Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”

by Rusty Dunn

Seine a stream, and the insects you capture will not look anything like the glamour photos of a fly fish­ing magazine.  Instead of flawless specimens, you’ll see a rag-tag col­lection of fluff and rubble that barely resem­bles the insect world.  “Stillborns”, “cripples”, “failed emergers”, “stuck-in-the-shuck” … call them what you like, but insects of the drift are disheveled knots of legs, wings, and body parts splayed every which way.  What flies imitate this un­tidy mess?  Untidy flies, of course.  Soft hackles are perfect for the task.  If you’ve not dis­cov­ered the pleasures of fishing soft-hackled flies, it’s about time you did.

Wingless wet flies originated in the English north and Scottish border country.  Their deceptively simple designs and sparse dressings reflect the austere and frugal anglers who invented them.  Be not de­ceived by their simplicity, though, because soft hackles are very ef­fec­tive as emergers fished in or near the sur­face, as nymphs drifted deeply, or as adults, pupae, or nymphs swung through a riffle.  Such flies have been around since fur and feather were first lashed to hooks, and some of the oldest patterns are still some of the best.

Scotsman W.C. Stewart (1832-1872) designed three of the most effective soft-hackled flies of all time.  His Black, Red, and Dun Spiders, so named because they resem­ble a spider in appearance, not because they im­itate one, are described in Stewart’s 1857 book The Practical Angler.  Stewart fished all three spiders sim­ultaneously on a single leader (“a cast of three”).  His logic was that one of the three would be effec­tive no matter what was hatching.  Stewart made his living catching trout to be sold at the local market, so the logic proved to be well-founded.

Stewart is perhaps best known as the author who per­suaded anglers to cast upstream.  Stewart advocated upstream presentations at a time when most presentations were made downstream on a wet fly swing.  Instead of a long line fished down­stream, Stewart fished a short line upstream.  The benefits seem obvi­ous to­day, but not so in 1857.  Dry flies had only recently been developed and were not widely used.  Down­stream an­gling was simply “the way it was done”.  Stewart was not the first to recom­mend upstream pres­entations, but he was the first to con­vincingly describe why it is better.  Stewart cited four rea­sons: (i) An angler remains un­seen by trout; (ii) upstream casts improve hooking abil­ity and (iii) avoid disturbing unfished water; and (iv) an angler can better imitate the be­havior of nat­ural insects.  Stewart was articu­late and persuasive.  His case was so convincing that nobody even disputed his con­clu­sions (a rarity in the an­gling litera­ture!).  Fly fishers simply adopted the new method, and, to this day, most casts are made up­stream.

Like many north country anglers, Stewart believed that exact insect imitation is not needed for success.  Pre­vailing fly dressing elsewhere in Britain stressed the importance of precise imitation, but Stew­art dis­a­greed.  Instead, he emphasized overall size, form, and sparse­ness of arti­ficial flies:

“The great point, then, in fly-dressing is to make the artificial fly resemble the natural insect in shape, and the great characteristic of all river in­sects is extreme lightness and neatness of form.  We wish to impress very strongly … the necessity of avoiding bulky flies.” 

Stewart believed that the single most important thing for success was imita­tion of a natural in­sect’s behavior:

“The nearer the motions of the artificial flies re­semble those of the natural ones under similar circumstances, the greater will be the prospects of success.”

Stewart had it right, and you would do well to adopt his approach.  Stewart’s spiders are not found in the fly bins of your local shop, but if you can tie a knot, you can tie his flies.  And, you’ll be fishing with a piece of fly fishing history.

Copyright 2020, Rusty Dunn

Stewart’s Black Spider

Stewart’s Black, Red, and Dun Spiders share the same basic design.  The Red Spider is tied of a red­dish brown landrail feather (substitute with quail or grouse) and yellow thread.  The Dun Spider is tied of an ash-colored dotterel feather (substitute with starling under­wing) and thread whose color Stewart failed to specify.  Tied in small sizes, Stewart’s Spiders are excel­lent when midges are on the wing.