Well.... I don't know about her "first flies". I do see one fly pictured in the book about Carrie Stevens that shows an original Grey Ghost with two feathers and very sparse bucktail (no cheeks, pg 34). Most patterns call for 4-6 feathers in the wings. She was never taught formally how to tie flies. I believe she was self taught. She was a milliner at one time and that is what made her tying style unique. She used the feathers that were available at that time. They were no where close to what we have on the market now. The feathers we see on the market now tend to be a little "stiff" compared to hers. They are a much more superior product for most of our fly tying needs. That being said they probably don't "swim" the same. That may account for the discrepancy Peggy is seeing in her catch rate with Marabou vs the feather wings of today. The thing about Carries flies that made them so effective was that she used cement to build her wings and cheeks (in the same manner the millinery trade put together decorations for hats). That made the first 1/3 of the fly stiff while the back 2/3 of the wing wiggled and "swam" while being stripped in. It also probably helped to keep them from fowling around the hook shank when you fished with them as these feathers were much more "wimpy" than the ones we use now. She was very sparse in the bucktail throats and I believe (if I remember Mike Martinek's presentations right) she preferred goat hair instead of bucktail which is no longer available or is very hard to find the kind she used. There are some other substitutions that we use today on her patterns also. I believe the original Grey Ghost was tied with yellow polar bear instead of golden pheasant crest in the wing. Her wings were mounted on the sides of the hook but there is plenty of material topside to keep the flies swimming in the right position. Remember the hook still rides below and acts as a keel so you would really have to put a lot of bucktail on the throat or as in the case of the clouser some weight to flip it over. She also tied in hand (she didn't use a vise) so that may have contributed to her design or style of tying. Her flies look nothing like the tyers that represent them today. They look like they're meant to be fished with and they look pretty effective to me. The last time we had a Carrie Stevens swap on the VFB a gentleman in NJ/CT area used my pattern which was a large White streamer fly and caught a nice salmon. He was really excited and sent me an email to tell me about his fish. That was the best feedback ever! So they are effective tied this way.
Have fun with it Rene. Deb -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rene Zillmann Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 1:23 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [VFB] Carrie Stevens flies Hi, somehow on the web (I guess GlobalFF) I found an article where they described how Carrie tied her first flies. They write, that she tied in long bucktail as throat and one feather at each side of the hook. That sounds to me that these flies would swimm upside down. Todays style for these flies suggest, that todays streamer, which are call Cerrie for her name, do swim in the 'normal' way. Has anybody information on this? Rene
