Black Dog

Like most dreams, reality lurks just under the surface. In this case reality struck soon enough. The original order was for 350 flies. We stopped at 342 when Mr. Grainger ran out of wall space! Three hundred and fifty fully dressed salmon flies. At four to six hours per fly (one, at best two per day), plus my other orders to fill, this could take years. We settled upon six flies per month.

If the fly plates were to be uniform, and they must be if the display is to be fluid, the frames must be uniform. The only way to assure that uniformity was to stockpile sufficient mat boards, glass, and frame molding to complete the project, two thousand feet of molding to be exact. At least there is a price break at two thousand feet.

My customer requested blind hooks with gut eyes. I have long preferred the Partridge CS10/1 Bartleet hook for my display flies but those are eyed. A few letters back and forth with Alan Bramley of Partridge and the result was the CS10/3 Bartleet Blind Eye hook. Silkworm gut was a bit more difficult.

Nylon leaders put the silkworm gut industry out of business. With no one pulling gut any more, existing supplies are all that are available. I had sufficient gut from old leaders and other sources for my usual orders, but where was I going to find a reliable supply for this sized order? The answer turned out to be -- from the silkworm.

Thus began a saga of which I will share the abridged version. I live in an area of extreme cold and dryness: frequent temperatures of from minus 28 to minus 42 degrees Celsius, relative humidity of 15%. Silkworm's preferred climate? Warm and humid. No Mulberry trees grow here. Silkworm's only food? Mulberry leaves. I did attempt to raise some silkworms on an artificial diet in an incubator. Had they lived (another saga) the individual strands of their gut might as well have been made of platinum.

Rescue came from fellow silkworm ranchers in the warm, wet, Mulberry strewn states of California and Texas. They sent live caterpillars through the mail (no child at Christmas waited more expectantly for a parcel). I pickled them and pulled the gut. The experience was very educational . (I learned a great deal about silkworms and gut),at times humorous (like the time my friend in California was questioned by the police who thought he ought to have a permit for collecting Mulberry leaves in a city park), and in the end successful. I now have sufficient silkworm gut.

Materials for classic salmon flies are (were, for that matter) neither abundant nor inexpensive. For the more dear materials I use alternatives. Some of those alternatives can be purchased (substituting Kingfisher for Chatterer) and some must be hand made (Indian Crow substitutes).

Obtaining even the most common material becomes daunting when a project of this magnitude is undertaken. Golden Pheasant crests are used as tails and toppings on nearly all classic salmon flies. On an entire Golden Pheasant head I am fortunate to find seven tails and toppings of the correct size and quality. Discounting the tippets the remainder is waste. You can do the math, fifty Golden Pheasant heads for this one order, if I am fortunate, which I am not. Since not all Golden Pheasant heads are created equal, I must order more than fifty, then cull to obtain those of quality. The up side to this is that feather orders of that size can be made wholesale.

All of which is not to complain. Because I am a full time professional salmon fly dresser I have many materials and access to many others. Obtaining materials is half the challenge, and therefore fun, of tying the classic salmon fly.

One of the joys of this project was tying flies I would not have otherwise attempted. My customers typically request married wing patterns. Tying the Grainger Collection resulted in my dressing all types of salmon flies: Dee wing, Spey, simple strip, whole feather, herl wing, topping wing, and grubs.

If you are ever in Wyoming look me up (I am the only Nolte on Trails End in Bar Nunn, Wyoming) and we will take a trip to Saratoga to see what is and will be one of fly dressing's more esoteric memorials: The Grainger Collection.

Marvin Nolte