A bit about the names of flies....

A little about the names of artificial flies

 by Wojciech Węglarski

                  Most American and British (+ Commonwealth) flies have standard names by which they are known and recognized around the world. It's as if they are a kind of corporate brands protected by a long-standing (usually) tradition. A consistent order in this area is found in the catalogs of renowned, primarily British companies such as Milward-Bartleet or Hardy Bros (UK), or Orvis (USA), and this applies to the years from the early 19th to, say, the 1940s. Later, this very clear picture slowly began to blur due to the progressive disrespect for the original standards involving the abuse of the time-honored names of certain bow ties by various low-end manufacturers or companies. It is as if the automobile market suddenly began to see Mermaids bearing the distinctive attributes of Mercedes or another BMW. Flies began and continue to appear that deviate more and more in appearance from the original standards, with a completely unauthorized usurpation of the time-honored tradition of these names. Let the classic example be the family of very popular bow ties March Brown, (the first description of its prototype under the name Dun Fly we find in 15th century British literature), when products called March Brown by some manufacturers or certain companies - appear to be further and further from the general standard of this fly. What company, so different March Brown - confusion with confusion! However, without playing with exaggerated purism, we adopt a gamut of local varieties, such as for example American March Brown, (that we will stop with just this example), whose bow tie appearance is very different from the traditional one, but the name honestly states that it is an American variety. In the decent fly market we have plenty of local varieties, which signal in their name that they are only certain variations of a well-known pattern. And so - in my opinion - it is clear and honest, well, and in accordance with the time-honored tradition. Slightly different, (or perhaps simpler?), acted some European companies, for example, in France or Italy, where flies offered in catalogs were simply labeled with numbers.                                                                                                                     

                   Before we move on to try to explain the genesis of bow tie names, let's agree that no rule will be found here, because there simply isn't one, because there never was one. Among - modestly counting - tens of thousands of existing bow tie names, we can distinguish a group of those classic (general) patterns that have become specific standards, and the origins of their names, for the most part, are lost in the darkness of history. Yes, for a brief example, because this group, is - slightly counting - „only” hundreds of names; let's list such as. Red Tag, Coachman, March Brown family, Invicta, Mallard family - and so one could list others for a long time. There we find many such flies, which have been developed (and successfully tested) by many well-known and highly distinguished anglers for world fly fishing. A few examples chosen at random, because it is impossible to mention them all.

                  Cholmondeley Pennell (famous designs such as Black or Claret Pennell - and many others), Dr. Baigent (The creator of the great series of dry so-called. Baigent's Patterns), William Lunn 1917 (famous Lunn's Particular and many others), R.S. Austin 1900 (generally known Tups Indispensable and many in them), Len Halliday 1922 USA (famous and loved to this day dry Adams). Covered with fame Halford (Famous behavioral performances of many dry flies - so-called. Halford School), Courtney Williams (Soldier Beetle, Welsh Partridge, Grey Duster - And many great flies), Frank Sawyer (numerous nymphs with notorious Pheasant Tail in the lead), or more recently Bob Church (Appetizer, Black Chenille - and many others), or Goddard with the famous GOddard Sedge Of sheared deer hair. And so more could be done, but let's dwell on that so as not to bore too much.

                  The ingenuity of fly authors seems to have had no limits! We have, for example, a plethora of flies containing information about their coloration tones in their names. So - at random - for example, we have Amber Nymph, Black Muddler, Black Matuka, Black Ant, Cinnamon, Red Spinner, Red, or Blue Ginger Quill, Mallard and Green, Cream Nymph, Yellow Sally, Orange Caddis, etc.etc.

We also encounter many names from among living creatures - from insect to animal. Here are some examples: Alder, Dragon Fly, Olive Dun, Blue Jay, Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear, Woodcock and ..., Mallard and ..., Snipe and ..., Corixa, May Fly, Damsel Fly, Hopper, Grasshopper, Stony Fly, etc.etc.

Slightly fewer midge names include „hydrological” elements. Thus, we have midge Bitch Creek, Mole Fly, Dee Lure or even Driffield Dun.

On the other hand, the vast majority of bow tie names are the fruits of unfettered creative imagination. Examples I do not even undertake to list, because I myself do not know where to start here; by the way, see for yourself, if only in the numerous offers from which the Internet swarms.

                   As you may have noticed before, the overwhelming majority of fly patterns (names) are British or American achievements (the latter only from the early 20th century) - and no wonder, after all, the British are the fathers of sport fly fishing. Thus, any attempt to promote names in native languages is doomed in advance - to put it mildly - to ridicule, to say the least, (vide the flies of our southern neighbors). Entering the Polish field, we once had clumsy attempts to polish by force the traditional and internationally recognized names. So we had attempts at various funny-sounding names, e.g. Bronze Marcs, which obviously didn't catch on, and recently we have attempts to promote disgusting and vulgar names such as Glajcha, Sleajzur or Delirka, we are being pressed into mini nymphs sonorously called Pedalki, and the less blatant Pheasant Tail could even be acceptable, although for this one we already have an established standard name Pheasant Tail, just so no one will say that I'm always attaching myself to something. However, if anyone still thinks I'm exaggerating, then let them, with an English dictionary in hand, start translating the names of flies into Polish. I suggest starting with the fly known as Bitch Creek....

                  At this point there is also an opportunity to mention an undoubted Polish achievement, although something similar could be found in serious fly fishing literature, namely the nymph beautifully named Bronze. In view of the monstrous amount of misrepresentations about it, I would like to state that it is the invention of one of the Podhale fly fishermen, in the group of whom were the late Tarada and his colleagues (their names I do not remember). I remember that it was this very group, on the so-called lower nymph, that several times angered the competitors at several Romaniszyn Cups in the 1970s. And contrary to what was once preached by the late Karol Zacharczyk, the Bronze - a modest nymph made of dark brown wool with a yellow undersized collar, looking as if a yellowish caddisfly larva was making a squat from its brown house - was developed and implemented among his colleagues by one of the Zakopane fly fishermen. And which one - I really don't know, so - unlike others - I won't make it up. Also, kind Charles - and this is, as it were, by the way - nymph-nets are not the invention of one of our colleagues from Zakopane, but an American product from at least the 1960s. I know this from the fact that in 1960 I received 3 such braided nymphs as a gift from the USA. Unfortunately, they were all lost in the waters of the Dunajec River. But if anyone would be inquisitive, dig around in Orvis catalogs from those years.

                        To do justice-since the 1950s quite a long time there was a company operating in Poland Fishing Equipment, for which cottagers (mostly from Krakow and Podhale) made quite good wet artificial flies There was a Resort Standard developed for this, (incidentally, swarming with both factual errors and common typos), in which we find quite pleasant and successful spoliations of some flies. I remember that in the S.R. store on Sienna Street in Krakow a long, long time ago I bought - among others - very successful wet Highlanders (Grey Drake ?), Skawice (March Brown Mixed green+yellow) and very successful Kashubian Jumpers (Red Palmer ?). I even remember the price at the time - £5.65 for a standard wet trout.

                   Back to the names. What more can be added here? Probably this, that with the current plethora of new fly tying materials, you will expect more and more fanciful inventions. And let's not fool ourselves - the race of companies offering ever more bizarre materials is just a hunt for customers, so bear this in mind, colleagues who are outdoing themselves in making patterns established by many years of practice more bizarre. I would like to warn you about one thing - let's not overdo it with materials, because how such as e.g. Mallard and Claret looked like in - say - 1920, it must look the same under its name in 2020. Because this name, (like, indeed, many other fly names), after the simply is a standard, a sort of unwritten patent, so tail = bundle of tippets, trunk = dubbed mohair claret wool, wrapper = oval gold (or silver), blackberry = claret rooster (or black in older recipes) - and nothing else! And if your imagination gets carried away and dictates, for example, a green blackberry or something similar, go ahead - the name is Mallard and Claret V. (variant, variety). And if we have the imagination to nail this bow tie cheeks (aka cheeks) made of jungle cock feathers (farmed capes currently available, though not very cheap), then there you go - we have Mallard over Claret j.c.

                           Finally, because it's time to finish boring the Reader, the above comments I tried to fit into a relatively small volume, because the topic is huge, hence perhaps many omissions and shortcomings. I deliberately narrowed the consideration of fly names to - conventionally speaking - trout-fish assortment as the most popular with us (and the world). I deliberately left out „pure” sea trout flies, salmon flies, sea flies, so-called lures (on the borderline of flies, such as artificial mice, frogs, etc.) and many tube, two- or three-hook solutions (Demons, Terrors, etc., pikeperch roosters or pike „flies”, because only there a horse in a row who will find some naming regularities!

 Wojciech Węglarski

 Sign up for Newsletter