Little Red Partridge Hackle; or Crimson Partridge

Thread:		Red Pearsall’s Gossamer Silk
Tail:		Pale mourning dove breast
Rib:		Fine gold wire
Abdomen:		Red Pearsall’s Gossamer Silk
Hackle:		Brown partridge from the back, tied so that the fibers extend just beyond the hook
		In The River Keeper, which Sylvester Nemes excerpted in Two Centuries of Soft-Hackled Flies, John Waller Hills gives a biographical account of William James Lunn, who dressed the fly this way: “Hackle: Feather from the back of a partridge, with fibres a little longer than the hook. Tail: Pale buff. Body: Red tying thread, ribbed with plain gold wire. Tying thread: Red.” Among the thirty favorite patterns he depicts on color plates at the front of Fly Fishing: The North Country Tradition (1994), Leslie Magee included No. 25, the Crimson Partridge, which he attributes to, presumably, a manuscript dating from 1887 and written by James Sproats Blades of Cotterdale, Yorkshire. The dressing is the same as Lunn's, excluding the tail and the wire rib. “Wings and legs Hackled with partridge back feather. Body Crimson silk.”