T. E. Pritt's North Country Spiders

[joaniebo]

Although I haven't tied many flies in the past 6+ months, a few days ago, I started again, hopefully with a goal in mind.

T. E. Pritt's book "Yorkshire Trout fLies" or "North Country Flies", depending on what edition you have, states approximately 60 fly dressings. I doubt that I'll ever be able to do all 60 dressings, but I'm about halfway through in my efforts that started several years back. Wish me luck, ok?

Cheers

Bob

[DrLogik]

You go, Bob! On behalf of the Soft Hackle Fly Tyers List (Last time I checked there were about 75 of us), I hope you get them all tied!

Pritt's book is awesome! One can find a pdf here:

http://www.fishingmuseum.org.uk/library ... s_1885.pdf

[chugbug]

Fun!

[moregrayling]

You will get them done my friend. Email if you need any materials and I'll see what I can do ...

[joaniebo]

You will get them done my friend. Email if you need any materials and I'll see what I can do ...

Christian

If you can recommend legal subs for Lapwing, Peawitt, Bluecap, Tomtit, Bullfinch, Swift, and Sea Swallow, that would be great (Just kidding!).

Bob

[Jim T]

Sounds like you're on track and enjoying the peaceful craft of tying. Keep going at whatever pace suites you best.
All the best of luck to you.

[billems]

Great to know you're at it again, Bob. I was just down in Viroqua, on the hottest September ever. Didn't know the Kickapoo was warm-water kaput, and didn't know the the region enough to have made it a productive trip. But I did think of you while down there. What would you be fishing at this time? Hoppers, beetles and caddis would be my guess for dries, Softies would be the plain old hares's ear soft hackle. All reports were in the negative, however. And The Driftless Angler guy was of little help, though I bought a bunch of overpriced flies. Sad about the Kickapoo. Landed many a good fish there, back in the day.

[ted patlen]

You will get them done my friend. Email if you need any materials and I'll see what I can do ...

Christian

If you can recommend legal subs for Lapwing, Peawitt, Bluecap, Tomtit, Bullfinch, Swift, and Sea Swallow, that would be great (Just kidding!).

Bob

HEN CHICKEN !!!!!!

[joaniebo]

Great to know you're at it again, Bob. I was just down in Viroqua, on the hottest September ever. Didn't know the Kickapoo was warm-water kaput, and didn't know the the region enough to have made it a productive trip. But I did think of you while down there. What would you be fishing at this time? Hoppers, beetles and caddis would be my guess for dries, Softies would be the plain old hares's ear soft hackle. All reports were in the negative, however. And The Driftless Angler guy was of little help, though I bought a bunch of overpriced flies. Sad about the Kickapoo. Landed many a good fish there, back in the day.

I've never fished the Kickapoo River Main Branch, too muddy amd deep. But there are trout in there plus bass, etc. Go to the Wisconsin DNR website and download the color coded maps bother east and west of the towns of Westby and Viroqua. Better yet, get a copy (free) of the Wisconsin Trout regulations where all 10,000+ miles of Cheese Country trout streams are shown. (No one should be upset by this as it's common knowledge!).

If yyou're camping, the Westfork Sportsman's Club is located right on the West Fork (or West Branch ?) of the Kickapoo. The Esophia Campground is located on the Bad Axe and both areas have many miles of trout water both up and downstream of thee cam[grounds (again, no big secret!)

Regarding flies to use, I've never been good at naming hatches, so I usually start off with my versions of a bunch of flies, namely: Crackleback (my dry fly version); Black Magic Spider; Flashback Hare's Ear and Pheasant Tail nymphs; Hare's Ear and Pheasant Tail soft hackles (partridge hackle); Edmond's and Lee's 8b March Brown; and an Egg Laying Caddis and Red Ass Soft Hackle (red or lime green tag and head, peacock body, gold wire rib and a partridge hackle). If these don't work, then I start throwing some of my MANY soft hackles and North Country Spiders . In addition, many years ago, "moregrayling" (thank you, Christian) sent me a picture of a Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle with the gold bead BEHIND the partridge hackle.... works great everywhere I've fished......same thing with a Hare's ear body with the beaad before the hackle.

Just a couple "asides": a few years back, I gave a bunch of my soft hackles to one of the fly shop's main guides (a friend). He emailed me that one day, he had a client out fishing and they were throwing dozens of flies and couldn't get a hit. He said "what the heck", put on one of my Partrdige & Orange flies, and finally started catching fish.

Secondly, the last time I was at the Esophia Campgounds, I met a guy who used to live in the Chicago area and when he retired, he moved to Montana to be able to trout fish. A friend of his in either Wisconsin or Illinois invited him to meet and camp for two weeks at the Esophia Campgrounds. It only took a couple days of fishing and now the guy wants to leave Montana and move to Cheese Country!

Cheers

Bob

PS - hope there's not too many mistakes in this post, my eyes are pretty bad this morning! SORRY !

[Dwight]

Bob, you forgot Landrail! I think yours is a truly worthwhile project. Will you consider posting pics of some of your favorites?

[joaniebo]

[joaniebo]

[DrLogik]

BOOM!! Nice work, Bob!

[Dwight]

Beautiful Bob, love those Dotterels! Hell, they’re all great..

[BigTJ]

A good tip on tying these flies I learned from an old timer is to tie in the hackle first, go back and run the body up until it pushes the hackle forward a bit, and then push hackle back with the thread to make and tie off the head. It doesn’t change the looks too much but it sure changes the effectiveness the hackle doesn’t flatten out in the current.

[moregrayling]

Outstanding, as always my friend!

[joaniebo]

Outstanding, as always my friend!

Christian, my Friend

If it wasn't for you, I would never have been able to get all the information and materials I've needed to do very many of the Pritt's / Edmonds' & Lee's dressings! Your guidance and information is what got me started and all the Ellis Slater materials definitely allowed me to tie most of the North Country Spiders in the past (many) years. Thank you, young fellow, and hope you enjoy "The Book".

Cheers

Bob