Norm, I've been a fan of your tying since the FAOL days. I'm really enjoying seeing your flies again.

I have several dyed starling skins, as well as a bleached skin. The feathers are no more fragile than a standard skin. I bought them from a guy who does small batch dying at a fly expo in Washington years ago. I looked on the packages for his info, but there was none. Sorry.

I really like fox squirrel dubbing. Not only is it really spikey, but you can do so much with it, or to it. A fav for sure. We have about 3 inches of fine dry powder snow on top of 2 inches of slush. Supposed to get down to 14 tonight and all the way up to 27 tomorrow. Thankfully the plows and sand ...

Hank, you crack me up, my friend. I just envisioned row after row of snowflakes, little helmets, packs and rifles, slogging their way to Dana's.

I used to hate bead anything flies. One day fishing a PMD flymph on the Lochsa River of Idaho, I was doing pretty well, pulling some nice Cutthroat up from a fairly deep hole. I was quite content until I watched a guy just downstream a bit just slaying them. Fish after fish fell for his fly. I walke...

John, wonderful, informative post. I always admire the flies tied by the old masters of the art. Thanks for the beautiful photographs of these marvelous flies.

I fish this fly a lot, but mine never, even on my best days, look that good. I'm like Ray. I'd fish it in a heartbeat.

Barry, I can only assume here, that the OP chose the Pearl Mylar because it's semi transparent, picking up the subtle hues of the underlying material, whether that's a bare hook shank, thread, etc. Personally, I think it works. As to the shorter shanked hook, I'd have to see a side by side compariso...

Ray, Try it, you'll like it.

Lovely fly, excellent color choices.