Are these William Blacker's Flies?

The two antique flies discussed here are alleged to have been tied by William Blacker. I use the word alleged as I know of no one who actually saw him tie them. I cannot find any reference to these patterns or even some of the materials used in them associated with William Blacker. My search has been somewhat limited and I've relied on friends for much of the information I have been able to obtain.

I first became aware of their existence through Charlie Chute during the Fly Tying Symposium in November 2003. He had been to the British Fly Fair just prior to attending Somerset and had been shown the flies by their owner Neil Freeman of Angling Auctions in the United Kingdom. Charlie was amazed when he looked closely and saw what he identified as Resplendent Quetzal peaking out of one of the fly?s wings. I was interested but had nothing other than the visual image Charlie was able to create in my mind. Early in 2004 I received a copy of the December 2003 / January 2004 issue of FLY FISHING AND FLY TYING, a UK publication, from Brian Burnett also of the UK. He had no idea I was interested in those flies or that I was even aware of them. Brian had also seen them at the Fly Fair at the same time Charlie did. The magazine was sent for an entirely different reason. When I saw the magazine I was immediately taken by the photo on the cover. Click HERE to see the publication. It struck me; this fly looked quite similar to the Spirit (style) Flies of William Blacker. In fact it finally put into perspective what Blacker?s flies looked like with their multi-segmented bodies that seemed so confusing in the dressings outlined in his book. The following text is the pattern from Blacker?s 1855 book The Art of Fly Making:

?No. 3. This is another of the Spirit Flies that kill so well in the rivers of Ireland and Scotland, at high water, particularly the Spey and Tweed. The wings are made of the following mixtures of feathers, each side of the wings to be alike: Brown mallard, bustard, wood-duck; a topping, scarlet macaw, teal, golden pheasant neck feather, a strip of black ostrich; the tail to be a topping, mixed with green and red parrot tail; the body is composed of joints, first a tip of silver, a tag on morone floss, a tag of black, a joint of brown, green and brown-red hackle, puce and red, green and yellow, blue and orange, with a tip of gold tinsel at each joint, a very small red hackle, and two red toucan feathers round the shoulder, and blue kingfisher?s feather on each side of the wings. The hook N. 6, and No. 10 for Grilse.?

A wonderful article titled The Blacker 15 appears in Volume 4 ? No. 1, Winter, 1992 of the on line Salmon Flyer, written by Mike Radencich where he attempts to interpret the 15 patterns. Click Blacker 15 to see it. Later editions of that publication contain a trilogy of sorts by Gary Grant where he examins Blacker in TYING THE NUMBER 3 SPIRIT FLY TYING THE NUMBER 3 SPIRIT FLY Part II and TYING THE NUMBER 3 SPIRIT FLY Part III
I would recommend reading all 4 of these interesting pieces.

When I finally got to page 34 where the picture of the second fly appears I saw the telltale Quetzal peeking out from the wing. Click HERE to see that fly. At that point I was pretty sure these were the flies Charlie had seen. I distributed the pictures and magazine information amongst my tying buddies via the internet and that garnered quite a bit if attention as to just exactly what were those feathers. There was a great deal of speculation but what was needed was a closer look at the actual flies rather than just the photos. Charlie Chute did just that. On a subsequent visit to the UK he arranged to take possession of the flies for a week where he was able to examine them extensively and photograph both sides. He was able to develop a rather complete description of the various materials with the assistance of Luc Couturier. Below are front and revers side view photos of the two originals taken by Charlie Chute:



Charlie began searching for the things necessary to duplicate the flies. He had agreed to make replicas for Mr Freeman in exchange for the loan of the flies for inspection. Neil had sent Charlie two antique hooks that were from his collection that were identical to the hooks in the old flies. Those hooks were sent to Ron Reinhold who duplicated them for Charlie and others wishing to recreate the flies. The flies are large, depending on which hook scale you use they are 8 or 9/0. Click HERE to see my Reinhold/Blacker hook. Bill Bailey created the proper color Pig?s wool and several friends all pooled our resources and came up with what we believe are the proper feathers and tinsels. Below are close up pictures of the various body sections on the original flies:



My next find, if you can call it that was a 4-plex picture sent by a friend. It contained the two original flies in question as well as two replicas tied by Michael Johnson. Not much was known about Johnson other than the picture had been around for a few years and he lived overseas. Shortly thereafter I found a Salmon Fly website built and operated by a Michael D Johnson, living in Germany. Following is an excerpt from his response to my original inquiry:

"Thanks for writing, but my first question is ?WHERE DID YOU GET THIS PHOTO????? I have to laugh as it is my photo from 1997! The two upper flies are from William Blacker and were loaned to me from Niel Freeman from England. The two flies below are the copies I made from them! As a matter of fact I have them both here next to me in a drawer!"

The original picture and close up views of the flies appear below:



Several people were interested in tying replicas of these two incredible flies. Finding the correct materials is really difficult in this case as I will be explaining soon. The first two were done by our Friend Paul Martin. The next fly, shown in front and reverse views was done by our Friend Tony Smith.



The following recipes for these flies were taken almost word for word from Charlie Chute?s hand written notes. I made a few changes and additions to help clarify them, he?s Irish you know. Charlie, as mentioned earlier, had possession of these flies for several days. Being extremely knowledgeable on materials and very meticulous he examined them with a magnifying glass and a bodkin making copious notes along the way.

They are as follows:

BLACKER #1 (Magazine Cover)

Tip (tag): Round Silver Tinsel (twist)

Tail: 2 Golden Pheasant Toppings (crests) w/ Red, Yellow, Powdered Blue Macaw and
Barred Woodduck as a Veiling See picture A below Macaw reference

Butt: Black Ostrich Herl

Body Sections: 6 in all

1st: Puce Floss, Ribbed w/ 2 turns Round Silver Tinsel, Butted w/ Cock?s Hackle the
same color as the Floss, followed by Fiery Brown Ostrich Herl, Veiled w/ Guianan
Cock of the Rock Crest Feathers See picture B below COTR Crest Feathers

2nd: Medium Green Floss, Ribbed w/ 2 turns Oval Gold Tinsel, Butted w/ Cock?s Hackle the same color as the Floss, followed by Dark Blue Ostrich Herl, Veiled w/ Light
Chatterer drooping down See picture C below Cotinga Feathers


3rd: Lavender Floss, Ribbed w/ 2 turns Oval Silver Tinsel, Butted w/ Yellow and Magenta Cock?s Hackle, followed w/ Medium Blue Ostrich Herl, Veiled w/ Light Cock of the Rock drooping down See picture D below Left Feather

4th: Claret Floss, Ribbed w/ 2 turns Round Gold Tinsel (twist) Butted w/ Light Blue and Fiery Brown Cock?s Hackle, followed by Fiery Brown Ostrich Herl, Veiled w/ Dark Blue Chatterer See picture C below Cotinga Feathers

5th: Bright Red Floss, Ribbed w/ 2 turns Round Silver Tinsel, Butted w/ Medium Green
and Claret Cock?s Hackle, followed by Fiery Brown Ostrich Herl, Veiled w/ Orange
Cock of the Rock See picture D below Right Feather

6th: Dark Red Floss, Ribbed w/ 2 turns Round Gold Tinsel, Butted w/ Dark Red Cock?s
Hackle and Yellow Macaw Hackle

Throat: Powdered Blue Macaw See picture E below various Scarlet Macaw Undertail Coverts

Underwing: Golden Pheasant Tippets back to back reaching to the end of the Tip

Wing: Strips of Dark Speckled Bustard and Golden Pheasant Tail (9 barbs of each) then Strips (3-4 barbs each) of Yellow Swan, Bustard and Gray Mottled Turkey having a Black Bar and White Tips, with a Golden Pheasant Topping over all

Horns: Scarlet Macaw Doubled and positioned mid wing

Head: Fiery Brown Ostrich Herl

Hook: 8/0 O?Shaughnessy Circa 1840 See picture J below a Reinhold duplicate

Notes on dressing:

1:Ribs are tied in on top of body

2: The Green Floss (section 2) is the only section that has 3 turns of tinsel on the far side

3: The Bright Red Floss (section 5) is the only section to have 3 turns of tinsel on the near side

4: The Tip (eye) of the Hook is upturned, much like one shown in Plate # XXII of A
Book On Angling by Francis Francis, edited by Sir Herbert Maxwell Jr. See picture H below for a copy of that page and picture I for a close up



BLACKER #2

Tip: First half; Round Silver Tinsel, followed with Resplendent Quetzal Herl See picture F above

Tail: Throat Feather from the Western Tragopan, (look closely at the photograph of the fly and you will notice it looks like a Topping but much sturdier just like the throat feathers in picture G above) with Red, Blue, Yellow Macaw, Barred Woodduck and Golden Pheasant Tippet all as a clump like veiling

Butt: Ostrich Herl dyed Fiery Brown

Body: First Half; Saxony Blue Pig?s Wool, Second half; Golden Yellow and Fiery Brown
Pig?s Wool equally divided

Ribbing: Large Gold Lace (3 strands of twist, twisted) followed with doubled Large Oval Gold then another of the Gold Lace

Body Hackle: Light Badger Cock?s Hackle dyed Red Claret

Throat: 2 turns of Resplendent Quetzal followed w/ 3 turns of Fiery Brown Cock?s
Hackle

Underwing: Golden Pheasant Tippets back to back extending to the end of the Tip Resplendant Quetzal on either side also to the tip

Wing: Light and Dark Speckled Bustard (8 or 9 barbs of each)

Sides: Jungle Cock reaching to the Butt and 3 Golden Pheasant Toppings (crests) over all

Head: Fiery Brown Ostrich Herl

Hook 8/0 O?Shaughnessy

Were these two flies really tied by William Blacker circa the middle of the 19th Century? I wouldn?t be able to swear they were but I would say they most probably were. One could make a slight case that Francis Francis tied them based on the hook. William Blacker and Francis Francis were contemporaries and friends that shared information and material. I would say if the hook had any relevance it would have been Francis Francis that supplied the hooks to Blacker. Could it have been Fitzgibbon that tied them? Maybe, he was probably Blacker?s closest friend. He was at Blacker?s bedside when he died. He was also an innovator of flies and styles at the time. They could have been tied by an unknown, prized student paying tribute to the untimely death of the early Grand Master.

Personally I really don?t think it matters much. They offer us two wonderful specimens of someone stepping outside the box. Using materials not mentioned in any of Blacker?s publications and certainly not known to be in general use at that or any other time. As I mentioned earlier, they certainly for me at least, took some of the confusion out of the overly complex Spirit Fly bodies. They also illustrate an unusual method of applying body veiling that I?ve not seen on any other fly. All I can really say with certainty is that regardless of who dressed them we are fortunate they survived.

If you have any thoughts as to their origin please contact me John@FeathersMc.com