The Oriole's Wing...Finally

 Ask anyone that ever worked for me, and they will tell you straight out that among the many things I'm not, topping the list of "nots" would be "detail oriented."  That is in terms of things like record keeping and assorted other paperwork sorts of things.  I'm wicked into the details of whatever woodworking thingy I'm into at the moment, just don't ask me if I wrote down the plans for it.   I do try to keep some semblance of a record of what mat colors I used in a give framing, maybe even the dimensions of said mats.  But that's pretty hit or miss, I'm afraid.

Speaking of hit or miss, truer words never spoken about dyeing fly tying materials, especially if you're gunning for the color of record for a given (especially) vintage fly.  Case in point:  my until-today search for the right color dye or mix of dyes to tie the mallard wings of Ira Gruber's Oriole.

I nailed the color a few years ago.  Did I write down the the dye mix I used?  Of course not.  Nor, at soon to be 75 years young, can I remember what dyes were in the mix.   But as you can see in this photo I took for an earlier blog post, I nailed it back then, at least compared to Orioles tied by none other than the fly's designer, Ira Gruber and father and son fly tying experts, the late Wallace Doak, and his son, Jerry, who now runs the W.W. Doak fly shop in Doaktown, NB (wwdoak.com ).  Ira Gruber did his Atlantic salmon fishing based out of his cottage in Doaktown, too.   I need to ask Jerry if he ever remembers Gruber coming in to the shop.   Gruber also had guests like Preston Jennings and Charles DeFeo...wonder if they ever shopped there?  But, as usual, I digress.

A flock of Orioles (see what I did there?)

I've looked for a dye formula for the wing on Facebook, Speypages, The Classic Fly Rod Forum, and likely other places I've forgotten.  Gotten some good and likely suggestions, but none that had been tested and proven up to the task.  Reasonable suggestions, but none with a track record.   Gruber's grandson, also Ira Gruber, in his fine book, Ira Gruber's Atlantic Salmon Flies, lists the wing color as "Green Drake", as sold by the venerable British fly tying materials firm, Veniard Ltd.    LOL, I wouldn't be writing this blog post if Veniard still produced their Green Drake dye, color represented here in a vintage color chart that I robbed off a post on the Classic Fly Rod Forum.

Sort of a key point here is that, although noted by the authorities as the color, I've never seen an Oriole that had a Green Drake wing.   I've handled more  than a few Gruber-tied Orioles, as well as several by either of the Doaks and some other "name" tyers...not Green Drake wings.

I like to dye my own materials, and was fortunate to have awesome mentors like the late Bryant Freeman.  Some guys seem driven to take their dyeing secrets to the grave with them (fertile ground for some snide dying and dyeing comment, but I'll let it go); not so Bryant.  Another fellow, also no longer with us, was a fellow who went by Flytyer on Speypages forum.  Both knew so much, and gave so freely of that knowledge.  I hate to say it, but it fits:  that sort of attitude of giving freely of one's expertise and time, seems to be, well, dying.

But I digress (again).  Either alone or in concert with another dye (or two), here's what I used in my explorations and experiments to find the wing color:

I spent quite a bit of time (and $$$) to come up with, finally, the wing color I was looking for.  It is a combination of a lot of Veniard Golden Olive dye, and a little of Dharma's Sour Apple dye.  This is a mallard flank feather dyed with my new formula next to an Oriole tied by Wallace Doak.  Mission accomplished.

Cheers,

Gary

Shadow boxes - waiting to happen

 Winter is here; tying and framing season is upon me.  Although those activities had to wait until I turned this: (click on the pics for larger images)

into this (just north of three cords):

Since it's also fundraising season, the first shadow box framing I completed went into the Miramichi Salmon Association (U.S.) Christmas online auction.  Several years ago  I framed a set of low water flies that Stephen Nye gave me, so I had the background already in the computer, and I had built a bunch of the same size frames quite awhile ago to frame individual flies friends and acquaintances gave me.    Happy to report that the little frame sold for two hundred bucks.

I walk the Miramichi at least twice a day when I'm in camp - somewhat for the exercise, somewhat to watch Brodie run and run and run, but mostly just because I like to do it.   I'm always picking up small beaver cuttings that wash ashore, as well as pieces of driftwood, which are almost always pieces of lumber that got washed into the river and tumbled into our neck of the woods that I think will make, eventually, an interesting shadow box.

I like tying Cains River streamers and had a nifty piece of driftwood I picked up right in front of camp, so this is how they are all coming together for a framing for the MSA-US dinner in Portland, ME on Feb. 22, 2025.   The shadow box will have to be three inches deep!

  

Some time ago I went through much of my friend, the late Bob Warren's, fly tying "estate" with his wife, Linda.    Among all the amazing stuff Bob had squirreled away was one of those neat old clear Cortland fly boxes with the green felt in the bottom, which Linda gave to me.  It contained a bunch of flies tagged with the tyers name.  One of the compartments contained two Orioles, that popular fly of days gone by originated by Ira Gruber.  They were tagged as the #6 tied by Wallace Doak, and the #4 tied by Jerry Doak.  I sent Jerry a photo of the flies, and he felt that was correct.   

Well, I like tying Orioles (especially once I got the dye color for the mallard wing figured out), and I had what I think is a pretty OK #8, so I'm adding that to what I'm thinking might be the framing.  Oh, and I just happen to have little #10 or so tied by the flies originator, Ira Gruber.

I like to go to eBay once in awhile to see if there's anything of interest to me.  I like to type in "Miramichi River" in the search box and every so often something fun comes up.  Last week this cool little old postcard (you can see 1919 on the cancellation stamp as well as that it was mailed from Fredericton, NB!  The text at the bottom of the card reads: "Landing the Salmon"  Salmon Fishing Miramichi River, New Brunswick.

The pack of the card is as cool as the front!   One of the fun parts of this is that you couldn't buy a 2 cent stamp in Canada anymore because they also don't have pennies anymore!

So I'm thinking a framing with this postcard and four Orioles for some small spot on our camp wall.

I was quite pleased to be asked to create a couple presentation plaques for MSA.  Can't show the finished product until after the event, but here are the flies in each:

I love Ogden Pleissner's art, espcially has salmon fishing works.   I found a small reproduction of this painting, "The Bank Pool, Kedgwick River, New Brunswick, I guess probably on eBay.   I've got the mats cut, just need to make time to tie a few more strip wing flies to frame up.  It'll be available at some MSA event or another.

Over the years, and because my jobs, I got to know Thomas Aquinas Daly.  I can remember what a gracious host he was when I took my very artistic mom to Tom's studio too many moons ago to count.  I was particularly please that when I was working at fly fishing museum that he accepted my invitation to be a part of our big Spring weekend.  I think it was a successful visit by all accounts.  In 1998, Tom published a lovely book featuring his art - The Painting Season; the Art of Thomas Aquinas Daly.  I bought a pre-publication special edition of the book, and Tom, knowing of my interest in grouse, included this lovely little watercolor:

More recently (like a couple weeks ago), I traded Tom something for his still life paintings for a little watercolor wash that Bridget and I both love:

Nope, they won't be shadow boxes, but I'm looking forward to framing them for our camp walls!

My last shadow box project for the near future, for my friend John is, now that the Canada Post strike is over, waiting for his flies from his home in Canada.   It's a lovely print,  Night on the Restigouche, by Greg Pearson.  Greg gave it to John as a thank you for some time on the river they spent together.  Get me those flies, John!!

So that's what on my plate these days!  Hope everyone has a safe, sane, worthwhile 2025!

Cheers, 

Gary

A Set of Framings of Marc Madore's Flies

 As I mentioned in a blog post back in January, I received a large batch of flies by Marc Madore as he had sent them to Ronn Lucas, Sr.   I finished framing 6 sets, which will go to the Atlantic Salmon Museum in April.   That man could surely tie a fly, and I love the way he sent them to Lucas, which I've been able to preserve in the frames.  

Importantly, I bemoaned the fact that I was worried about how his flies and writing would survive over the years on a framers forum I belong to (www.thegrumble.com).   Got many suggestions about using UV-blocking glass or acrylic, but that stuff is above my paygrade.  A gentleman in Florida who owns Sunshine Frames in Jacksonville, FL came to the rescue with a great batch of leftover cut-offs of Optium, the state of the art UV-blocking acrylic.   The flies and messages are safe thanks to his generousity.

Here ya go (click on the pic for the larger version):

It will be up to the Museum to add signage to bring context and meaning to the displays.  Fun project.  Now just have to get them over the border without those guys trying to get me to pay duty/taxes on them.

Cheers,

Gary

The Flies of Charlie Krom and Keith Fulsher - Updates

 Several weeks ago, Linda Warren (fishing and life partner of the late Bob Warren) invited me to help her have a look at Bob's fly fishing estate, if you will.   We had a fine time, I think, opening cigar boxes and tub after tub of goodies.  Knowing of my interest in preserving the legacies of fly tyers who made a difference, she generously gave me any flies we thought would/should/could be preserved for future fly tying generations to ponder.   What she gave me will end up on the walls of the Atlantic Salmon Museum in Doaktown, NB, Canada just to ensure those future ponderings.   Bob had a long relationship with Charlie Krom and Keith Fulsher...far longer than I was privileged to enjoy their company and tying lessons.   I did a previous blog post on Fulsher, Krom and Warren.  Sadly, all three men have gone to their reward. Go here:  https://theriverscourse.blogspot.com/2014/03/fulsher-krom-and-warren.html

I also did a brief update on Charlie Krom's tying activities: https://theriverscourse.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-latest-from-charlie-krom.html

Keith Fulsher created the Thunder Creek minnow series and published a book about them.  Don't forget that you can click on the pics for a larger version of it!

Now we have a couple beautiful examples of those flies to care for:

In the book:

Known to every hair wing Atlantic salmon fly tyer worth her or his salt (I know there are other pronouns around these days, I just don't know what they are) , Fulsher and Krom's Hair-wing Atlantic Salmon Flies is, by most standards, the, uh, standard for modern hair-wing recipes.   It also contains a short history of what the guys considered the development of the hair-wing salmon fly.

I treasure my first copy (I have three; this one for the library shelf, and one at each tying bench in Vermont and New Brunswick).   Note:  they used to be expensive, now they are not.  Pretty easy to pick up an unsigned copy for twenty bucks or less).

I think it quite fun to be able to match a fly tied by an author with the recipe in their book.  (In this series of photos, there are penciled initials I wrote in next to the fly so you could see who tied it.  CK is Charlie Krom, KF is Keith Fulsher, of course). To wit:

Ooops, forgot the initials on that one; Charlie tied them both LRW's.

Some years back Charlie sent me this set of flies on a card with what he thought worked well throughout the day on a summer day:

Back in 2008, some years before he passed on (at age 95, in 2017), Keith published this book (and one that I really treasure):

Some of the flies in the book:

And one that's close to a book fly:

Late in his life, Charlie (who passed away in 2021 at the age of 91 and was still tying in 2020!) self-published a wonderful "book" (don't quite know what to call it; it is in a binder of sorts) that he titled Three Hackle Holographic Spey Flies.  And yes, I know, the classicists will say no way those are spey flies.  I agree with that, but I'd say when you're in your late 80's and with Charlie's street (OK, river) creds and tying abilities, I say he can call them anything he wants.  His hooks, his rules.  And I just hope I can still think, much less design a whole new style of fly and tie at Charlie's level (yeah, right,wishful thinking particularly right there, Gar.) if I even make it to my mid-80's.

Flies in the book:

And a smattering of Charlie's other inspiring flies built in his 80's:

I was really taken aback when Charlie sent me his "speyified" verson of my Celtic Beauty!

And a fitting fly to end this blog post:

And a huge thank you to Linda Warren for keeping all these goodies together and now making them available for the world to enjoy and learn from.

Cheers,

Gary