Monte, just for information, the Mess was built on principals
established at least a century ago by French fly-tiers. This type of fly
was almost never seen in North American patterns until the Mess but was
introduced by Datus Proper in What the Trout Said (1982). He called it
"the bent-hackle fly." The principal is the use of a very wide soft
hackle tied in at the front (one or two turns at most) so that the
concave side is forward (Proper showed it tied the other way). Often
this front hackle is backed up with a much shorter stiff cock hackle.
The Assassine by Jean-Paul Pequegnot (circa 1964) is one one of the
later examples. Gary improved the design (at least I believe he did)
with the foam overbody. The reason for this design was for fishing, you
guessed it, the difficult Green Drake hatch on French chalkstreams.
A small quote from Proper,
"Angling literature is full of references to the fickle behavior of
trout with regard to Greendrakes. Many of the traditional paterns
featured soft hackles of French partridge, mallard breast, or some
similar feather." Unfortunately Proper didn't really understand how the
fly floated, but that's a discussion for another day.
Cheers,
Paul
--
Paul Marriner
Outdoor Writing & Photography. Member OWAA & OWC. Author of Atlantic
Salmon, Ausable River Journal, Miramichi River Journal, and Modern
Atlantic Salmon Flies.
