wet fly philosophy that endures today. The Waterhen Bloa first appeared by name in Yorkshire Trout Flies, but the pattern is much older, reaching back to at least 1807 under other names.
Great attention is paid to color in the design of North Country flies. Many have bodies only of tying silk, while others call for a sparse dusting of fur dubbed over the silk. Color of the silk shows through overlying fur, thus imitating the translucency of naturals. North Country flies are simple and subdued … slim delicate imitations of slim delicate insects. The soft materials absorb water, and the sparseness of dress insures quiet entry to the water. Don’t be misled by their simplicity, however. The colors, materials, designs, and methods of presentation were perfected by 400 years of careful observation and experimentation. When you next see a Blue Winged Olive, tie an 18th century fly to your 21st century rod and see for yourself.
The hopes and dreams of most dry fly anglers rest on the shoulders of but two groups of insects, the mayflies and the caddisflies. Admittedly, stoneflies, midges, and terrestrials have their moments of glory, but day in and day out, mayflies and caddisflies are the bread and butter of fly fishing. But look inside your fly boxes. Are the bread and the butter equally represented? Probably not.
Copyright 2018, Rusty Dunn
Waterhen Bloa
Dubbing of a Waterhen Bloa should be applied “as light as your mother-in-law’s beard“. Feathers from the underside of coot, moorhen, or starling wings can substitute for waterhen.
| Hook: |
Wet fly, #14 – #18 |
| Thread: |
Pearsall’s Gossamer silk, primrose yellow. When waxed or wet, the silk will turn pale olive. |
| Body: |
Muskrat underfur, spun very sparsely over tying silk. Leave two turns of silk without dubbing as a tag at the hook bend. |
| Hackle: |
A feather from the underside of a waterhen wing. The hackle should be about the length of the hook and swept back slightly. |
Waterhen Bloa
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Last Updated: May 3, 2018 by Drew Kasel
by Rusty Dunn
Whenever you venture astream, you carry the accumulated wisdom and technological advances of generations of angling predecessors. Your fly rod, for example, is a marvel of engineering.
It is probably made of high modulus graphite, artificial fibers as light as a feather and stronger than steel. But graphite rods have only been around since the 1970s. Before that, fiberglass was the miracle fiber of premium rods. Fiberglass was king for two or three decades, having replaced rods made of split bamboo in the 1950s. Tonkin cane from China replaced Calcutta cane from India in the early 1900s, which had previously replaced greenheart and lancewood, which had replaced … you get the picture. Your rod is the culmination of that long history of improvement, which allows a sixty foot cast of a #4 Woolly Bugger into a stiff breeze with ease.
But what about your flies? Has their performance advanced similarly over the decades? Are today’s new flies better than those of 20, or 50, or 100 years ago? You would have difficulty convincing a skeptic of that. The miracle fibers of fly design have always been fur and feather, and Mother Nature has not changed them recently. Synthetic materials add an important new dimension to fly tying, but the basic principles of fly design and presentation were explored long ago. Many of the oldest flies are still among the best.
The Waterhen Bloa is a centuries old wet fly, and a better imitation of emerging Blue Winged Olives has probably never been invented. ‘Bloa’ refers to the color of the fly’s hackle. The word derives from the Scottish term “blae”, which is a dark, leaden, slate-gray color. The wings of waterhens are blae colored, hence the fly’s name. Waterhen Bloas imitate drowned or emerging olive duns and are outstanding when fished just under the surface during a BWO emergence.
A Waterhen Bloa is typical of wingless wet flies, also called ‘North Country flies’, ‘spiders’ or ‘soft-hackles’. Most wet flies prior to about 1800 had wings of quill slips, but those of the English north shed their wings during the 1800s and instead adopted a collar of soft hackle to imitate both wings and legs of emergers. Feathers of game birds have been affixed to hooks since the very origins of angling, but their development as the defining feature of a wet fly style occurred in the 1800s. A landmark book in the history of soft-hackled flies is T.E. Pritt’s Yorkshire Trout Flies (1885). It describes 62 wingless wets matched to the natural insects they imitate. Most of Pritt’s patterns reproduce flies of previous authors, but Pritt integrated the fly patterns with descriptions of emergence times and methods of presentation. Yorkshire Trout Flies marks full maturity of the North Country tradition, a wet fly philosophy that endures today. The Waterhen Bloa first appeared by name in Yorkshire Trout Flies, but the pattern is much older, reaching back to at least 1807 under other names.
Great attention is paid to color in the design of North Country flies. Many have bodies only of tying silk, while others call for a sparse dusting of fur dubbed over the silk. Color of the silk shows through overlying fur, thus imitating the translucency of naturals. North Country flies are simple and subdued … slim delicate imitations of slim delicate insects. The soft materials absorb water, and the sparseness of dress insures quiet entry to the water. Don’t be misled by their simplicity, however. The colors, materials, designs, and methods of presentation were perfected by 400 years of careful observation and experimentation. When you next see a Blue Winged Olive, tie an 18th century fly to your 21st century rod and see for yourself.
The hopes and dreams of most dry fly anglers rest on the shoulders of but two groups of insects, the mayflies and the caddisflies. Admittedly, stoneflies, midges, and terrestrials have their moments of glory, but day in and day out, mayflies and caddisflies are the bread and butter of fly fishing. But look inside your fly boxes. Are the bread and the butter equally represented? Probably not.
Copyright 2018, Rusty Dunn
Waterhen Bloa
Dubbing of a Waterhen Bloa should be applied “as light as your mother-in-law’s beard“. Feathers from the underside of coot, moorhen, or starling wings can substitute for waterhen.
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