Dave Carne is a new friend from the UK. Rather than me making something up about him Dave was kind enough to send me a short biographical piece:

"I?m a 41 year old graphic designer/grand poo-bar of Carne Whitney Partners marketing agency living in England?s Lake District.

Whilst I fished and tied trout flies A LOT when I was younger, I gave it up when I went off to University only taking it up again around May 2004 (as therapy for losing a much loved dog).

I got a new basic fly dressing kit for my 40th birthday, but it wasn?t until Christmas that I started on ?the big uns?. Though I did tie a very few Salmon flies in my youth, I gave them up as a bad lot at the time because, coming originally from Oxford, I had no hope of ever getting to fish with them!

Since putting that first iron in my vice at the beginning of the year it?s been a hard drive to both emulate the stunning quality of flies to be seen on the web (particularly on this site!) AND to get away with buying all the materials without my better half finding out how much they actually cost!

I normally tie at least one classic fly a day (the trick to mixing 2-3 hour?s tying with a 12 hour work day is getting up and getting in front of the vice by 5.30am!)... The trouble now is that I?m neglecting tying flies to actually FISH so much that my fishing fly cases are almost empty!

I always tie at 1/0 (I actually use CS10/3s - which in practice are around 2/0-3/0) - when I first started buying UK supplied materials I found the big challenge was even getting materials big enough for 1/0 - so all those months ago(!) I HAD to use 1/0 or smaller - now I must admit I do get a lot of pleasure from tying at this size and have no wish to move up from my ?tiddlers? to America?s Texas-sized jobbies!

Currently I?m getting a real buzz out of tying Irish patterns, I really like their sleek torpedo profile which is hightened by there cleanliness and the (usual) absence of a topping (thanks AO and JMc for your pointers and great encouragement on this stuff). You?ll notice I like to tie ?bright? - I also often also leave off herl at the heads because I feel it breaks that ?whoosh? look I?m after (it also means ruining fewer flies right at the death - but I didn?t admit that!)."

Dave and I correspond quite a bit via email. He is not only a very fine fly dresser but he is an outstanding student of not only the flies but the materials that make them up. He sent me the following information:

" Have just been reading your article on chinese hackle with interest - thought I?d stick my two-penn?eth in (something of a hackle freak I?m afraid!).

Interestingly (or boringly depending on your outlook!) Puce the colour is very similar to TRUE magenta (the artist?s colour rather than the nasty sour, almost fluorescent pink it?s taken to mean nowadays - ie a deep purpley pink, with the slight slatey/greyish hue as you described). The name Puce is actually derived from Pousse - which is a kind of Langoustine (Scampi/big shrimp) only found around the coast of Brittany - it?s colour when cooked is actually a brilliant orangy pink (and very tasty!) - nothing like the colour as it is defined today.

The other point is Kelson?s Coch-a-Bondu - his description/use of this name for the feather he desribes is actually WRONG. The name, actually ?Coch-y-Bonddu?, is Welsh name and describes a dark iridescent greeny black furnace hackle with black tips that ALWAYS has a VERY dark red game fill (bull?s blood colour). The hackle is actually named after the VERY famous, VERY old (early 18th century) wingless wet fly still popular today in the UK, it?s essentially a coachman with no wings and a gold tip (as the proper coachman should have) tied at about 14-16, that uses it and is intended to match a small beetle of the SAME name that?s very common on the moors in spring (I seem to remember the name actually means something like ?little cap button?).

As it happens the feathers you illustrate are what we?d call Greenwell (after the famous wet fly created by Cannon Greenwell for which THEY?RE
used!) - I think what Kelson actually meant was a true Furnace (ie a golden/honey badger hackle with black tips) - which would make more sense given the colours he specifies it should be dyed.

Hope the above was illuminating/not too stultifying!"

As I mentioned before Dave is a very good fly dresser, obviated by the pictures below. It's hard to believe he has been at this such a very short time. Click on the images below to see a larger image:







November 15 2005 The row below are a few of Dave's new "old" patterns. Very, very nice Dave.