Stewart's Red Spider

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GlassJet
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Stewart's Red Spider

Post by GlassJet » Sat Jul 17, 2010 1:44 pm

Image

Tied on a short shank #14 using landrail substitute (dyed starling) and waxed yellow silk.

Crit welcomed, I have absolutely no idea what this fly is supposed to look like, so I made it up! :lol: The only pictures I could find were using hen hackle, which obviously is completely different!

Looks like it might move around a bit though... ;)

Andrew.
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." ~ Pablo Picasso 8)
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Re: Stewart's Red Spider

Post by letumgo » Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:31 pm

Yeah, that might have a little movement to it... ;)

Nice spider, Andrew. That fly looks like it will spring to live with the smallest of currents. It will probably be difficult to keep those pesky fish away from it. :lol:
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Re: Stewart's Red Spider

Post by tie2fish » Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:13 am

According to Nemes in his "Two Centuries of Soft-Hackled Flies", Stewart considered the Red Spider to be the 2nd "... most killing" soft-hackled pattern:

"The Red Spider should be made of the small feather taken
from the outside of the wing of the landrail, dressed with
yellow silk, and is deserving of a very high rank, particularly
in coloured water."

The plate of the dressing in Nemes' book (p. 41), however, shows a fly with an orange-red body.
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DNicolson
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Re: Stewart's Red Spider

Post by DNicolson » Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:13 am

You will catch fish on this fly, here is Stewarts recipe.
"2d. The Red Spider should be made of the small feather taken from the outside of the wing of the
landrail, dressed with yellow silk, and is deserving of a very high rank, particularly in coloured waters."
So! Stewart used yellow, but of course it was the most commonly used silk in the Borders at the time.
But that is not carved in stone.

Here is more on Stewart and spiders.
http://donaldnicolson.webplus.net/page174.html
Last edited by DNicolson on Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Stewart's Red Spider

Post by hankaye » Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:25 am

Howdy Donald;

Would the yellow thread have had a coating of a wax that would have given a reddish hue?

Interesting as red is the first colo(u)r that disappears as one descends in water. Granted it takes several feet but gone by the time one gets to 30' of depth.
hank


edit for readability
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DNicolson
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Re: Stewart's Red Spider

Post by DNicolson » Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:36 am

Hi Hank,
Actually, yellow goes a pale olive green when well waxed, an even more useful colour.
That's what is used on the "Greenwells Glory".
I haven't seen too many 30ft deep pools when river fishing. :)
Last edited by DNicolson on Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
GlassJet
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Re: Stewart's Red Spider

Post by GlassJet » Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:44 am

DNicolson wrote:

Here is more on Stewart and spiders.
http://donaldnicolson.webplus.net/page174.html
Hi Donald,
Would Stewart have waxed the yellow thread? That's what i did, hence the olive colour. I wasn't sure about the barb length to hook size... but it sort of looks OK! About to get out onto the river for an hour, so I'll put it before the ultimate judge... ;)

Brilliant information on your site btw - meant to say that in another thread somewhere but didn't get round to it. So thanks for that! :)

Andrew.
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Re: Stewart's Red Spider

Post by hankaye » Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:05 pm

Donald, the bit about 30' of depth was only to remind some that, when lake fishing for the giants that dwell well below the surface that RED being the shortest frequency of light will disappear first. Followed by the rest of the spectrum in order (ROYGBIV).

I was merely inquiring as to how the colour Red got into the name.

Cheers,
hank
Striving for a less complicated life since 1949...
"Every day I beat my own previous record for number
of consecutive days I've stayed alive." George Carlin
GlassJet
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Re: Stewart's Red Spider

Post by GlassJet » Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:37 pm

hankaye wrote:Donald, the bit about 30' of depth was only to remind some that, when lake fishing for the giants that dwell well below the surface that RED being the shortest frequency of light will disappear first. Followed by the rest of the spectrum in order (ROYGBIV).

I was merely inquiring as to how the colour Red got into the name.

Cheers,
hank
Hi Hank,
regarding the red in the name - the corncrake (landrail) is kinda red - or reddish brown. And don't know about where you are, but there are a lot of flies on my river that are reddish brown. And the ones that aren't tend often to be brownish red. ;)

As for red disappearing at 30 ft - I found that very interesting, I didn't know that. No - hardly relevant to my small stream fishing, but the reservoir I fish for instance is 150 ft deep at its deepest part! Very often down 30 ft plus...

Is there a rule of thumb for the fall off? when does orange go, for instance?

I was going to apologise for hi-jacking the thread then, but I started it, didn't I? :lol:

Andrew
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." ~ Pablo Picasso 8)
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Re: Stewart's Red Spider

Post by mvendon » Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:59 pm

Here's a pic of how Veniard's dyed starling compares to the real thing. The dyed wings are on top. There's one secondary feather on the lower right that I clipped off, and to the left of that they're all Landrail wing feathers. It's really pretty close in color considering that it's from a totally different bird.

Image

Regards,
Mark
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