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Tony Smith, the young, tall, good looking one on the right in the picture to the left, is as enthusiastic and talented as it gets in tying the Classic Full Dress Patterns from years gone by. One only has to read Tony's Gems to appreciate his wit and humor as well as the effort he has put in researching the obscure. Tony has suggested that anyone interested in participating need only to tie the fly or your variation of it and send us a photograph. There will be no judging or rating any of the flies so bribery is not necessarily an option. The whole idea is to explore new arenas and enjoy recreating a little bit of history that you may have not considered were it not for this exercise. Our goal is to get people to interact with tying Salmon Flies as the catalyst.
If you accept Tony's invitation, your fly will be displayed on this page with full credit to the tier.

The first fly Tony has chosen is George M Kelson's Purple Emperor.

The recipe as found on page 197 of The Salmon Fly by Kelson:

Tag---Silver twist and yellow silk.
Tail---Tourocou, strands of Summer Duck and powdered blue Macaw.
Butt---Black herl.
Body---Silver tinsel (oval, fine) with four turns of violet seal's fur at throat.
Ribs---Gold tinsel (oval).
Hackle---A silver coch-a-bonddu from butt.
Throat---A hen Pheasant dyed yellow.
Wings---Two Jungle (back to back), Widgeon, Swan dyed yellow, Golden Pheasant tail Tourocou, grey Mallard and a topping.

For those of you who have no idea what Tourocou is. This is the only pattern in fly tying literature (according to Paul Schmookler in Rare and Unusual Fly Tying Materials; A Natural History, Vol. 1 Birds) to call for this feather.

The violet, blue and green feathers come from the wing coverts and secondaries of the Knysna Touraco found in Southeastern South Africa. I found out the hard way that the violet color will leach out of the feathers if you soak them. I'm told local tribesmen used the feathers as a dye source. I would simply use crimson or violet goose as a substitute.