gt05254
Well-known member
and some background on the fly, with flies by the Rusty Rat's first tyer, Clovis Arseneault:Gary
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Whatever floats yer boat.One of my favorite easy salmon flies is the Whale River Rat -- basically a simplified version of the original Rat (before it got chewed to inspire the Rusty Rat), with a peacock tail and body, grizzly collar, and squirrel tail wing. The fussy tinsel tip and rib are omitted, which saves a little bit of tying time. I spin a few peacock herls in a dubbing loop with the tying thread for durability; it turns the fragile herls into a sort of peacock chenille and is stronger than over-wrapping them with a tinsel rib.
An even simpler, quicker variation is to omit the tail too and substitute synthetic peacock dubbing, like Arizona or Ice Dub. Dub the body, tie in some squirrel, wrap a couple of turns of collar, done. It's not as elegant, but the fish don't seem to care.
Oh, this winter I've been tying fancier ones too -- rusty, silver, blue, green. (Also some similarly constructed Cossebooms.) But I can't tie them very fast, and in the summer if I need to replace a few in a hurry, the simpler tie is handy and effective.Whatever floats yer boat.
Gary
I believe the original Rat, as tied by Roy Angus Thompson (hence "RAT"), had a simple wing of mixed white and black hair. Clovis Arsenault used black-and-white grey fox guard hair for his Rusty Rat, and that has become the most common wing for the whole series of Rats today. I believe it was Charlie DeFeo (Gary: did you fish with him too?) who substituted silver monkey hair for a banded effect. Other substitutes include grey squirrel tail hair and woodchuck guard hair. The essential element in all the variations is the mix of black and white.Just curious but didn't the original call for Silver Monkey for the wing.
If you say so, but I think your flies are better proportioned than his.Keith Fulsher (Hairwing Atlantic Salmon Flies), and the lightweight of the group, me.