Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”
by Rusty Dunn
You fish among giants on a strikingly beautiful river. Mt. Shasta (14,000+ feet) is but 45 miles to your north; Mt. Lassen (10,000+ feet) but 35 miles to your south. They sparkle like jewels and tower over the landscape. Your attention, however, is focused on a different jewel of similar proportions. A 20+ inch wild rainbow gently rises just 20 feet from your rod tip. Blue-winged olives dance in the air. It’s an angler’s dream come true. Hooking that trout won’t be easy because the river is slow, glassy smooth, and crystal clear. Local trout, furthermore, are legendary for being ultra-selective. But you have an advantage. You carry a fly designed expressly for this hatch on this river by a local angler who was one of America’s most experienced, observant, and creative fly tyers. You take a deep breath and tie on the fly fatale, a size #16 Quigley Cripple.
Bob Quigley (1950-2012) spent his life studying and fishing rivers of the American West, especially California’s Fall River. He tied flies beginning at age 10, was selling them commercially by age 14, taught fly tying at a local shop while in college, and thereafter guided professionally for decades. Quigley traveled widely in the West, constantly learning what its great rivers could teach, but the Fall River was always his mentor and home water. It is a large spring-fed river nestled among active volcanoes in northern California and part of the largest system of springs in the nation. The surrounding volcanic terrain is porous and absorbs vast quantities of rain and snowmelt, later releasing it from underground aquifers as cold clear springs. Like many spring creeks, the Falls River is remarkably fertile, harboring large populations of both insects and wild trout, some of which are rather volcanic in size.
The terms ‘picky’, ‘spooky’, ‘wary’, and ‘selective’ only begin to describe Fall River trout. Its clear placid water gives trout ample time to inspect closely every natural or artificial in the drift. After years of study, experimentation, and considerable frustration, Bob Quigley realized that most Fall River trout feeding at the surface were taking neither nymphs nor duns, but rather an intermediate stage of the emergence. Trout keyed on a fleeting stage in which the rear half of the insect drifted below the surface and appeared as a nymph, while the forward half floated above the surface and appeared as an adult before its wings had unfolded (or were in the process of unfolding). Quigley then fashioned a hybrid fly – a chimera – to match the stage. His fly was very effective for picky Fall River trout and proved to be the prototype of a versatile and still-popular style of emerger imitation.
Quigley was by no means the first to conclude that trout feed selectively on intermediate stages of a hatch. By the mid-1800s numerous angler authors had described mayfly emergence in detail and discussed the importance of transitional stages (for example, William Blacker’s “Winged Larva” in Art of Angling, 1842). The 1971 book Selective Trout by Swisher and Richards was especially influential and focused angler attention on emergers. Quigley’s Cripple pattern in 1978 introduced a design nuance that is now the signature feature the Quigley style and is incorporated in many of today’s most successful emerger patterns. The wing of Quigley’s Cripple slants forward over the hook eye at about a 45° angle. The forward-leaning profile imitates the adult head and thorax (including nascent wings) as the insect crawls forward away from the shuck, which will be left behind. The pattern imitates a transient stage of emergence after a nymph pierces the surface film but before its adult wings fully unfold to an upright position atop the surface. Hatching mayflies frequently fail to successfully unfold their wings, with such stages often termed ‘stillborn’, ‘drowned adult’, ‘crippled’, or ‘stuck-in-the-shuck’ emergers. They struggle at the surface for a while but rarely fly away, whereupon trout feed on them selectively. Bob Quigley’s insightful pattern capitalizes on these accidents of nature. If you’ve not incorporated Quigley’s slanted wing into your emerger patterns, perhaps it’s time you were a little more forward looking.
Copyright 2022, Rusty Dunn
Quigley Cripple (Blue-winged Olive)
| Hook: |
Slightly curved dry-fly hook, #16 |
| Thread: |
Uni 8/0, olive dun |
| Tail: |
Tips of olive or olive-brown marabou feather barbs, length ~3/4 shank |
| Abdomen: |
Butt ends of the tail feather wrapped about the hook shank |
| Rib: |
Fine gold wire |
| Wing: |
Deer hair; about shank length and slanting forward 45° over the hook eye. |
| Hackle: |
Grizzly rooster |
Quigley Cripple (Blue-winged Olive)
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Last Updated: May 4, 2022 by Drew Kasel
by Rusty Dunn
You fish among giants on a strikingly beautiful river. Mt. Shasta (14,000+ feet) is but 45 miles to your north; Mt. Lassen (10,000+ feet) but 35 miles to your south. They sparkle like jewels and tower over the landscape. Your attention, however, is focused on a different jewel of similar proportions. A 20+ inch wild rainbow gently rises just 20 feet from your rod tip. Blue-winged olives dance in the air. It’s an angler’s dream come true. Hooking that trout won’t be easy because the river is slow, glassy smooth, and crystal clear. Local trout, furthermore, are legendary for being ultra-selective. But you have an advantage. You carry a fly designed expressly for this hatch on this river by a local angler who was one of America’s most experienced, observant, and creative fly tyers. You take a deep breath and tie on the fly fatale, a size #16 Quigley Cripple.
Bob Quigley (1950-2012) spent his life studying and fishing rivers of the American West, especially California’s Fall River. He tied flies beginning at age 10, was selling them commercially by age 14, taught fly tying at a local shop while in college, and thereafter guided professionally for decades. Quigley traveled widely in the West, constantly learning what its great rivers could teach, but the Fall River was always his mentor and home water. It is a large spring-fed river nestled among active volcanoes in northern California and part of the largest system of springs in the nation. The surrounding volcanic terrain is porous and absorbs vast quantities of rain and snowmelt, later releasing it from underground aquifers as cold clear springs. Like many spring creeks, the Falls River is remarkably fertile, harboring large populations of both insects and wild trout, some of which are rather volcanic in size.
The terms ‘picky’, ‘spooky’, ‘wary’, and ‘selective’ only begin to describe Fall River trout. Its clear placid water gives trout ample time to inspect closely every natural or artificial in the drift. After years of study, experimentation, and considerable frustration, Bob Quigley realized that most Fall River trout feeding at the surface were taking neither nymphs nor duns, but rather an intermediate stage of the emergence. Trout keyed on a fleeting stage in which the rear half of the insect drifted below the surface and appeared as a nymph, while the forward half floated above the surface and appeared as an adult before its wings had unfolded (or were in the process of unfolding). Quigley then fashioned a hybrid fly – a chimera – to match the stage. His fly was very effective for picky Fall River trout and proved to be the prototype of a versatile and still-popular style of emerger imitation.
Quigley was by no means the first to conclude that trout feed selectively on intermediate stages of a hatch. By the mid-1800s numerous angler authors had described mayfly emergence in detail and discussed the importance of transitional stages (for example, William Blacker’s “Winged Larva” in Art of Angling, 1842). The 1971 book Selective Trout by Swisher and Richards was especially influential and focused angler attention on emergers. Quigley’s Cripple pattern in 1978 introduced a design nuance that is now the signature feature the Quigley style and is incorporated in many of today’s most successful emerger patterns. The wing of Quigley’s Cripple slants forward over the hook eye at about a 45° angle. The forward-leaning profile imitates the adult head and thorax (including nascent wings) as the insect crawls forward away from the shuck, which will be left behind. The pattern imitates a transient stage of emergence after a nymph pierces the surface film but before its adult wings fully unfold to an upright position atop the surface. Hatching mayflies frequently fail to successfully unfold their wings, with such stages often termed ‘stillborn’, ‘drowned adult’, ‘crippled’, or ‘stuck-in-the-shuck’ emergers. They struggle at the surface for a while but rarely fly away, whereupon trout feed on them selectively. Bob Quigley’s insightful pattern capitalizes on these accidents of nature. If you’ve not incorporated Quigley’s slanted wing into your emerger patterns, perhaps it’s time you were a little more forward looking.
Copyright 2022, Rusty Dunn
Quigley Cripple (Blue-winged Olive)
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