Stefano Farkas is as meticulous a tyer. One only has to visit his page in my FRIENDS section to see that. Click STEFANO if you haven't seen his work. Just about 1 month ago (Oct 2004) he sent me the first pictures of flies he had dressed. Included was this series showing the Golden Lady. He indicated at the time this fly was "My great favorite" (I can see why). It is tied on a Reinhold 10/0 Harrison Bartleet Hook. The fact that he supplied several photos of the tying steps was intriguing to me but also answered a question of minor importance. At first glance, when looking at the completed fly, I thought the first sets of tippets were inverted in that the curvature was flowing away from the fly rather than into it. I will get into that in greater detail in a forthcoming article on underwings. When I took a closer look at photo 1 I realized he had them inverted intentionally to allow the natural curvature of the tippets to follow the curvature of the tail and hook bend. The subsequent sets of tippets were then placed so the curvature flowed into the fly. The man truly is an artist with a desire to tie Salmon Flies.

Stefano's comment on the Golden Lady: "Clearly, the golden Lady derived from the Tippetwitchet which I have tyed before it. One thing I immediately noticed in the TW was the fact that is conceived in two different levels ( over and under the hook shank) while the usual classic concept requires an use of the upper part of the hook principally.

Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge the image.



With the Golden Lady I wanted to stress the concept of a double level with the symmetry of the wings, of the tails, of the shoulders, cheeks and horns which I all doubled. The result can?t be perfectly symmetric because we are conditioned by the curve of the hook and this is why I was obliged to tye the tippets in a unusual way, as you noticed."




The next set of "a fly in stages" I received from Stefano was the Popham. The Popham happens to be my Favorite Classic Fly in fact I use a Popham drawn by my mother as part of my business logo. Stefano included the following: "The hook is, as usual, a Harrison&Bartleet 8/0 long shank by Ron Reinhold. To substitute indian crow I used brest feathers of the B/Y macaw dyed on the tip with Veniard?s red."



A friend of mine made some flattering comments regarding Stefano?s use of Golden Pheasant including "I wonder if he would share his secretes?" which I passed along to Stefano. His reply was immediate and straight forward and I will share it with all who care to read: "Regarding the topping with GP crests, it is very simple: I just follow Mike Radencich suggestion in his book! I put the crests, dirty and dull, in lukewarm water and some mild soap for a couple of hours. Wash well with cold water and then the crests must lay on a piece of plexiglass. I put a big care on giving to them the right curve that must be a little flat. I don?t touch them until they are completely dry which will take some hours.
If I can give a personal suggestion I would say that the most important thing in tying a Classic Salmon fly is the tail, because it is conditioning the final shape: if it is too short or too long or with the wrong curve, the fly can?t be a good fly. I like flies with a low wings profile an so the tail must be at the right low level ( curving up only a little ) to give then a perfect ellipse with the topping. I am tying now in this way: my first flies were not well proportioned but it takes time to learn the skill and we must never be completely satisfied of the results or we will not improve our work.
Again regarding the tail, Mike suggest to use one or two long crests because they have a natural flat curve, more than the short-ones.I agree.
I hope this could give an help to your friend."