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I spent
almost a week to tie the Black Argus, one of the most complex and beautiful
flies conceived by the Major John Popkin Traherne. Thanks to the supporters of
the old classic salmon flies, which stay in touch through the www.classicflytying.com
web site, I managed to get a full set of Western Tragopan feathers, a very rare
Himalayan pheasant, because I wanted to face this tying experience, an
experience that many fly tiers define a tricky, stunning, and uncertain
adventure.
The Western Tragopan is strictly protected and its feathers that rarely a fly tier can find come from stuffed birds which are dismembered because attacked by moths and irretrievably lost. Mostly of these animals are part of collections with more than a century of history and for building the Black Argus are requested six feathers of the bird's chest, selected three for each side and in gradual sizes, so that the three white spots at the tip of each hackle are well showed on the fly wings. The price of these feathers is astronomical, but what really makes them unique, or rather real "bastards" as someone likes to call them, is their massive rachides, which it must be reduced through a very delicate surgical operation performed with a scalpel: needless to say that there is no possibility of appeal in case of error, as it requires a steady hand and a lot of concentration, without any impatience. If the rachides are not previously thinned and flattened, the feathers are really difficult to handle and they could not maintain their position when are overlapping. Moreover, a feather with a century of history is really fragile, because has lost much of its freshness and elasticity, and it is quite easy to break it. To be honest, I am unable to imagine which idea induced John Popkin Traherne to design a so complex and sophisticated fly and I wonder what he felt when he accidentally lost it on the river bed or in the mouth a salmon. It is reasonable to assume, however, that Major Traherne shared that theory which defined the most effective flies those rich of rare and precious plumages, and this could justify the extraordinary splendor of the great models that he tied during his brilliant career as a salmon fly angler.
John Popkin Traherne was born in Wales in 1826 by a wealthy family of landowners. In 1845 he obtained a commission as Ensign in 39th Regiment of Foot, and continued to serve in the army, reaching the rank of Major of the Militia of Glamorganshire, until 1865. Subsequently he held a variety of institutional positions typical of those who had inherited a large estate. Gentleman and really polite, in his career as a fisherman he tied a long friendship with the most bad tempered George Mortimer Kelson, the highest authority in the fly fishing field at the time, sharing with him the same passion for the salmon fly tying. It is assumed that this friendship had origin at the London Exhibition in 1883, but some argue that the two fishermen had already met on the banks of the River Usk, not far from Traherne’s home and where Kelson often loved to fish. Kelson was struck by the elegance and meticulous attention to details of Traherne’s flies and he described some of them in a series of articles published on The Fishing Gazette and Land and Water, introducing a selection of patterns also in his extraordinary book The Salmon Fly. This gave great prominence and popularity to the Major’s flies, inducing a growing number of fans to face their really complicated dressing.
The Traherne series represent the culmination for a fully dressed enthusiast. Without knowing the little tricks and the numerous tying techniques, the result of the most difficult dressing is bound to fail and the best way to avoid disappointment and frustrating is to ask the help of an expert, who can explain the importance of the proportions and the way to fixing the various materials to the hook. Some feathers need to be "domesticated", that means they must to be reshaped with a water immersion and slow drying, so to redesign their posture, as well as to others we have to "break the back": this is the case of the golden pheasant feathers, which are so essential for the tails and toppings of our flies.
Nowadays, it is not easy to find fly tiers that can build impeccably a fully dressed and even fewer of them are able to tie a Traherne flies without any slightest imperfection. A few people have this ability and one them is Mike Townend, for sure one of the best fly tier in Aberdeen and probably in all Scotland. The pattern of Black Argus that I managed to build is the result of a small project organized with my friend Mike. In practice, I contacted him to ask advice on how to prepare the Western Tragopan feathers and he offered himself to follow me step by step during the tying of the fly. We arranged all this thanks to the modern technologies, which allowed us to share our photos in seconds, as well to have video chats during the different stages of tying process.
The Western Tragopan is strictly protected and its feathers that rarely a fly tier can find come from stuffed birds which are dismembered because attacked by moths and irretrievably lost. Mostly of these animals are part of collections with more than a century of history and for building the Black Argus are requested six feathers of the bird's chest, selected three for each side and in gradual sizes, so that the three white spots at the tip of each hackle are well showed on the fly wings. The price of these feathers is astronomical, but what really makes them unique, or rather real "bastards" as someone likes to call them, is their massive rachides, which it must be reduced through a very delicate surgical operation performed with a scalpel: needless to say that there is no possibility of appeal in case of error, as it requires a steady hand and a lot of concentration, without any impatience. If the rachides are not previously thinned and flattened, the feathers are really difficult to handle and they could not maintain their position when are overlapping. Moreover, a feather with a century of history is really fragile, because has lost much of its freshness and elasticity, and it is quite easy to break it. To be honest, I am unable to imagine which idea induced John Popkin Traherne to design a so complex and sophisticated fly and I wonder what he felt when he accidentally lost it on the river bed or in the mouth a salmon. It is reasonable to assume, however, that Major Traherne shared that theory which defined the most effective flies those rich of rare and precious plumages, and this could justify the extraordinary splendor of the great models that he tied during his brilliant career as a salmon fly angler.
John Popkin Traherne was born in Wales in 1826 by a wealthy family of landowners. In 1845 he obtained a commission as Ensign in 39th Regiment of Foot, and continued to serve in the army, reaching the rank of Major of the Militia of Glamorganshire, until 1865. Subsequently he held a variety of institutional positions typical of those who had inherited a large estate. Gentleman and really polite, in his career as a fisherman he tied a long friendship with the most bad tempered George Mortimer Kelson, the highest authority in the fly fishing field at the time, sharing with him the same passion for the salmon fly tying. It is assumed that this friendship had origin at the London Exhibition in 1883, but some argue that the two fishermen had already met on the banks of the River Usk, not far from Traherne’s home and where Kelson often loved to fish. Kelson was struck by the elegance and meticulous attention to details of Traherne’s flies and he described some of them in a series of articles published on The Fishing Gazette and Land and Water, introducing a selection of patterns also in his extraordinary book The Salmon Fly. This gave great prominence and popularity to the Major’s flies, inducing a growing number of fans to face their really complicated dressing.
The Traherne series represent the culmination for a fully dressed enthusiast. Without knowing the little tricks and the numerous tying techniques, the result of the most difficult dressing is bound to fail and the best way to avoid disappointment and frustrating is to ask the help of an expert, who can explain the importance of the proportions and the way to fixing the various materials to the hook. Some feathers need to be "domesticated", that means they must to be reshaped with a water immersion and slow drying, so to redesign their posture, as well as to others we have to "break the back": this is the case of the golden pheasant feathers, which are so essential for the tails and toppings of our flies.
Nowadays, it is not easy to find fly tiers that can build impeccably a fully dressed and even fewer of them are able to tie a Traherne flies without any slightest imperfection. A few people have this ability and one them is Mike Townend, for sure one of the best fly tier in Aberdeen and probably in all Scotland. The pattern of Black Argus that I managed to build is the result of a small project organized with my friend Mike. In practice, I contacted him to ask advice on how to prepare the Western Tragopan feathers and he offered himself to follow me step by step during the tying of the fly. We arranged all this thanks to the modern technologies, which allowed us to share our photos in seconds, as well to have video chats during the different stages of tying process.
INSTRUCTIONS
From a string of small
twisted silk worm gut I cut a section about two inches long, I keep it in my
mouth for about five or six minutes, or into a cup of hot water, and I bend it
to realize a small loop. Then, with a small pair of pliers, I slightly crush
the ends of the silk worm gut section
I clamp a blind eye hook
into the vice and tie on the 140 denier white thread close to the pointed
section of the shank (in this occasion, for photographic reasons, I have used a
thread in tan color to distinguish it from the white one that I will use later).
With the thread I catch in the small loop of twisted silk gut length: this will
play the role of hook eye
Binding down the roots
of the twisted gut, I wrap the thread up and down the hook shank several times,
so to create a homogeneous underbody with a slightly conical shape
I change the thread,
catching in the tan one with a 70 denier white one, and trim off the tan
I stop the white thread
on the hook bend at the point that is exactly over the barb. At the very top
(12 o'clock position) of the bend I tie in the end of a length of extra fine
oval silver tinsel. But before fixing the tinsel end, I strip off a short
section of the metal that covers it, so only the core of the tinsel is tied
down. In this way, when it is covered by the thread turns, it will not produce
any bumps; make sure, however, that the last turn of thread catches the
beginning of the metal section of the tinsel. Then, with four open turns, I
bring the thread close to the eye, so to have more space to work around the
hook
I wind six or seven
touching turns of tinsel around the hook shank, stopping at 6 o'clock (hanging
vertically). I unwrap the four turn of thread and I catch in with it the
surplus of tinsel, continuing to cover the waste end of it wrapping the thread
until it is nearly over the point
I cut off the waste end
of the tinsel, then tie in a length of red-claret silk floss at six o'clock
(underneath the shank), with two tight, touching turns then four open turns of
thread
I make the tag with the
silk, wrapping it first to the tip and then bringing it back to its fixing
point, where I tie it at 6 o'clock (under the shank) after I have unwrapped the
four open turns of thread
I cut off the waste ends
of the tag material and with the stem of the bobbin holder I burnish the silk
of the tag. Before I do that, with several turns of thread, I create a small
lump at the right end of the tag, because it will prevent leak of silk from the
tag
I select a small
feathers from the golden pheasant crest and, in the case it curved shape is not
perfect as a tail of my fly, I keep it in a glass of water for a couple of
hours. Then I place it on a flat surface, like a plastic folder, I give it the
right bend and with a needle I separate and distanced all its fibers
When the crest feather
is completely dry, if I wish to give it a well definite cascade shape, I break
its back. In practice, by holding the tip and the bottom of the feather stem, I
rub back and forward its back over a sharp edge, something like a table top
I strip off the downy
barbs at the base of the feather and tie it to the hook, fixing it directly in
front of the tag, so that its tips extend upwards for a distance equivalent to
one and a half times the hook gape. Of course I unwrap first the small lump of
thread
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I remove the waste ends
of the GP crest and I select a good black ostrich feather, snip off a herl
which possesses very short barbs, and strip off the barbs at its base. I tie
this in with the thread, over the fixing point of the tail
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I wind the ostrich herl
four times around a short stretch of the hook shank to make the fluffy butt,
stopping at 6 o'clock, catch in and trim. Continue by tying in front of the
butt the end of a flat gold tinsel length at five o'clock. Thereafter, I mark
with a pen the body sections that I am going to realize, considering that the length
occupied by the next two body butts is generally one millimeter each, instead the
head needs about three millimeters
I wrap the flat tinsel
around the first third of the hook shank, making each turn strictly close to
the other until I reach the first pen mark
I select four Indian
crow feathers and I strip off the downy soft barbs they have at the base. I
place them back to back, so to have two pairs, and I tie them to the hook,
putting a pair at twelve o’clock and the other at six o’clock: the points of
their fibers must extend a little beyond the butt. It is important to leave a
space of one millimeter between the feathers placed on the upper side of the
hook, so that the wings can find a convenient slot
Now, another piece of
black ostrich herl is tied in to produce a second butt around the anchor point
of the Indian crow feathers
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After that, I tie in
front of the new butt a length of flat silver tinsel and I use it to build the
second body section until the next pen mark
I select four chatterer
feathers, whose size should be slightly higher than those of the Indian crow,
and I strip off part of their downy soft barbs. I place them back to back and I
tie in the two pairs at twelve o’clock and at six o’clock on the hook shank:
also in this case the points of their fibers must extend a beyond the butt and
I leave a space of a little more than two millimeters between the feathers of
the upper pair
With another ostrich
herl I create the third butt of the fly
I secure in front of the
third butt a length of flat silver tinsel and I make with it the last body
section
I select two chatterer
feathers, whose size should be slightly bigger than the previous ones, and I strip
off a small part of their downy soft barbs. I place them back to back and I tie
in at six o’clock on the hook shank: also in this case the tips of their fibers
must extend a beyond the butt and towards the hook point
Now I prepare the
Western Tragopan feathers, choosing them in agreement with the size of the hook
I am using, in this case a 5/0, taking care that the first pair must be the
bigger and the third pair the smaller
I strip off the downy soft
barbs of the first pair of Western Tragopan feathers and I cut off the barbs of
the other two pairs. I remove part of the inside section of feathers rachides with
a very sharp scalpel, so to reduce their volume and render less rigid and more
manageable the feathers. This operation is really delicate and must be done
with calm and gentleness, cutting very small portions each time. Making a
mistake now means to throw away all the work
I paired the two
opposite bigger feathers and I apply a layer of varnish on their bare rachides,
so to glue them together. When the varnish is dry, generally after one or two
hours, I place the feathers on the hook to determinate the position of the wing
and I crimp their quills with tweezers on the point I will bind in to the hook.
Then I bind in them just behind the gut eye and I apply a small drop of varnish
to the fixing point: I will use the varnish after I have tied in each pair of
the next feathers. Before I start to fix the wings, I replace the white thread
with the black thread of the same size (70 denier)
At the sides of the main
wings, I place the second pair of WT feathers: its position must be determinate
by the dimension of the hook, so to get a good proportion of all the wings
elements, with the white spot on each feathers well visible
I bind in the third pair
of WT feathers and then the tip of two opposite white barred wood duck
feathers. The woody should be a little wider of the base end of the last pair
of WT, so I can push down with the fingers and a drop of saliva their top edge
in a way to give it a curved silhouette that follows the wing bent
I tie in three toucan
feathers at each side, so to veil the wood duck. The downy fibers of these
feathers must be cut off with a scissor close to their stem
I select a golden
pheasant crest that fit the upper margin of the wing, I determinate its
dimension placed close to the hook, and I crimp its quills with tweezers on the
point I will bind in. If the feather has a not good bend shape, I correct its
silhouette with the same operation described for the tail
With a scalpel and a
sharp scissor, I cut off all the surplus of the feathers: I remove one stem for
time. I tie the crest just behind the hook eye, letting its tip just touch the
point of the tail, and then I apply a small drop of varnish to the head
I trim the excess golden
pheasant crest and I choose from the opposite sides of a red macaw tail feather
two long fibers and tie them at the side of the upper wing edge, so to
represent the horns of the fly
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With a new ostrich herl
I form a new butt around the head and I whip-finish it. I apply two coats of
black varnish to the head tip, so to complete the last step of the Black Argus
building
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MATERIALS LIST
HOOK: blind eye classic salmon hook
EYE: twisted silk worm gut
THREAD: white for the body, black for the wings
TAG: silver twist and red-claret silk
TAIL: a topping
BUTT: black ostrich herl
BODY: in three equal sections: the first, gold tinsel, butted with Indian crow and black herl; the second and third, silver tinsel, butted with blue chatterer and black herl; the latter at the throat only
WINGS: black Argus (Western Tragopan feathers), back to back, as illustrated, and a topping
CHEEK: summer duck (wood duck) and three toucan, one over the other
HORNS: red macaw
HEAD: black ostrich herl
EYE: twisted silk worm gut
THREAD: white for the body, black for the wings
TAG: silver twist and red-claret silk
TAIL: a topping
BUTT: black ostrich herl
BODY: in three equal sections: the first, gold tinsel, butted with Indian crow and black herl; the second and third, silver tinsel, butted with blue chatterer and black herl; the latter at the throat only
WINGS: black Argus (Western Tragopan feathers), back to back, as illustrated, and a topping
CHEEK: summer duck (wood duck) and three toucan, one over the other
HORNS: red macaw
HEAD: black ostrich herl
