Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”
by Rusty Dunn
Spring creeks offer some of the world’s most challenging trout fishing. They are often slowly moving, glassy smooth, crystal clear, and thick with weeds by mid-summer. Spring creek trout can be surprisingly large, because the slightly alkaline waters support immense populations of insects, crustaceans, and other trout fare.
Famous spring creeks of the world include the chalk streams of southern England, Montana’s DePuy, Armstrong, and Nelson’s Spring Creeks, Idaho’s Silver Creek and Henry’s Fork, and Pennsylvania’s Letort Spring Run. Such rivers can reward experienced fly fishers, but they often humble novices. They identify great anglers, and it’s no accident that spring creeks were home waters of such angling giants as G.S. Marryat, F.M. Halford, G.E.M. Skues, Jim Leisenring, Vince Marinaro, and Charlie Fox.
Pennsylvania’s Letort Spring Run was six miles of spring creek paradise in the 1950s and 1960s. Its crystalline waters, abundant insects, and large selective trout attracted some of America’s finest anglers. Vince Marinaro, Ernie Schwiebert, Charlie Fox, and Ed Shenk considered it home. Marinaro and Fox were contemporaries and best friends who established on the Letort what has been called “the limestone school” of American fly fishing. They jointly discovered the Letort’s food base of minute insects and designed tiny flies to match. Fox and Marinaro epitomized “fine and far off” for American waters. Marinaro’s book A Modern Dry Fly Code (1950) and Fox’s This Wonderful World of Trout (1963) are the Old Testament of spring creek angling in America.
Charlie Fox was “Dean of the Letort” and served as its protector for over 50 years. Fox’s home was a double haul away from the water’s edge, and he owned a half mile of stream frontage. Fox welcomed both expert and novice, friend and stranger, to his property with modesty, grace, and unending generosity.
Conservation of the Letort was Fox’s highest priority. He hauled gravel by hand and successfully rebuilt spawning habitat that was in decline. He strategically placed flagstones in the stream for anglers to stand on. He advocated managing the Letort as a wild trout fishery to a state bureaucracy that was deeply rooted in hatchery-fueled put-and-take angling. Fox was so attached to the Letort and to trout he nurtured that he couldn’t bring himself to fish it late in life. He simply sat aside its mesmerizing waters, coached others on its intricacies, and immersed himself in the theater of nature. Fox was not as famous nationally as the loquacious and opinionated Marinaro, but cognoscenti respect the two as equals. Both are angling greats whose individual accomplishments cannot be disentangled, much like those of Walton & Cotton, Marryat & Halford, or Hewitt & LaBranche.
Charlie Fox’s favorite hatch on the Letort was the annual emergence of Ephemerella dorothea and Epeorus vitrea, yellow-orange mayflies known commonly as Sulphurs, Pale Evening Duns, Little Yellow Drakes, Little Light Cahills, and Pale Watery Duns. Fox coined the term “sulphur” (also spelled “sulfur”) in the 1930s to describe the insect. The name stuck and is now the most common name throughout the East and upper Midwest for wonderful hatches on those long lingering evenings of June.
Sulphur hatches on the Letort were monumental in the 1950s and 60s. Indeed, Fox called them “the hatch of hatches”. Sadly however, the great clouds of Sulphurs have all but disappeared. Sediment from poor agricultural practices, runoff from urban development, and pollution from a commercial watercress farm at the spring’s source now foul the Letort’s formerly pristine waters. The creek is a shadow of its former self, but at least the few remaining trout are wild thanks to Charlie Fox. If you visit the Letort, find Marinaro’s Meadow, wherein you’ll see side-by-side brass plaques of Vince Marinaro and Charlie Fox overlooking one of fly fishing’s most hallowed temples. It is sacred ground with a magnificent past and an uncertain future.
Copyright 2019, Rusty Dunn
Sulphur Dun
Charlie Fox experimented with many different body colors and concluded that bright orange Sulphur Duns are superior, despite appearing to human eyes quite unlike the color of naturals.
| Hook: |
Dry fly, #18 – #20 |
| Thread: |
Pale yellow or cream, 8/0 |
| Wings: |
Light dun hen hackle feather tips, upright and divided |
| Tail: |
Light blue dun rooster hackle fibers |
| Body: |
Bright orange dry fly dubbing |
| Hackle: |
Light blue dun rooster |
Sulphur Dun
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Last Updated: June 13, 2019 by Drew Kasel
by Rusty Dunn
Spring creeks offer some of the world’s most challenging trout fishing. They are often slowly moving, glassy smooth, crystal clear, and thick with weeds by mid-summer. Spring creek trout can be surprisingly large, because the slightly alkaline waters support immense populations of insects, crustaceans, and other trout fare.
Famous spring creeks of the world include the chalk streams of southern England, Montana’s DePuy, Armstrong, and Nelson’s Spring Creeks, Idaho’s Silver Creek and Henry’s Fork, and Pennsylvania’s Letort Spring Run. Such rivers can reward experienced fly fishers, but they often humble novices. They identify great anglers, and it’s no accident that spring creeks were home waters of such angling giants as G.S. Marryat, F.M. Halford, G.E.M. Skues, Jim Leisenring, Vince Marinaro, and Charlie Fox.
Pennsylvania’s Letort Spring Run was six miles of spring creek paradise in the 1950s and 1960s. Its crystalline waters, abundant insects, and large selective trout attracted some of America’s finest anglers. Vince Marinaro, Ernie Schwiebert, Charlie Fox, and Ed Shenk considered it home. Marinaro and Fox were contemporaries and best friends who established on the Letort what has been called “the limestone school” of American fly fishing. They jointly discovered the Letort’s food base of minute insects and designed tiny flies to match. Fox and Marinaro epitomized “fine and far off” for American waters. Marinaro’s book A Modern Dry Fly Code (1950) and Fox’s This Wonderful World of Trout (1963) are the Old Testament of spring creek angling in America.
Charlie Fox was “Dean of the Letort” and served as its protector for over 50 years. Fox’s home was a double haul away from the water’s edge, and he owned a half mile of stream frontage. Fox welcomed both expert and novice, friend and stranger, to his property with modesty, grace, and unending generosity.
Conservation of the Letort was Fox’s highest priority. He hauled gravel by hand and successfully rebuilt spawning habitat that was in decline. He strategically placed flagstones in the stream for anglers to stand on. He advocated managing the Letort as a wild trout fishery to a state bureaucracy that was deeply rooted in hatchery-fueled put-and-take angling. Fox was so attached to the Letort and to trout he nurtured that he couldn’t bring himself to fish it late in life. He simply sat aside its mesmerizing waters, coached others on its intricacies, and immersed himself in the theater of nature. Fox was not as famous nationally as the loquacious and opinionated Marinaro, but cognoscenti respect the two as equals. Both are angling greats whose individual accomplishments cannot be disentangled, much like those of Walton & Cotton, Marryat & Halford, or Hewitt & LaBranche.
Charlie Fox’s favorite hatch on the Letort was the annual emergence of Ephemerella dorothea and Epeorus vitrea, yellow-orange mayflies known commonly as Sulphurs, Pale Evening Duns, Little Yellow Drakes, Little Light Cahills, and Pale Watery Duns. Fox coined the term “sulphur” (also spelled “sulfur”) in the 1930s to describe the insect. The name stuck and is now the most common name throughout the East and upper Midwest for wonderful hatches on those long lingering evenings of June.
Sulphur hatches on the Letort were monumental in the 1950s and 60s. Indeed, Fox called them “the hatch of hatches”. Sadly however, the great clouds of Sulphurs have all but disappeared. Sediment from poor agricultural practices, runoff from urban development, and pollution from a commercial watercress farm at the spring’s source now foul the Letort’s formerly pristine waters. The creek is a shadow of its former self, but at least the few remaining trout are wild thanks to Charlie Fox. If you visit the Letort, find Marinaro’s Meadow, wherein you’ll see side-by-side brass plaques of Vince Marinaro and Charlie Fox overlooking one of fly fishing’s most hallowed temples. It is sacred ground with a magnificent past and an uncertain future.
Copyright 2019, Rusty Dunn
Sulphur Dun
Charlie Fox experimented with many different body colors and concluded that bright orange Sulphur Duns are superior, despite appearing to human eyes quite unlike the color of naturals.
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