Dark Sinixt

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UC Steve
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Dark Sinixt

Post by UC Steve » Sat Dec 29, 2018 3:25 am

soft sinixt 007 (600x503).jpg
soft sinixt 007 (600x503).jpg (67.7 KiB) Viewed 2838 times
The Sinixt are indigenous to the region I live in & used to own & operate the great fishworks at Ilthkoyape (Kettle Falls) before the dams put it all under water. The first European to visit was Henry David Thomson who, in his journal, described the salmon & steelhead ascending the falls as "a flock of birds hovering above the falls, unceasing." This is an indigenous spider, the materials gathered from the back 40. The local trout like it. #14 Mustad 3366; olive Pearsall's silk; ruffed grouse wing covert; pine squirrel dubbing. Primrose silk gives the light version.
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letumgo
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Re: Dark Sinixt

Post by letumgo » Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:50 am

Steve,

After seeing your post, I wanted to learn more about The Sinixt people. I did a quick Google search, and found the following link and history.

LINK: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinixt

One section of the article reminded me of fishing with my father when I was young. The article mentioned “They chewed pine pitch like gum”. My dad taught me that too. We would find and chew spruce gum, when we would walk back in the woods of the Adirondack Mountains.

Anyway, your post resonates deeply, on many levels. Wonderful pattern and post.
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Re: Dark Sinixt

Post by tie2fish » Sat Dec 29, 2018 8:10 am

An absolutely lovely spider, Steve, with an almost life-like quality about it. That must be a very effective caddis fly pattern. Also enjoyed the Wikipedia info on the Sinixt people that Ray's link provides.
Some of the same morons who throw their trash around in National parks also vote. That alone would explain the state of American politics. ~ John Gierach, "Still Life with Brook Trout"
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Re: Dark Sinixt

Post by UC Steve » Sat Dec 29, 2018 4:21 pm

Ray, cool you looked that up. That is the kind of thing that makes this place far more interesting & engaging than the silly Facebook group peanut gallery set-up. Wiki provides a fair outline of the Sinixt, though (understandably) skims over the history of their demise at the hands of the U.S. Army. Civilized, intelligent people, they saw the writing on the wall early on & petitioned for citizenship so that they may take part in the American Dream. However, they were denied, then systematically destroyed & their lands plundered. It is a sad & all-too-frequent story. A commentary on American 'greatness', if you will. Though it may seem disconnected, those who are familiar with Virgil's Aeneid, a touchstone of modern Western thought, will understand the mythology behind the idea of Manifest Destiny.

Ironically, Virgil was paid in advance to write the Aeneid. He did write some good stuff about farming, & even a text giving detailed instructions for building a fishing rod, but I propose we reexamine & question the values & morality presented in the Aeneid.

As kids growing up in the wilds of western Massachusetts, we all chewed spruce gum. Wonder how many know about it now. Things have swiftly changed in our lifetime.

Bill, you guessed it. Back in the days when I mainly relied on indigenous patterns (Algrouse), I fished this one for a sedge. Looks like everything though. Orange silk could make a March Brown; claret silk, a passable Iron or Iso; tan or yellow silk, a Hendrickson...
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redietz
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Re: Dark Sinixt

Post by redietz » Sat Dec 29, 2018 5:20 pm

What a great looking fly. And thanks for introducing me to a people about whom I had never heard.

Am I correct in assuming that Henry David Thompson is the namesake of the Thompson River?
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Re: Dark Sinixt

Post by UC Steve » Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:10 pm

redietz wrote: Sat Dec 29, 2018 5:20 pm What a great looking fly. And thanks for introducing me to a people about whom I had never heard.

Am I correct in assuming that Henry David Thompson is the namesake of the Thompson River?
Bob, thanks, & yes, the Thompson is named for him. Thompson traveled & mapped much of the country between Hudson Bay & the Columbia drainage to the Pacific. He was an observant & detailed journalor, & the accounts of his journeys & the indigenous people he met (whom he got along with very well) are nothing short of incredible.
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Re: Dark Sinixt

Post by Old Hat » Sat Dec 29, 2018 8:31 pm

Reminds me of a wingless Devils Crook. Beautiful fly.

My mother grew up in Pittsfield, MA. She just told us how as kids they would follow the tar trucks and chew on the tar. Seems Spruce gum would have been a better choice.
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Re: Dark Sinixt

Post by letumgo » Sat Dec 29, 2018 10:04 pm

Steve,

Do you know if any of Thompson’s journals are available online? Sounds interesting.

I love the comments about switching out the silk color to cover a wide range of insects. Brilliant.
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Re: Dark Sinixt

Post by UC Steve » Sun Dec 30, 2018 2:24 am

Old Hat wrote: Sat Dec 29, 2018 8:31 pm Reminds me of a wingless Devils Crook. Beautiful fly.

My mother grew up in Pittsfield, MA. She just told us how as kids they would follow the tar trucks and chew on the tar. Seems Spruce gum would have been a better choice.
Thanks Carl. Yes, it does look like a Devils Cruik, & would probably fish for it.

Wow. My mom was a tar chewer as well. Haven't tried it though -- I guess it's the acquired taste of those who walked, shoeless, 6 miles to school in blinding snow. Our elders were tough people & black licorice was an expensive luxury.
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Re: Dark Sinixt

Post by UC Steve » Sun Dec 30, 2018 2:49 am

letumgo wrote: Sat Dec 29, 2018 10:04 pm Steve,

Do you know if any of Thompson’s journals are available online? Sounds interesting.

I love the comments about switching out the silk color to cover a wide range of insects. Brilliant.
Ray, there's a few books about Thompson in print, & I haven't read them all. 'Sources of the River' by Jack Nisbet is an excellent account of Thompson, containing many entries from his journal. Clean, engaging writing. I know Jack pretty well, he is a NE Washington local who writes a column in a regional publication I contribute to occasionally. He is the best living authority on the history of the Columbia Plateau that I know of. Looks like you can get a soft-cover from Amazon for about 13 bucks. I've read it twice. The first time I was so enthralled I couldn't put it down, so as soon as it was done I started over again, going slower & savoring it.

The guy who's story I'd like to get fleshed out is Colonel Carey, the transplanted Yorkshireman who 'invented' the Carey Special. Anybody got any information on him?
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