Luc Couturier, pictured at left, is not only a fascinating and rare talent when it comes to dressing beautiful flies; he is one of the most knowledgeable people I know regarding the feathers we use to make them. He not only knows the Latin names, he is quite aware of the uniqueness of each subspecies. He understands feather structure and how it varies from place to place on the bird itself. He is attuned to the declining and shifting of bird populations due to human encroachment and habitat destruction.

We have spent hours on the phone with me being mesmerized by listening to him explain about the various birds. It doesn?t stop there though; he spends an equal amount of time studying and learning about the antique flies and materials that went into them. Luc has studied the trade routes and the exploration data of the tropical jungles for the time periods covering the 19th Century master tyers. My hope is someday he will make all of his knowledge available, to everyone, via a book.

If you haven?t guessed by know, I?m truly amazed, by Luc and his talent, knowledge and skill as a fly dresser. I value our friendship beyond words. To see a little of his abilities, click on the thumbnails below. The first flies are Luc?s ties based on flies created by the Late, Major John Popkin Traherne. Considered by many to be the ultimate fly designer and dresser from the 19th century. Luc has completed Traherne?s documented corpus, composed of of 28 flies, in 2001

September 12 2005 Luc has finally sent a Biography:

"Flytying, fly fishing are words that evoke rich and enticing memories in my mind. At a very young age, I remember accompanying my uncle to his favorite fishing spots. Anyone- and even before getting their waders wet- who had the privilege of accessing a special portion of ?his river?, of challenging an unconquered but earthy rapid, and of deliberating on the paradisiastic nature of a remote pond, would have to swear a full engagement to secrecy on the location we were fishing. Coveting the fish was an honorable mission. My uncle was very passionate about the sport and I believe I inherited some of the qualities of his love of nature. The romantic reminiscences I have of that period still nourish my attachment to fly fishing and fly tying.


Where I lived, rivers were easily accessible and exuberantly promising. Trout monopolized our attention all year but particularly during the summer months. At dawn or after supper, we would feverishly get to the river and dream endlessly of big trout and strategies to catch them. If fulfillment never came, our dreams were never scattered. Rather, they were intensified. Our passage in the river was animated by febrile anxiety and charm; it brought us calmness then and, more and more today, a vivid sense of appreciation for the good things in life.


As an adult, when I go back to the rivers I fished as a kid, I find continuity in my precocious enchantments. Somehow, all the great rivers I still fish have somehow become intimately visceral. In a way, I?m part of them as they are part of me. Every summer, I travel back to these rivers I cherish- The Green River, The Iroquois, The Quisibis, The Kedgwick ? as a believer on a pilgrimage. My fascination for these rivers remains unaltered.


I was born in Edmundston, New-Brunswick (Canada), a small industrial city bordering The Province of Quebec and The State of Maine. The infancy of my relation to hooks and feathers goes back to the age of nine, year I fabricated my first fly. The connection to the matter was instantaneous and, in a sense, definitive. Ever since that initial moment, and through many periods in my life- even when flytying was momentarily suspended- my relation to feathers has never ceased to increase and still remains profoundly attractive.


If I look back at my first experiences if flytying, as a self-taught fly tier, I recall my avidity to learn but also the constraints of many frustrations. At that time, my curiosity yielded on articles and books by such figures as Art Flick and Helen Shaw, for which I still have some tender admiration. Poul Jourgenson, in a way, with his Salmon Flies, opened my mind to a sector of flytying for which I had very little knowledge: the ?Traditional Featherwing Salmon Fly?. Constantly unsatisfied, I learned early in my young teen years that my patience would be tested and its flaws continually measured. Even then, I felt as honorable my defiance to master the supposedly complex procedures implied in the construction of a traditional salmon fly. I tied a few flies but the lack of viable instructions partially turned down my aspirations at the time. I put my salmon fly projects on ice and went back to basic wet flies, dry flies, nymphs, streamers and bucktails for my fishing needs.


Oh!, how I wish I would have met an interesting and interested fellow flytier willing to clear a few principles for me. I had knocked at many doors but I was most of the time confronted to some mysterious and destabilizing secrecy surrounding exotic feathers and bizarre concoctions of rare materials. In the early 1990?s, through an happy but unexpected finding of an old catalogue a friend fisherman had given to me a few years back, I spoke to Bryant ? We do our own dye jobs? Freeman of Eskape Anglers, in Riverview New-Brunswick. Ever since that exchange over the phone, me and Bryant have been Friends and I regularly visit him. We go fishing and tie some flies. I owe a great deal to him and I full of recognition towards the confidence he had in me and I thank him dearly for procuring me only the best materials. Either for his historical or technical knowledge, for his ?environmental? insights on the activity of fly fishing and the preservation of our natural resources, Bryant is an inalterable source of inspiration in my tying and the origin of many joyful moments. My utmost gratitude goes to him.


After a couple of years of attempting- but for long periods only sporadically- to master a certain number of ?techniques?, reading books and tying flies from Pryce-Tannatt, Kelson, Hale, Cholmodely-Pennell, and when I felt enough at ease with my knowledge of feathers, after reading ornithological works and flytying books, I decided to approach the work of the respectable Major John Popkin Traherne. I believe that the Major truly created a new notion of what a salmon fly could look like and what it would partly become in our time. In his singular fashion of dressing , Traherne redefined a new esthetics of flytying.


Dressing Traherne patterns implies a precise disposition of attention, and scrutiny to details. Was the Major so precise in his tying? He must have had some kind of natural propensity for meticulousness of detail and harmony of forms and colors. For one thing, it may have been the first time in flytying history, in a systematic way, that feathers were placed in such a mode that they?re entirely seen on their good side. In the case of Traherne, esthetics and functionality are proeminent. A friend fly tier from Europe advanced the notion that Traherne used mostly ?leftover? feathers for most of his corpus of twenty-eight flies. It?s a very pertinent proposition as, after the fishing flies were tied, using a certain number of feathers from a particular bird, some of the bigger feathers were left unused. Traherne recuperated those feathers in a very constructive and inventive fashion. A True Conservationist!


With Traherne, fly dressing gained sense in its definition: creativity could complement and enhance functionality , but it could also transcend it and even become independent of the raw function of killing fish. The legacy of Traherne is easily discernable today, directly or indirectly, through the creations of many contemporary 20th and 21st Century fly tiers. If Traherne had pursued his list of patterns, I wonder what these flies would have looked like? Through the limited number of feathers(most readily available) he used in the construction of his corpus, it would be possible for an imaginative tier to pursue the realm of Traherne?s inspiration. Traherne?s work permits that openness and assures perenity. But still so many questions emerge from any type of insertion in the Major?s work: why did he make a certain number of flies and stopped?; did he consider his investment, in whatever goal he had, as complete? So many answers that can only find credibility and value within a broader questioning of the Major?s historical period and personal background.


For myself, flytying remains a game of thread control. I?m fascinated and sometimes overwhelmed by other tier?s work. I believe in style and the judgments I make about my flies as well as other tier?s work is primarily based on the criteria of meticulousness of the finish, the value of the effort put in surpassing some technical difficulties, and not on the use of certain rare feathers. I like to feel consequent in my use of exotic materials. When I felt I wasn?t ready to use Toucan or Speckled Bustard, I didn?t . If a certain tradition has to be nourished, sustained and embellished, no feathers should in any way be ?scrapped?. But this a debate in which I prefer not to instigate myself. Many schools of thought animate our fraternity and I respect all their singular pretensions.

As for attention to details, I think of Albert Cohen as one of the best fly dressers of our era. I had the chance to talk to him a couple of years ago. I was curious to know, amongst other things, how he built his married wings and attached them on the hook. He diligently sent me a letters explaining his technique, supported by drawings and photos of beautiful flies. I?m grateful to him and felt profoundly saddened by his death. To me, Albert Cohen represents the ?summum? in scrutiny to detail and precise dexterity. His legacy is undeniable and his influence considerable in the fly tying community. As for Charles Defeo, Syd Glasso, Paul Schmookler and Ken Sawada?s work who keep impressing immensely.

I consider my posture and presence at the vise as very ritualistic. The time passed at my tying bench is of the highest quality, time when I truly feel absorbed in my concentrated mind, where I feel free. I?m never in a hurry to finish a fly and no imperative imposes my means. I may tie a part of a fly one day and a week later or so, attach an other part it. Like Albert Cohen once said: ?Finishing a fly is an instantaneous moment. It?s the process of getting there that is the most rewarding?. (Judith Dunham, The Atlantic Salmon Fly, p.92). Through the progression in the dressing of John Popkin Traherne?s corpus, my interest for it got more exhaustive than I could have ever suspected. I had been experimenting with hook making for the past two years and for the purpose of integrity in my engagement for the Traherne series, I designed a model of hook that fitted the requirements of my style. For every new fly I dress, I attempt to improve the quality of my work. Precision, precision, precision.


Flytying implies a great knowledge of birds and feathers. My philosophy is simple yet heuristic in its apprehension: if your advancing in your process of learning about birds and feathers and feel that you are not content and satisfied with your progress achievements, then you should at least resolve yourself to temporarily focus on tying great bodies. You will be challenged to your limits at this state.


Acquired through a multitude of reasoning deliriums at the vise and in the river, I leave the compliant reader with these interrogations that insist with their invading persistence. When Traherne designed his flies, what were the characteristics he was looking for in the feathers he used: color, form, symbolic value? If the latter applies, somehow, could it be that one of the only elements that links Traherne?s era to ours- as his style differs radically from his predecessors ? is the use of specific feathers like Indian Crow, Toucan, Blue Chatterer to name some of the more common ones? Could it be that the fascination that evokes Indian Crow today has not very much evolved in the perception we have, and have had of it? Lastly, and specifically in the flytying field, could the emulation that we have today for Traherne be profoundly linked to our attachment to rare materials?


My main interest and devotion these days- apart from my ornithological propensions- implies a notion that I have developed and named Thematical Flies. I will attempt, in an article soon to come, to advance a number of concepts that may produce some satisfactory definition points and references of that notion. I believe that the creative mood, and bases of Bird Studies implied by the notion of Thematical Flies, may reveal a number of interesting potentialities for the fly dressers who wish to attempt some challenging work in the realm of, and in continuity with the Shannon tradition of Fly Dressing absorbed by the iconic figure of the great Major John Popkin Traherne."


Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge them.They are:

No. 1A The Nepenthian [Thin Version] (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: July 26th, 1884)
No. 1B The Nepenthian [Thick Version] (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: July 26th, 1884)
No. 2 The Blue Boyne (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: July 11th, 1885)
No. 3 The Bluebell Variation (John Popkin Traherne: Land and Water: May 1st, 1886)




No. 4A The Fra Diavolo [Thin Version] (John Popkin Traherne: Land and Water: January 30th, 1886)
No. 4B The Fra Diavolo [Thick Version] (John Popkin Traherne: Land and Water: January 30th, 1886)
No. 5 The Tippetiwitchet (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: July 12th, 1884)
No. 6 The Chatterer (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: August 9th, 1884)



No. 7 The Jay P.T. (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: August 30th, 1884)
No. 8 Sir Moses (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: September 12th, 1885)
No. 9 The Emerald Gem (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: August 2nd, 1884)
No. 10 The May Queen Variation (John Popkin Traherne: Land and Water: May 8th, 1886)



No. 11 The Lang Syne (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: January 10th, 1885)
No. 12 The Gitana (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: June 14th, 1884)
No. 13 The Lapwing (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: October 11th, 1884)
No. 14 The Quinchat (John Popkin Traherne: The Fishing Gazette: June 28th, 1884)



Luc not only ties the Classic Flies of the Old Masters he also creates things of beauty he calls Thematical Flies. They are, as the name implies, following a theme as to represent a certain specie or sub-specie of bird. He will study the bird paying extraordinary close attention to all of the characteristics both overt and subtle then create a fly that displays his observations. As you see below they are spectacular to say the least.

No. L1 The first Thematic Fly Jungle Crow II: One of the two flies that Luc allowed to be seen in The Art of Angling Journal
No. L2 Thematic fly on Paradisea Minor: Minor Bird of Paradise
No. L3 Thematic fly on pyroderus scutatus orenocensis: Indian Crow
No. L4 Thematic fly on pyroderus scutatus scutatus: Indian Crow


No. L5 Thematic fly on pyroderus scutatus occidentalis: Indian Crow
No. L6 Thematic fly on Jungle Cock and Indian Crow. This is the third fly based on these two birds: Jungle Crow III



Luc was kind enough to photograph his Jungle Crow III in stages. I hope you find it as inspiring as I do.







Luc also categorizes some of his work as Traditional/Experimental. I will not attempt to explain this category. That is best left up to Luc and will be posted in time. For now feast your eyes on the beautiful flies below:

No. T1 Silver Popham / Halladale pattern, for Halladale River, Scotland (William Murdoch: The Fishing Gazette: February 13th, 1886)
No. T2 The Silver Popham engraving from the Gazette
No. T3 The Silver Canary Variation based on the Silver Canary / Halladale pattern, for Halladale River, Scotland (William Murdoch: The Fishing Gazette: February 20th, 1886)
No. T4 The Silver Canary engraving from the Gazette

Our FRIEND Bill Bailey supplied the incredible mohair used in the wings of these flies.



No. T5 Traherne?s Wonder (George Mortimer Kelson: The Salmon Fly: 1895)
No. T6 Cayana experimentation
No. T7 Unnamed pattern from the 19th Century (Albert J. Cohen): As seen on the cover page of Judith Dunham?s book, The Altantic Salmon Fly, 1991)