The Classic Streamer Fly Box

by Mike Valla

Overview

“The dry fly, the wet fly, and the nymph all enjoyed cherished places in an angler’s bag of tricks; but all except the most opinionated will agree that streamer flies and bucktails; when properly selected and employed, hook more and bigger fish more often and in more places than any other type of fly rod lure.”

—Joseph D. Bates, Jr. Streamer Fly Tying and Fishing (1966)

Streamers, and hair wing versions called bucktails, are versatile patterns that can be fished anywhere whether targeting landlocked salmon on a pristine Rangeley region Maine lake, largemouth bass swimming among the lily pads in a tepid southern farm pond, cutthroat trout inhabiting swift, western rivers or hypercritical browns in the Catskills. In this valuable reference for tiers and anglers alike, author Mike Valla collects here for the reader his favorite classics that are not only important from a historical perspective, but also work well to this day.

100 favorite patterns including

Allie’s Favorite

Bleeding Shiner

Brooks’s Honey Blonde

Bumblepuppy

Chief Needahbeh

Colonel Bates

Edson Tiger-Dark

Fox’s Yellow Optic Bucktail

General MacArthur

Goober

Jane Craig

Missoulian Spook

Nine-Three

Parma Belle

Shushan Postmaster

Spruce

Supervisor

Thunder Creek Silver Shiner

Warden’s Worry

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811768856
Publisher:	Stackpole Books
Publication date:	02/20/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Mike Valla is the Northeast field editor for Eastern Fly Fishing magazine and a recipient of the Poul Jorgensen Golden Hook Award. He is the author of The Founding Flies, Tying Catskill-Style Dry Flies, and Tying and Fishing Bucktails and Other Hair Wings, and has published articles in Fly Fisherman, Fly Tyer, and American Fly Fisher. He lives in Cambridge, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Classic Streamers 1

All Orange 1

Allie's Favorite 2

American Smelt 3

Art Neu 4

Barnes Special 5

Battenkill Shiner 6

Beaverkill 7

Bill's Dace 8

Black and Yellow Bucktail 9

Black Ghost 10

Black Striped Minnow 11

Bleeding Shiner 12

Blue Devil 13

Bornholdt Golden Squirrel 14

Brook Silverside 15

Brook Trout 16

Brooks's Honey Blonde 17

Bumblepuppy 18

Bumblepuppy (Christian Variation) 19

Cains River Black Demon 20

Cains River Rainbow 21

Cains River Roaring Rapids 22

Catskill 23

Chief Needahbeh 24

Coastal Shiner 25

Colonel Bates 26

Comely Shiner (Variation) 27

Conger's Lassie 28

Dr. Oatman 29

Edson Tiger, Dark 30

Edson Tiger, Light 31

Esopus Bucktail 32

Fox's Black Optic Bucktail 33

Fox's Brown Optic Bucktail (Poison) 34

Fox's Yellow Optic Bucktail 35

General MacArthur 36

Ghost Shiner 37

Golden Catskill 38

Golden Darter (Original) 39

Golden Darter (Variation) 40

Golden Furnace Streamer 41

Golden Smelt 42

Golden Wilberding 43

Goober 44

Gray Ghost 45

Green Ghost 46

Green King 47

Hoag Favorite 48

Iron Color Shiner 49

Jack Cauchois (Variation) 50

Jack Schwinn 51

Jane Craig 52

Keel-Red Squirrel 53

Ken Lockwood 54

Little Brook Trout 55

Little Brown Trout 56

Little Rainbow Trout 57

Male Dace 58

Mansfield 59

Marabou, Black 60

Marabou, Fox's Yellow 61

Marabou, White 62

Mickey Finn 63

Missoulian Spook 64

Mitchell Bucktail 65

Muddler Minnow 66

Multi-Wing Streamer 67

Myers Point #1 68

Myers Point #2 69

Myers Point #3 70

Nine-Three 71

Old-Fashioned Bucktail 72

Owego 73

Painter 74

Parma Belle 75

Pink Lady Bucktail 76

Pink Lady Streamer 77

Pink Pup 78

Plymouth Streamer 79

Ray Arden 80

Red and Yellow Bucktail 81

Red Dog Bucktail 82

Red Horse 83

Red, White, Blue 84

Sanders 85

Schmidtmann-Valla Smelt 86

Scott Special 87

Shushan Postmaster 88

Silver Darter (Oatman Original) 89

Silver Darter (Variation) 90

Southern Redbelly Dace 91

Spencer Bay Special 92

Spruce 93

Supervisor 94

Tail Light Shiner 95

Thunder Creek Silver Shiner 96

Warden's Worry 97

Yellow and Brown Bucktail 98

Yellow May 99

Yellow Perch 100

Fly Dressings 101

Notes 116

Pattern Index 119

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Founding Flies At every level of the angler/fly tier's age and experience, this book was needed. It is what we have been waiting for, had we but known...Valla weaves a complex and fascinating tapestry full of the wonders of American fly development, east and west. He shows us these tiers' important flies in a compelling visual dimension and, at the end of the book, gives surprisingly canny and helpful dressings for each of them...It's a book to be returned to and browsed again for its pleasures and the celebration of that most excellent of objects: the trout fly.

Gordon M. Wickstrom

Praise for The Founding Flies For the first time, as far as I know, Mike Valla has brought together in one place an account of the major developments in the ways in which artificial flies were thought about, tied, and fished in the United States over the period from the mid-1880s to the late 1960s... In its scope and depth, The Founding Flies stakes a broader claim for Valla as one of the country’s leading historians of the art and craft of the artificial fly.

Bud Bynack