The History and Tying Techniques Behind One of the Sport's Standard Dry-Fly Patterns

The history and tying techniques behind one of the sport's standard dry-fly patterns by Joe Messenger It was during the days when B-17 s, drake pattern for trout since the late to serve in the U.S. Army, during World B-24s, Mustangs, and Lightnings 1930s, but had not yet settled on a War I. While in France in 1919, he roamed the skies over Europe and name for it, and he sent some of the received a serious wound. He eventu- the Pacific that a letter arrived for my drakes to Neu's friend, Ken Lockwood. ally recovered, and returned home at dad, addressed to "Joe Messinger, Fly When Lockwood recovered from his the war's end to resume his work as a Tyer, Morgantown, West Virgiriia." illness, he headed for Canada and some miner. He began tying flies before his It read, "Dear Mr. Messinger, Please fishing. When he returned, he wrote to military duty, and upon his return send me more of your deer-hair drake my father, requesting more of the flies from the war he continued fishing flies. The trout up in Canada. find he described as "irresistible."The name and fly tying with a renewed outlook them to be ... irresistible." stuck, and in the years to come, the and purpose. Americawas consumed byWorld fly became a favorite offly fishermen Dad's war injuries returned to War II and many of our country's world wide. trouble him in the years that followed fishermen were overseas fighting in that My father was born in 1892, and and he spent several of those years in conflict. Payne, Dickerson and Garri- grew up in the mountains and along veteran's hospitals, undergoing opera- son built fine fly rods then and some the streams of West Virginia. The tions and rehabilitation. He was no progress was being made in the field of Potomac River flows near the small longer able to work in the coal mines. fly tying. But, for the most part, the town of Beryl, where he was born, and Thedoctorstoldhim that because events of the war overshadowed any it provided a stimulating setting for his of the injuries to and resulting infection other achievement worthy of attention. early interest in nature. Many summer in his hip joint, hewould be confined to Art Neu, a friend of my father's days of his youth were spent on and in a wheelchair or, at best, he would have and a champion fly caster, had written the Potomac, both fishing and observing to use crutches for the rest of his life. to dad asking him if he had any new and learning basics that later provided But, dad had other ideas. The doctors trout-fly patterns that he could send to a foundation for the course of his life. released him and told him togo chase a friend who was hospitalized at the As a teenager, my father worked rainbows, and that's just what he had in time. Dad had been tying a deer-hair as a coal miner and was soon after called mind, but his rainbows were of the AMEIDCANANGLER------------ 54 finny variety. My father's earliest efforts at fly from the spool to rhetyers teeth and the He modified his old Hudson car tying involved bass patterns. Frogs, a tag end is taken around the hook shank so he could operate the clutch with a favorite food of bass, inspired a lure he and hair. Asingleoverhand knot isthen hand lever. He removed the back seat, created with deer hair, called a Bucktail tied to secure the hair to the hook. The built a fly-tying bench in its place. Live Frog (this fly is popul4rly knoum tIS the vise is rotated 180 degrees and the roosters were carried in a coop in the Messinger Frog.--ed.). The early part of threads (tag and standing ends) are trunk of the car, and, no matter how this century offered little in the way of crossed in front of the bunch ofhairand objectionable it might have been to the information or materials for fly tying behind the hook shank so that the roosters, he plucked hackles ashe needed and because deer hair was readily standing end is to the tyer's left and the them. When a rooster was picked clean available, dad made good use of it. tag end isto his right. Pressure is applied of its hackles, a streamside chicken Another bass pattern he created in laterally and down which locks the hair dinner often followed. the 1920s was called a Nitehummer. in place and compacts it, while also Dad made screens to fit in the It had a deer-hair tail, wings and separating the colors. The next bunch rear windows of the Hudson and in- beard, and the body was clipped deer of hair (darker color for the back and stalled a bright dome light over his hair. This pattern was the founda- white for the belly) is now ready to be tying bench. The light attracted flying tion of the Irresistible. tied on. About six bunches of hair are insects at night. They would alight on used to build the body for a size 12 the screens and Dad studied them and UNUSUAL TECHNIQUES Irresistible. The method creates a very made drawings of them, later at- compact and durable fly body. It also tempting to create imitations of them The method dad created for tying deer allows lateral as well as radial color withhook,featherandfur.Withtheaid hair was both unique and original. separation. of crutches ,hefished bydayand worked Bodies are tied by placing the hook in If you are confused, you are not on drawings and tying at night. In time, the vise vertically and with the left alone. I have attempted to explain this he was able to get around well using hand, holding the hair parallel to the technique to other tyers for years now only a cane. hookshank.The tying thread isbrought with little success. It's somewhat likeJ 55 -------MAy· JUNE1991 tying to explain to someone how to pat hackle and white abdomen has con- chances are very good that the fly was your head, rub your belly and whistle sistently taken more trout for me tied by my father. It could be one of "Dixie" all at the same time. (In a than any of the other colors. mine, but he was a much more prolific subsequent article about the Bucktail From an entomological stand- tyer than I am, so it is probably one of Frog, I will describe the technique with point, the Irresistible is certainly not his Irresistibles. graphic detail of the individual steps.) exact. But, that's notso bad. The Adams, Aesthetically, I think Irresistibles I've made a video tape that hopefully perhaps the most-often-used dry fly of tied with a dark back-and-white belly clears up most of the confusion. WHICH MAYFLY IS IT? In my father's own words, "The Irre- sistible is an imitation of an egg- laden female drake fly." I am not sure exactly which species of drake fly it is intended to imitate. The original pattern has brown deer hair tails and wings, blue-grey (dun) hair for the back and white deer hair on the underside. The hackle is a dyed claret or wine color. Later, he offered the Irresistible with a brown back and hackle and ginger back and hackle. all time, does not closely match a spe- are more pleasing than those that have The major drake hatch here in cific insect, yet countless trout have a body spun from a single color, but West Virginia, and the east, isthe green been taken on the Adams due to its more importantly, dad's tying method drake (Ephemera guttul4ta). The Irre- effectiveness.There are many flypatterns offered a fly with great durability. sistible does not closely resemble the that fit into this category. Spinning or stacking makes use of a natural in either shape or color. There is single thread to attach the hair to the a western brown drake that is chunkier TYING NUANCES hook shank through the length of and more compact than the eastern the body. The thread is then tied off variety, but Dad never fished in the The basicdifference between my father's with a single knot, either a whip West, so I don't think that would have original tie and those tied by others is finish or a half hitch. If the single influenced his choice of shape or color. the method of tying on the body. As I thread holding the hair to the hook Although I don't know the rea- explained earlier, dad's technique al- breaks or the single knot fails, the son for his choice of shape and color, I lowed lateral color separation and with structural integrity of the entire body do know that fishermen have been few exceptions, the Irresistibles he tied is lost and the fly can come apart. catching trout on the Irresistible for had white abdomens. Spinning deer My father's method used a about fifty years. I realize that if some- hair onto a hook does not allow this modified square knot to attach each one has a favorite fly,they will catch the lateral separation. Stacking does make bunch of hair to the hook. Smaller majority of their fish on that partern lateral color separation possible, but I amounts of hair are used in each bunch simply because it is used more often have never seen a contemporary Irre- because of the two colors that make up and with more confidence than others.

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