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| This dressing combines attributes from two flies that Theodore Gordon described without naming. It uses rabbit underfur to match Theodore Gordon's use of dubbing that is "mouse colored," though much less "light bluish dun," particularly on dark brown thread. The dressing also pairs the mouse color of the underfur with the silver twist of the other dressing. |
Hook:
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16-18
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Thread:
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Dark brown
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Rib:
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Fine silver oval French tinsel
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Abdomen:
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Blue rabbit underfur
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Hackle:
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Brown, mottled partridge hackle
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Sylvester Nemes reprints selections from the
letters of Theodore Gordon germane to his study of historical soft hackles in
Two Centuries of Soft-Hackled Flies
(2004). Gordon mentions two, though he gives neither a name. In a letter to G. E. M. Skues dated February 18, 1909, Gordon relayed
some of his experiences with soft hackles: “I have tried the hackles of small
birds and from grouse, woodcock, snipe, etc., but rarely with much success. A
brown, mottled partridge hackle on a light bluish dun body, ribbed with fine
silver twist was quite killing.”
Similarly, in a letter to Skues written on
March 10, 1912, Gordon recalled “a very small fly with mouse colored body and
gray partridge hackle that killed well on slow streams, fished wet.” (This dressing has much in common with Dame Juliana Berner's Donne Flye.)
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