Cumberland; or, Crimson Partridge

Hook:		12-18
Thread:		Red Pearsall’s gossamer silk
Body:		Tying silk
Hackle:		Medium partridge
		In his treatment of Hills’s A Summer on the Test (1924) in Two Centuries of Soft-Hackled Flies (2004), Nemes cites Hills’s passing comment on the pattern: “One of the softest, most compressible, patterns is the partridge hackle, and, whether this be the reason or not, I consider it the best sunk fly on the Test. Its body, of silk, can be of many colours. I find the old Cumberland pattern, the orange partridge, best, and next to that the red.” By Nemes's account, anglers  on the Test seemingly drew little distinction between the red and orange bodies, although the Partridge and Orange has endured as a more distinct, popular fly for generations of anglers. In The Soft-Hackled Fly Addict (1981), Sylvester Nemes names the Cumberland, a fly which John Waller Hills seemingly only mentions in passing. Nemes notes that “Hills believed this fly to be the most effective sunk fly on the Test, particularly on hot days and in slow water,” and he provides this dressing for Hills’s fly: Body: Red or orange silk floss Hackle: Medium partridge Rib: Narrow gold wire Dressed with a rib, the Cumberland becomes the Orange Partridge that Harfield Norman and Edmond Lee list in their Brook and River Trouting (1916). In his River Keeper (1934), which Nemes also notes, Hills recalls a similar, ribbed pattern favored by the riverkeeper William Lunn, the Red Partridge Hackle. In list of his thirty North Country flies, included at the head of Fly Fishing: The North Country Tradition (1994), Leslie Magee attributes the dressing, the Crimson Partridge, to an unnamed 1887 publication by James Blades. Robert L. Smith includes the Crimson Partridge, one of James Blades’ patterns “taken from T K Wilson’s angling articles in the Dalesman magazine of 1949,” in an appendix at the end of his The North Country Fly: Yorkshire’s Soft Hackle Tradition (2015). He additionally notes that the Crimson Partridge is a “splendid fly in a full brown water from the beginning of the season to the end.” Many of the manuscript and publications that Smith includes list the fly less as a dressing for hot days and slow water, like Hills, and more of a dressing for discolored water.

Light Hare's Hackle

This dressing substitutes hare’s cheek for hare’s body fur.

Hook:		14-18
Thread:		Olive Pearsall’s gossamer silk
Tail:		Pale ginger Indian rooster hackle
Rib:		Gold twist
Body:		Light fur from a hare’s cheek
Hackle:		Pale ginger Indian rooster hackle
		In Two Centuries of Soft-Hackled Flies (2004), Sylvester Nemes shared patterns and angling techniques from John Waller Hills’ River Keeper (1934), including some patterns by William James Lunn, riverkeeper for the Houghton Club on the River Test. Nemes notes that “where cock hackles are suggested, I would suggest a very good grade of hen hackle from Whiting or Metz” and that he has “also taken the liberty of suggesting other replacement materials.” He suggests dressing Lunn’s Light Hare’s Hackle with “Hackle: Pale buff. Body: Light fur from hare’s body spun on Pearsall’s gossamer olive silk, ribbed with gold twist. Tail: Pale buff.”

Dark Hare's Hackle

Hook:		16-20
Thread:		Olive Dun
Body:		Dark blue underfur from hare’s back, thicker toward the eye of the hook, on olive Pearsall’s Gossamer Silk
Hackle:		Dark dun cock’s hackle
		In Two Centuries of Soft-Hackled Flies (2004) Sylvester Nemes includes a review of three books by John Waller Hills. The last of Hills’ books, River Keeper(1934), is a largely biographical account of William James Lunn, keeper of the River Test. In his own account of Hills’ account of Lunn’s fly tying, Nemes suggests using “a very good grade of hen hackle from Whiting or Metz” in any dressing “where cock hackles are suggested,” noting that he has “taken the liberty of suggesting other replacement materials” in giving Lunn’s patterns. He dresses Lunn’s Dark Hare’s Hackle: “Hackle: Dark blue cock hackle. Body: Dark fur from hare’s back cut up and mixed. Spun on olive silk.”

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.”