Davie McPhail, there just aren’t enough superlative words to describe this man pictured at right. I first knew him as Peaty Mann from Scotland on the Fly Tying Forum. He is one of the OUTSTANDING tiers on the FTF. Davie simply posts some of the most brilliantly tied flies seen anywhere and he does it without any fanfare other than the congratulatory comments made by the members. He only has nice and supportive things to say about others and mentions stuff sent between friends. Some of my friends boast of owning one of Davie’s beautiful flies that he had sent to them. Davie is as it seems one of those rare individuals who is not only supremely talented but kind and generous as well. I didn’t realize how generous he really is, until just recently. Six months ago he inquired about and purchased some of the turkey tails I sell as he ties the Spey and Dee patterns for which his area, South West Scotland, is known. Here is an excerpt of some of our correspondence:

"I would like to tye a set of flies specially just for the site using some of the material that I get from you. If you could forward me a dozen pair of your choice which will help me put together a nice set of patterns for your web site. I will let Dave know the cost and forward the money to him.”

Dave, being Dave Carne (a mutual friend and customer of mine) from England as Davie, at the time, had no way of paying for his purchases using my shopping cart. I assumed he meant he would send me pictures of the flies he tied but that’s not Davie. We continued to communicate via email and he tells me, during Christmas his long time friend, who now lives in the US, Harry Wallace would be visiting him and would bring me back a little package of flies, just to make sure they safely got to me. (His being Scottish leads me to think he was just saving money on the postage.) On his return, Harry attended the January, Somerset, New Jersey Show bringing the flies as I had planned on attending as well. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the show and due to my situation at the time I lost Harry’s phone number and address. While Harry was at the show he had shown Davie’s flies to a number of the “salmon guys” also in attendance. I know several people wanted to purchase them from Harry and one individual, who publishes a wonderful magazine, called Art of Angling Journal wanted the flies as he said he would like to do an article featuring Davie. Fortunately for me Harry and Davie are both good Scotsmen and true to their word. I finally contacted Harry just prior to his leaving for an extended stay in Europe. He and his family were leaving the next day but he would mail them immediately. I can't believe he went out of his way when I'm sure he had much better things to do and mailed them. It took two packages to send the flies but they finally got here and what a treasure. I’ve never expected anything like what I received. I’ve photographed them as best I can, hoping to do them justice. There aren’t enough words in the English language to express my appreciation for this man’s abilities and generosity. Unfortunately we live a far distance apart and I know very little personal information about him. Davie was kind enough to supply the following profile:

“I started fishing when I was very young, the earliest I can remember was when I was six, I was fishing the river Doon with my father but unfortunately I fell in and had to be fished out by him so this is how I can remember, a great way to start as I was the "catch" of the day.
I live in the south west of Scotland where I grew up, the best known rivers in the area are the Stinchar, the Nith, Girvan and the river Doon where I was a ghillie. I didn’t really start fly fishing until I was twenty just after I got married my fly tying started at much the same time. When I was learning to cast I lost many a fly up a tree and broke the hook of the fly on stones on my back cast so learning to tye flies was at first to compensate for this but as I got into the tying and catching fish with the flies that I tyed I found it as much fun as fishing . 22 years on I’m just as enthusiastic about tying flies and fly-fishing as I was then.
A couple of years into my fly tying I started entering competitions and with some success I qualified to get into the masters of the Benson and Hedges, never winning the competition outright but winning a few rounds throughout I was extremely pleased with this. I felt entering competitions encouraged me to tye my flies in proportion and learned how to use materials to their best effect. From there I did win a few competitions outright and got a reputation as a reasonable tyer.
As my name became more known I was asked to contribute flies to a book called Trout and Salmon flies of Scotland with over 30 of my flies being used, this caused a bit of interest in me and the most popular magazine in the U.K got in touch and asked if I could write some articles for their magazine, of which 40 were published one after the other. This then led to demonstrations and talks throughout the U.K., Ireland and U.S.A. My interest in tying Speys and Dee patterns came from the old fishers I met on the riverbank telling me their stories and patterns for the rivers they fished, patterns like Brown Turkey and grey Turkey were always mentioned as old favourites and with them not being used encouraged me to find out more about colours and styles being tyed. One of the main things was the natural colours of the wings being used and body colours as these were the important parts. A favourite winging technique known for the area was called four-in-hand or better known as double-winged, the reason this method was adopted here was because it was very hard to find suitable feathers to use as a single wing.
As John Mclain has such a huge selection of natural turkey feathers available to purchase it has given me the opportunity to tie the four-in-hand or double winged patterns for his web-site.”

Below are pictures of the flies I received. I felt this was too valuable of a gift for me to accept and I’ve offered to return all but one or two. He insists I keep them as a gesture from him because he likes my website and all the help it offers people. The Classic patterns are named. The dozen Dee flies are of original design by Davie and have no name. Here is another excerpt from our correspondence:

“The Dee type flies I tyed were mostly of my own design and were tyed with the Turkey that you sent so you can call them whatever you want, I feel that this should help sell the turkey and give the other tyers some ideas on tying this style of flies using your feathers.”

Here’s a guy that sends me the ultimate fly tying gift and did it to help promote my business. I suspect he could have been much further ahead personally if Paul Schmookler was to have hung on to these but that didn’t happen. Thank you Peaty Mann, it’s an honor to be your friend. If I can call them what I want, I will call them mine.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a larger image:



The flies above are the dozen Dee Strip Wing flies Davie sent to me. To package them for delivery he simply placed each one in a small zip-lock bag. They are so wonderfully dressed, in spite of that they required little or no primping prior to taking the photos. Needless to say I did not return them to their original bags. They will soon occupy a place of honor among the spectacular collection of flies I have received from friends.

The flies below are the named patterns Davie sent to me. These were carefully attached to card stock and uniquely fixed into their own plastic box. Again so carefully dressed that the material literally stayed in place on it's own. That is truly the mark of a well tied fly.




I hope to post many more of your beautiful flies here but only send the pictures, you've been too kind already.