FLY
The Wilson Fly
The Wilson Fly recipe
| Hook | Mustad Wet Fly 3906 or 3999, I used a size 10 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Orange, 140 Denier |
| Body | Dubbed orange synthetic fur or yarn |
| Throat | Orange Hackle |
| Wing | One green winged teal breast feather with a single dot in it, tied with the concave up |
About this fly
The Wilson series of flies included The Wilson, Wilson Ant, Wilson's Mormon Girl, Wilson's Red Ant, Wilson's Trout Fly, and Wilson's Trout Killer. The Wilson wing is not like the typical wet fly wing made of two matching quill sections, concave sides together, tied as a single vertical "fin" on the hook. This wing was quite unique, in that it was made from a single breast feather, usually teal, sometimes brown mallard, tied with the concave side up. This gave the fly a vibrating action as it is worked through the water. You can imagine how intriguing this could be to a fish.
In the old books
Original dressing as pictured in Kelson, The Salmon Fly (1895), Plate 3, No. 6. The photo above is a later tie, not the original.
Inside the vault every material on this fly opens to its own card, and you can save the fly to your own boxes.
