Flies In Stages is fortunate to have all the Salmon Fly Dressers that contribute. I am especially grateful to Sefano who has offered something literally every week since its inception. Below are his comments and thumbnails of the larger image available:

"I wish to make some comments about it: I like a lot this pattern which I think it is between the most beautiful Victorian Flies, together with the Jock Scott and the Green Highlander. The hook is, as usual, a Harrison&Bartleet 9/0 E by Ron Reynold, so it is a big fly."



"It is very important with this type of pattern to make very carefully the tapered underbody because the body is made with flat tinsel the first half and silk on the second. These two materials don?t forgive a badly made underbody, with bumps or other irregularities. I wish to suggest to everybody which wants to improve his skill to repeat every operation not perfectly done."



"I have followed the classic "recipe" from P.T.Tannat,except for the underwing in which I used three tippets also this time and for the topping for which I used four crests and not one. All these things are part of my personal style and so are not a dogma. Everybody is free to do like this or precisely as Tannat suggest or also in his personal way."



"A last consideration: everybody likes tiny heads on his flies but this is not easy to realize. It is obviously very important to leave enough room on the hook, free from material, and it is also very important to tye firstly the wings and then the throat. But this is not enough: I wish to invite you to consider an important factor which is the dimension of the hook. A wing is made generally by 7-8 married feathers sections of which each-one consists of 3-4 strips. Let say that we have 28 - 30 quill strips for each wing.

This number is the same for a small fly or for a large fly and so the bump you will have tying the wing is almost the same for a 1/0 hook or for a 9/0. This means that it is easyer to have a tiny head tying big flies.I hope this will help somebody."

This weeks fly in stages from Stefano is the Childers. He has taken great pains to show and explain how he tapers the underbody. It serves as the initial article in TAPERED FLOSS UNDERBODIES.

"Only a comment on the Childers: Pryce-Tannat require an underwing made with two golden ph. red brest feathers, back to back. I was not able to find them as long to fit a 9/0 Harrison&Bartleet so I decided to put many feathers tyed back to back with only the bright red part visible. I hope you like this solution."