Why are they Different?

The original Speys, Dees and Tays were distinguished mainly by the slender, long shanked hooks, the materials used in the construction of the body, hackle and the wing, and often by multiple flosses and tinsels used in complex ribbing patterns, as well as by the arrangement and alignment of the wings themselves. Of course there were exceptions to these criteria, but those came to be more in later flies, not the early ones. The main criteria I will introduce here in the introduction though is the wing arrangement and the long hackles. All of them were simple strip wings, to use Pryce-Tannatt's vernacular. The Speys however were winged with a pair of bronze mallard (usually) strips, humped low over the body, producing an effect like a "keelless racing-boat placed upside down." Dees usually had a narrow strip of cinnamon or white turkey, tied horizontally, splayed wide in a V, and Tays, the best way to describe them would be to send you over to http://nwflytyer.wordpress.com/ and look at Monte's rendition of the Black Dog.
Most of them used either herons hackle, tied as long as possible, or Spey cock hackle. These days heron has given way to smaller hooks and Blue eared pheasant as a sub, and Spey cock is now schlappen, our best guess at what Spey cock was back then. There was a certain group of Dees that even used eagle thigh feathers or marabou(from the marabou stork), neither of which we can use today at all. Fortunately, turkey thigh 'marabou' is indistinguishable apparently from the real thing, so we have that covered also.
I shall show examples of all of these styles, with exceptions eventually as time allows for tying, writing and posting.
For those readers wanting a complete, in-depth, up to date history with tying instructions, of the Spey flies, I urge you to visit the best site I have seen for this: http://nwflytyer.wordpress.com/tying-notes/an-introduction-to-spey-flies/ It has everything.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Quilled Eagle

George Kelson writes of the Quilled Eagle "I rarely use any other  "Eagle"  but this, though I sometimes dress it with a yellow instead of a grey hackle."  He lists himself as the inventor.

 The Quilled Eagle - dressed grey, as per George M. Kelson
 
Tag: Silver twist and quill dyed yellow.
Tail: A topping, and two strands of Peacock herl (sword feather) of Bustard and Ibis.
Butt: Black herl.
Body: Quill dyed yellow, leaving space for four turns of orange Seal's fur at the throat.
Ribs: Silver tinsel (oval).
Hackle: A grey Eagle hackle, from centre.
Throat: Gallina (spotted feather).
Wings: Two tippets (back to back) veiled with extending Jungle, a strip of Ibis and Bustard, and a topping.
Sides: Jungle (to centre of former pair).

The Quilled Eagle - dressed yellow, as per George M. Kelson



Tag: Silver twist and quill dyed yellow.
Tail: A topping, and two strands of Peacock herl (sword feather) of Bustard and Ibis.
Butt: Black herl.
Body: Quill dyed yellow, leaving space for four turns of orange Seal's fur at the throat.
Ribs: Silver tinsel (oval).
Hackle: A yellow dyed Eagle hackle, from centre.
Throat: Gallina (spotted feather).
Wings: Two tippets (back to back) veiled with extending Jungle, a strip of Ibis and Bustard, and a topping.
Sides: Jungle (to centre of former pair).

The same pattern is found in Hardy, but not in Hale, who lists only one "Eagle," the Grey Eagle of a Mr. Murdoch.  I have not found the Quilled Eagle mentioned in any other of the old Masters.