Baigent's Variant
Fly of the Month 10.19
Baigents Variant
Variants
The label of variant associated with a fly pattern means a significant variation of another fly pattern. There are at least two examples that we are aware of. One is the variation of a fly pattern due to a different body. Fly patterns such as the Adams Variant, the CDL Adams Variant, the House & Lot (H&L) Variant and the Whitcraft Variant are all dry fly variation due to a different body. The other is the variation of a fly pattern due to oversized hackle. The Badger Variant, Baigent Black, Black Variant, Brown Variant, Cream Variant, Dun Variant, Gray Fox Variant, Olive Variant and Yellow Variant are all variation due to oversized hackle that provide extraordinary fry fly floating capability. The Coachman Variant and the Pool’s Hackle are also variation due to oversized hackle – in this case the soft, long hackle of wet fly patterns.
The Gray Fox Variant, for example, is the same as the traditional Gray Fox except with oversized stiff, dry fly hackle at 1 ½ times longer. The additional extension of each fiber of the hackle spreads the capillary action over a broader footprint in the surface tension of the water. These variant fly patterns float higher and longer than the traditional fly pattern. And since many of the variant fly patterns are based on standard patterns, the long hackle variant is a style rather than a fly pattern.
Baigent Variants
Dr. William Baigent, of Yorkshire, reputed as one of England’s most successful anglers, had eleven patterns. They were all dressed in “natural Old English game cock feathers”, with long hackles, giving them buoyancy and high riding qualities. He claimed by the position of being slightly higher above the surface the rays of light played upon the iridescent fibers and made them attractive to fish by “life and form.” The eleven patterns included four spinners; four variants, light-dark red and rusty; and a black, a brown and an olive. Thus, we will refer to the variants as Baigent Rusty, Baigent Black, Baigent Brown and Baigent Olive.
As a further development he registered a set of twelve patterns as “Refracta Dry Flies.” The hackles were separated; short, for pattern legs, and long, for floating qualities, to disturb the water and produce an altered refraction. This fly pattern design may have been yet another type of variant.
Baigent’s fly patterns date to around 1875. According to Baigent, when dry flies were beginning to be used, he commenced dressing them “more lightly and with longer but less hackle and called them ‘long-hackled, sparsely dressed flies’.” His fly originally was, “Baigent’s Variant of Pool’s Hackle.” The Pool’s Hackle was a wet fly with long sparse hackle. When they became known they were referred to as ‘a new variety of floater” and later as “Variants”.
The Multi-Colored Variant was originated by Albert D. Barrell, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a fishing writer and for many years editor of a newspaper fishing column. He died about 1940. If Barrell did not originate the fly, at least he popularized it with his writing. As originally tied, it was hackled with one of those bastard Barred Plymouth Rock hackles which combine brown and gray in a mottled feather. As commercially tied, it has two hackles, one brown and one gray (Adams-like).
The Southcote Variant with long, dark, smoky gray hackles that and out in a bristly way and small gray wings pointing forward with gold tinsel body, which reflects the color of its surroundings and conveys their appearance, was named after George Southcote, the nom de plume of Sir George Ashton, author of Mostly About Trout published in 1921, and Letters to a Young Fly Fisherman published in 1926, who lived near the River Avon in Wiltshire, England.
A variation on the Coachman is the Coachman Variant which is a wet fly with a bright green tag from an unknown inventor.
Variant Group:
Adams Variant, CDL Adams Variant, H&L Variant, Whitcraft Variant
Badger Variant, Black Variant, Brown Variant, Cream Variant
Dun Variant, Gray Fox Variant, Olive Variant, Yellow Variant
Baigent Black, Baigent Brown, Baigent Olive, Baigent Rusty
Multi-Colored Variant
Southcote Variant (winged)
Pool’s Hackle (wet), Coachman Variant (wet)
Tom Adams and Alen Baker
References:
Smedley, Harold Hinsdill. Fly Patterns and Their Origins, 1944
Baigent’s Variant
Hook : Firehole 609 size 10, 12
Thread : Danville 3/0 Primrose
Body : Danville 3/0 Primrose
Hackle : Rooster dry, Coachman Furnace
Wings : Hen Pheasant Tail
Directions :
Baigents Variant
Variants
The label of variant associated with a fly pattern means a significant variation of another fly pattern. There are at least two examples that we are aware of. One is the variation of a fly pattern due to a different body. Fly patterns such as the Adams Variant, the CDL Adams Variant, the House & Lot (H&L) Variant and the Whitcraft Variant are all dry fly variation due to a different body. The other is the variation of a fly pattern due to oversized hackle. The Badger Variant, Baigent Black, Black Variant, Brown Variant, Cream Variant, Dun Variant, Gray Fox Variant, Olive Variant and Yellow Variant are all variation due to oversized hackle that provide extraordinary fry fly floating capability. The Coachman Variant and the Pool’s Hackle are also variation due to oversized hackle – in this case the soft, long hackle of wet fly patterns.
The Gray Fox Variant, for example, is the same as the traditional Gray Fox except with oversized stiff, dry fly hackle at 1 ½ times longer. The additional extension of each fiber of the hackle spreads the capillary action over a broader footprint in the surface tension of the water. These variant fly patterns float higher and longer than the traditional fly pattern. And since many of the variant fly patterns are based on standard patterns, the long hackle variant is a style rather than a fly pattern.
Baigent Variants
Dr. William Baigent, of Yorkshire, reputed as one of England’s most successful anglers, had eleven patterns. They were all dressed in “natural Old English game cock feathers”, with long hackles, giving them buoyancy and high riding qualities. He claimed by the position of being slightly higher above the surface the rays of light played upon the iridescent fibers and made them attractive to fish by “life and form.” The eleven patterns included four spinners; four variants, light-dark red and rusty; and a black, a brown and an olive. Thus, we will refer to the variants as Baigent Rusty, Baigent Black, Baigent Brown and Baigent Olive.
As a further development he registered a set of twelve patterns as “Refracta Dry Flies.” The hackles were separated; short, for pattern legs, and long, for floating qualities, to disturb the water and produce an altered refraction. This fly pattern design may have been yet another type of variant.
Baigent’s fly patterns date to around 1875. According to Baigent, when dry flies were beginning to be used, he commenced dressing them “more lightly and with longer but less hackle and called them ‘long-hackled, sparsely dressed flies’.” His fly originally was, “Baigent’s Variant of Pool’s Hackle.” The Pool’s Hackle was a wet fly with long sparse hackle. When they became known they were referred to as ‘a new variety of floater” and later as “Variants”.
The Multi-Colored Variant was originated by Albert D. Barrell, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a fishing writer and for many years editor of a newspaper fishing column. He died about 1940. If Barrell did not originate the fly, at least he popularized it with his writing. As originally tied, it was hackled with one of those bastard Barred Plymouth Rock hackles which combine brown and gray in a mottled feather. As commercially tied, it has two hackles, one brown and one gray (Adams-like).
The Southcote Variant with long, dark, smoky gray hackles that and out in a bristly way and small gray wings pointing forward with gold tinsel body, which reflects the color of its surroundings and conveys their appearance, was named after George Southcote, the nom de plume of Sir George Ashton, author of Mostly About Trout published in 1921, and Letters to a Young Fly Fisherman published in 1926, who lived near the River Avon in Wiltshire, England.
A variation on the Coachman is the Coachman Variant which is a wet fly with a bright green tag from an unknown inventor.
Variant Group:
Adams Variant, CDL Adams Variant, H&L Variant, Whitcraft Variant
Badger Variant, Black Variant, Brown Variant, Cream Variant
Dun Variant, Gray Fox Variant, Olive Variant, Yellow Variant
Baigent Black, Baigent Brown, Baigent Olive, Baigent Rusty
Multi-Colored Variant
Southcote Variant (winged)
Pool’s Hackle (wet), Coachman Variant (wet)
Tom Adams and Alen Baker
References:
Smedley, Harold Hinsdill. Fly Patterns and Their Origins, 1944
Baigent’s Variant
Hook : Firehole 609 size 10, 12
Thread : Danville 3/0 Primrose
Body : Danville 3/0 Primrose
Hackle : Rooster dry, Coachman Furnace
Wings : Hen Pheasant Tail
Directions :
- Mount the hook in the vise
- Begin thread wraps three eyelengths from eye and take tight and touching turns to the point above the hook barb. Continue tight and touching turns to the one third mark and let the bobbin hang.
- Select hen pheasant tail stem and using a bodkin, separate a section of barbs that is about one quarter in width. Cut this away from the stem. Using a bodkin separate this section into two even strips. With the tapered tip pointing forward, mount the sections on either side of the hook, where the bobbin is hanging. Trapping with the thread and leaving a two and one half gape length of barb, you then will stand up the barb by bringing the thread in close to the front of the barbs and pull the thread toward the hook bend. This will result in the pheasant barbs standing near vertical and separated. Move the thread two turns behind the wing and let the bobbin hang.
- Select a furnace hackle with barbs about one and one half the width of the gape. The dark center section of a furnace needs to not exceed twenty five percent of the barbs after wrapping on the hook. The pattern only requires two to three turns of hackle, so don’t cut it close. Prep the hackle by stripping an eighth inch of barbs from the stem. This needs to be shorter than usual.
- Tie in the hackle at a forty five degree angle on the tyer side of the hook immediately behind the wing. The binding wraps will need to remain behind the wing and only once tied in will the thread move forward of the wing. Make two but no more than three wraps of hackle in tight and touching wraps. When the wraps are complete, use the thread to bind in the hackle with two wraps and let the bobbin hang.
- Trim the waste hackle and whip finish to form the head. Trim the waste thread.