Friday, November 4, 2011

The Famous Grouse Fly

One of my oldest friends, Bill H., sent me a ruffed grouse tail feather sometime ago.  A momento of a long ago hunt, he asked me if I would make a fly out of it.  I've always wanted to tie a fly called "The Famous Grouse" after my blended scotch of choice, and here was the ideal opportunity.  I knew I wanted to make it - from a feather standpoint - exclusively of ruffed grouse feathers.  I have a fairly healthy stash of those, having been a hardcore grouse hunter for many years.  Oh, for those years in the mid-1980's when I hunted 100 days/year over my little string of 3 great english setters!  LOL, oh to be able to  hunt at all last year or this year!  Health problems keep getting in the way.

Anyway,  The Famous Grouse (don't forget to double click on the pics to supersize):



The taill is from any part of the bird that looks good to you (I think I used a back feather), the hackle is an upper tail covert, and the wings are a tail feather.   I would use paired tail feathers in the future, but I need to make the wings on Bill's fly out of just the one I had.

The body material is some stuff I had stashed in a drawer.  It came as a freebie in an order from Scott's Fly Shop on Ebay (not sure that exists anymore).  It strikes me as perfect for this fly; I like the touch of claret that runs through the brown:



I'm pretty happy with this fly...it reminds me of a ruffed grouse.  I got pretty up close and personal with them for a few years doing grouse research in grad school:



Man, that was a lifetime or two ago, eh?   Well, it will be fun to find out what this fly does next season.  Looks great for trout, salmon maybe not so much.  Time will tell!




9 comments:

  1. Gary... Great fly! Tie that up in a size 12 to match the Slate Drakes. May even work during a March Brown emergence. Just plain fishy looking fly.

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  2. That is a nice looking fly! Y
    ou haven't changed much from the older pics, just a little more 'christmasy' looking!

    Best

    Eunn

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  3. Thanks, guys, and Eunan, that's one of the kindest things anyone's said about me in a LONG time, lol!

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  4. The Catskill FFC and Museum did a feature several years ago featuring The Famous Grouse.

    It was a popular feature with many flies entered.

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  5. Oh, I would loved to have seen that! I'll have to ask around about it, see if there are any photos, etc. Thanks, Alan!

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  6. Gary,
    This is all I could find. There could be more info out there.


    http://www.cffcm.net/exhibit_archived.htm

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  7. Thanks, Alan, that was fun to look at!

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  8. I have a lifetime supply of mohair so I am going to give this a try

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  9. Gorgeous work...it deserves its fame!

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