Devil Crooks

[William Anderson]

These really are nice. I'll come back to see these again and again for a while.

There wouldn't be any trouble finding someone claiming dibs on a hare and partridge wetfly, but with a moniker like Devil Crook, that name really should have stuck. It will now. I wish I had thought of it. If you come up with the name of the tier, I'd be curious.

w

[Kelly L.]

Love those flies, extremely well dressed in my opinion.

[michaelgmcgraw]

I agree, well dressed flies !

[DNicolson]

A very nice Clyde style dressing, I like it a lot.
I have been trying to research on the Archive for 'Fishing Gazette'.
Not much luck so far, never mind, I'll keep trying, nil desperandum.

[Old Hat]

Thanks guys, I found out a bit more. It happens to be in a book I just received in an order from Amazon. Took forever by the way...months. I found the pattern listed in "A Guide to North Country Flies and How to Tie Them" by Mike Harding. This is a newer book...2009. He ties them a bit different with the wings as a clump of fibers and down low just above the body. However he states that he is just guessing as well. He lists the pattern as coming from "a Yorkshire fisherman, Stephan Braithwaite of Knaresborough" and listed the pattern as my notes said from the Fishing Gazette in the 1840's. He also didn't wax the thread and the fly is lighter in color. He states it fishes well as a March Brown and is also a good stillwater pattern. He list the hook sizes as 10-14 which is bigger than I've been tying and fishing them but I can see those sizes if a march brown or stillwater pattern is what you're after.

Ask and you shall receive, I found it quite amusing that the pattern was in here after this discussion. I had gone through all my other books and sources that I knew of to find more info without any luck. Still can't remember where I got the info in my notes. There is a lesson in there somewhere.

On the book side, I am enjoying the book. It is sparking some ideas and has some very nice information. It is a little spiral bound book and is organized very nicely by pattern style with each page dedicated to a pattern with well done pictures and pattern background. As I am not a historian on these old flies and I can't attest to the accuracy of the information but the writing is well done and Mr. Harding has a nice sense of humor.

[kacbo]

What a beautiful flies! ...and picture, too!

[William Anderson]

Thanks for the background. I'm not sure why I enjoy this subject so much, but I will add that but to the accumulated north country....documentation. I need to get a couple more books. I will look into that one. Do we know Harding?

[tie2fish]

Thanks for the background. I'm not sure why I enjoy this subject so much, but I will add that but to the accumulated north country....documentation. I need to get a couple more books. I will look into that one. Do we know Harding?

He and the referenced book are on John Shaner's bibliography of "spider" literature that I sent to you .

[William Anderson]

Bill, yes, that's where I know the book and name from. I already meant to look into that book, and forgot. Thanks. And thanks again Carl. Let's see some more.

[DNicolson]

You can find info on Mike Harding here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Harding
Strangely, there is no mention of his connections with angling although he has contributed articles to many magazines for a good number of years. Not surprisingly, he is keen on North Country fly fishing. If you read the wikipedia article, you seen that he has indeed a very good sense of humour, and the photographs were probably taken by him.