Gray Fox Variant
Fly of the Month 09.10 Gray Fox Variant
While I was preparing what I wanted to say about the Grey Fox Variant I can across an article in the February 2008 Ozark Fly Fishers newsletter. It pretty much said everything I intended to say but uses real words and is easy to understand. I decided to quote most of it ...
“A variant fly, regardless of hackle color, is a dry fly tied with proportions that deviate from commonly accepted standards. Specifically, the hackle and tail are tied long, the equivalent of a normally proportioned fly several hook sizes larger. The fly style emerged in Yorkshire in the late 19th century, during the same period when Halford and his disciples were developing the tenets for tying and fishing the modern dry fly on classic English chalk streams. Dr. William Baigent, an ardent tier from Northallerton, provided an alternative. He studied theories of light refraction and believed that optical patterns created by long-hackled dry flies provide a better imitation of fluttering wings than conventional flies. The long-hackled flies also floated well on swift currents and were less likely to spook trout in quiet water because they settled gently on the surface. He developed about a dozen fly patterns intended to imitate common local insects. The flies came to be known as ‘variants’ to indicate that their proportions deviated from conventional standards."
"The American with the most influence on the development of variants, however, was Preston Jennings. He corresponded with Baigent, and in 1935 popularized several variant patterns in his groundbreaking A Book of Trout Flies, essentially the first American book to include systematic identification of important aquatic insects and corresponding specific imitations. He described three long-hackled flies, the Blue, Cream, and Gray Fox Variants. All lacked wings and had bodies of gold or silver tinsel to add a little sparkle. Jennings liked to use variants when skittish fish were feeding in flat water at the tail of pools and specifically mentions using his Gray Fox Variant in this manner as an imitation of the Eastern Green Drake. This fly has a ginger tail, gold tinsel body, and a two part hackle of ginger faced with grizzly."
“Art Flick was heavily influenced by Jennings, and among the imitative flies in his famous Streamside Guide to Naturals and their Imitations, includes three variant flies, all modifications of Jennings' patterns. Flick lists one of these flies, his own version of the Gray Fox Variant, as an imitation of the Eastern Green Drake, but the fly was much more than that to Art. It became his favorite fly, and he used it far more than any other as a general searching pattern. (Photos taken from Art Flick’s Streamside Guide to Naturals and their Imitations)
“Flick gives Preston Jennings credit for his influence but considered his own version of the fly to be superior to Jennings'. Art's Gray Fox Variant (see photo) has no wings, a ginger tail, and a mix of three different colored hackles: dark ginger, grizzly, and light ginger. Unlike Jennings' fly, the hackles are mixed together and do not form distinct color bands."
“As with all hackle, the feathers should be wrapped individually and not all at the same time. He could not explain why, but Art firmly believed that the fly worked best if the hackles were wound in the order given above. The fly's body is made from the stripped stem of a light ginger hackle, a body style originated by Flick. The quill provides a segmented look, a natural taper, and in many regions has now superseded the use of stripped peacock quill for dry fly bodies. Art sometimes tied this fly in very large sizes, but it is also useful in smaller versions, including ones, like the fly in the photo, where the hackle is only slightly oversized."
“The hackle mix in Flick's fly provides a variegated, buggy look that is highly effective. …the fly's utility extends far beyond its original intended used as an imitation of the Eastern Green Drake. The west slope of the Cascades is far from the Catskills and any populations of the Eastern Green Drake, but the fish feeding that day didn't seem to care. It looked just like a Western March Brown to them.”
I couldn’t have said the above any better, but what does the Grey Fox represent? While Flick’s Grey Fox Variant was intended as a Green Drake pattern, my web searches turned up pretty much the same as what I had found on the Light Cahill but then I found this on the web site for Jerry Hadden’s guide service: “No more Stenonema fuscum (Gray Fox). Stenonema fuscum (Gray Fox) is now considered to be the same as Stenonema vicaruim (March Brown). This makes perfect sense to me, for years I've been puzzled by these insects a March Brown looked identical to a Gray Fox except for size and a slight color difference. Hey now with new DNA testing I don't have to worry about it anymore, they have been found to be exactly the same insect except for a difference in color.”
So while Art Flick may developed the Grey Fox Variant to represent a Green Drake the fly is also a good pattern for many of the flies we see on our waters.
Oh, and one other thing, it may also be called a variant just because it can be spelled as either Gray or Grey. There seems to be a good deal of variance and I haven’t been able to determine with any authority what the proper spelling is.
Enjoy and may the Grey (or Gray) Fox Variant bring many fish to your net.
Fly of the Month 09.10 Gray Fox Variant
Hook: Dry Fly, 1x long, 1x fine, perfect bend, Tiemco 100 or Mustad 94833, Size: 12, 14, 16, 18, 20
Thread: 8/0 Uni or equivalent in Rust Brown
Tail: Brown Rooster
Body: Ginger Quill over Olive dubbing
Hackle: Ginger and Grizzly Rooster hackle
Note: Not unlike the long directions for the Lt Cahill wing tie in, there are a lot of words here on tying in a tail. This is another key technique that will benefit on many other patterns, once mastered.
Directions :
1) Select a stripped Ginger Quill for the body and begin soaking in tap water. Set aside for a later step.
2) Begin thread wraps at two to three eye lengths back from the eye and advance to the hook bend in tight, even single wraps and return in tight wraps to about one third back from the eye. Let the bobbin hang.
3) Select a brown spade hackle or any rooster hackle with long, stiff barbs. Holding the feather by the tip, stroke downward with two fingers, using gentle pressure. This will make the barbs stand at a right angle. May take two or three strokes. Select six to eight barbs, pinching the ends together in the same motion. This will trap the ends evenly (to aid in the tie in). Once securely pinched, hold the tip with your other hand and pull the pinched barbs away from the stem. This will leave a curly part at the base of the barbs. Transfer the barbs from one hand to the other, changing the pinch from the tips to the base and holding next to the hook, estimate the first cut for the tie in. The extended length of the tail should be approximately the same as the hook shank. The tail length on the shaft should have enough length to reach the thorax. Transfer the barbs back to the first hand and trim the base to the measured length. Hold the barbs at a slight angle downward on the tier’s side of the hook bringing the thread around for a soft loop to position the barbs on top of the shank with two or three soft loops. This will enable the you to observe the length and if necessary re-trim. If no trim is necessary, advance the thread with very light pressure to the hook bend above the barb (of the hook) making sure the tail barbs stay on top of the shank. Wrap once again, toward the eye increasing pressure as you approach the cut end of the tail barbs. Return the thread to the hook bend (use decreasing pressure as you near the bend to avoid the tail “standing up”). Let the bobbin hang.
4) Dub the thread, sparse and tight with dry fly Olive dub. Allow enough thread to tie in the quill before starting dub material on to the thread.
5) Remove the Ginger Quill from the water and dry gently. Position the quill at the point directly above the barb or tip of the hook. Holding the quill at an angle tie in with firm rap as close to the small tapered tip of a diameter reasonable for the size of the fly. Wrap the extra quill length on top of the shank, rim the excess, advance dubbed thread with ingle, tight wraps and let the bobbin hang at the thorax.
6) Begin wrapping the quill in single, wraps allowing slight exposure of the Olive dub, to the thorax. Tie off with firm wraps, trim the excess and let the bobbin hang. NOTE: It is not uncommon for the quill to split or fray while wrapping. Soaking should have avoided this, but if it does fray – start over and maybe soak longer. Usually thirty minutes is more than enough. Some tiers will use a small amount of head cement, applied to the quill with a bodkin for strength and hardness against fish teeth after it is tied in. Let it dry before the next step.
7) Select one Ginger Rooster hackle and one Grizzly rooster hackle measured for the size hook selected. Strip away about three sixteenths of the barbs at the cut end. Check at this point and compare the diameter of the hackle stems. They need to be close in thickness. Stack the two together with the shiny side up and the top one extended ever so slightly past the bottom one. Tie both in at the same time by holding at a slight angle on the tier side of the hook about one eye length in advance of the quill finish point. Wrap firmly and trim any excess stem. Advance the thread to two or three eyelengths back of the eye and let the bobbin hang.
8) Choose the top hackle and wrap in turn that are close but also slightly open to allow for the second hackle. Maintain the shiny side toward the eye as you wrap. When the hackle reaches three eyelengths back from the eye, hold the hackle with one hand, straight up, and use the other hand to wrap the thread, trapping the hackle. Wiggle the thread as you bring it around and the barbs will separate from the stem avoiding bunches. Using the wiggle make three wraps to firmly tie in and trim the excess. Let the bobbin hang.
9) Repeat as above, wrapping the second hackle between the wraps of the first. trim the excess. Form a head with thread. Whip finish and apply head cement.
- Tom Adams, Tim Wilhelm
While I was preparing what I wanted to say about the Grey Fox Variant I can across an article in the February 2008 Ozark Fly Fishers newsletter. It pretty much said everything I intended to say but uses real words and is easy to understand. I decided to quote most of it ...
“A variant fly, regardless of hackle color, is a dry fly tied with proportions that deviate from commonly accepted standards. Specifically, the hackle and tail are tied long, the equivalent of a normally proportioned fly several hook sizes larger. The fly style emerged in Yorkshire in the late 19th century, during the same period when Halford and his disciples were developing the tenets for tying and fishing the modern dry fly on classic English chalk streams. Dr. William Baigent, an ardent tier from Northallerton, provided an alternative. He studied theories of light refraction and believed that optical patterns created by long-hackled dry flies provide a better imitation of fluttering wings than conventional flies. The long-hackled flies also floated well on swift currents and were less likely to spook trout in quiet water because they settled gently on the surface. He developed about a dozen fly patterns intended to imitate common local insects. The flies came to be known as ‘variants’ to indicate that their proportions deviated from conventional standards."
"The American with the most influence on the development of variants, however, was Preston Jennings. He corresponded with Baigent, and in 1935 popularized several variant patterns in his groundbreaking A Book of Trout Flies, essentially the first American book to include systematic identification of important aquatic insects and corresponding specific imitations. He described three long-hackled flies, the Blue, Cream, and Gray Fox Variants. All lacked wings and had bodies of gold or silver tinsel to add a little sparkle. Jennings liked to use variants when skittish fish were feeding in flat water at the tail of pools and specifically mentions using his Gray Fox Variant in this manner as an imitation of the Eastern Green Drake. This fly has a ginger tail, gold tinsel body, and a two part hackle of ginger faced with grizzly."
“Art Flick was heavily influenced by Jennings, and among the imitative flies in his famous Streamside Guide to Naturals and their Imitations, includes three variant flies, all modifications of Jennings' patterns. Flick lists one of these flies, his own version of the Gray Fox Variant, as an imitation of the Eastern Green Drake, but the fly was much more than that to Art. It became his favorite fly, and he used it far more than any other as a general searching pattern. (Photos taken from Art Flick’s Streamside Guide to Naturals and their Imitations)
“Flick gives Preston Jennings credit for his influence but considered his own version of the fly to be superior to Jennings'. Art's Gray Fox Variant (see photo) has no wings, a ginger tail, and a mix of three different colored hackles: dark ginger, grizzly, and light ginger. Unlike Jennings' fly, the hackles are mixed together and do not form distinct color bands."
“As with all hackle, the feathers should be wrapped individually and not all at the same time. He could not explain why, but Art firmly believed that the fly worked best if the hackles were wound in the order given above. The fly's body is made from the stripped stem of a light ginger hackle, a body style originated by Flick. The quill provides a segmented look, a natural taper, and in many regions has now superseded the use of stripped peacock quill for dry fly bodies. Art sometimes tied this fly in very large sizes, but it is also useful in smaller versions, including ones, like the fly in the photo, where the hackle is only slightly oversized."
“The hackle mix in Flick's fly provides a variegated, buggy look that is highly effective. …the fly's utility extends far beyond its original intended used as an imitation of the Eastern Green Drake. The west slope of the Cascades is far from the Catskills and any populations of the Eastern Green Drake, but the fish feeding that day didn't seem to care. It looked just like a Western March Brown to them.”
I couldn’t have said the above any better, but what does the Grey Fox represent? While Flick’s Grey Fox Variant was intended as a Green Drake pattern, my web searches turned up pretty much the same as what I had found on the Light Cahill but then I found this on the web site for Jerry Hadden’s guide service: “No more Stenonema fuscum (Gray Fox). Stenonema fuscum (Gray Fox) is now considered to be the same as Stenonema vicaruim (March Brown). This makes perfect sense to me, for years I've been puzzled by these insects a March Brown looked identical to a Gray Fox except for size and a slight color difference. Hey now with new DNA testing I don't have to worry about it anymore, they have been found to be exactly the same insect except for a difference in color.”
So while Art Flick may developed the Grey Fox Variant to represent a Green Drake the fly is also a good pattern for many of the flies we see on our waters.
Oh, and one other thing, it may also be called a variant just because it can be spelled as either Gray or Grey. There seems to be a good deal of variance and I haven’t been able to determine with any authority what the proper spelling is.
Enjoy and may the Grey (or Gray) Fox Variant bring many fish to your net.
Fly of the Month 09.10 Gray Fox Variant
Hook: Dry Fly, 1x long, 1x fine, perfect bend, Tiemco 100 or Mustad 94833, Size: 12, 14, 16, 18, 20
Thread: 8/0 Uni or equivalent in Rust Brown
Tail: Brown Rooster
Body: Ginger Quill over Olive dubbing
Hackle: Ginger and Grizzly Rooster hackle
Note: Not unlike the long directions for the Lt Cahill wing tie in, there are a lot of words here on tying in a tail. This is another key technique that will benefit on many other patterns, once mastered.
Directions :
1) Select a stripped Ginger Quill for the body and begin soaking in tap water. Set aside for a later step.
2) Begin thread wraps at two to three eye lengths back from the eye and advance to the hook bend in tight, even single wraps and return in tight wraps to about one third back from the eye. Let the bobbin hang.
3) Select a brown spade hackle or any rooster hackle with long, stiff barbs. Holding the feather by the tip, stroke downward with two fingers, using gentle pressure. This will make the barbs stand at a right angle. May take two or three strokes. Select six to eight barbs, pinching the ends together in the same motion. This will trap the ends evenly (to aid in the tie in). Once securely pinched, hold the tip with your other hand and pull the pinched barbs away from the stem. This will leave a curly part at the base of the barbs. Transfer the barbs from one hand to the other, changing the pinch from the tips to the base and holding next to the hook, estimate the first cut for the tie in. The extended length of the tail should be approximately the same as the hook shank. The tail length on the shaft should have enough length to reach the thorax. Transfer the barbs back to the first hand and trim the base to the measured length. Hold the barbs at a slight angle downward on the tier’s side of the hook bringing the thread around for a soft loop to position the barbs on top of the shank with two or three soft loops. This will enable the you to observe the length and if necessary re-trim. If no trim is necessary, advance the thread with very light pressure to the hook bend above the barb (of the hook) making sure the tail barbs stay on top of the shank. Wrap once again, toward the eye increasing pressure as you approach the cut end of the tail barbs. Return the thread to the hook bend (use decreasing pressure as you near the bend to avoid the tail “standing up”). Let the bobbin hang.
4) Dub the thread, sparse and tight with dry fly Olive dub. Allow enough thread to tie in the quill before starting dub material on to the thread.
5) Remove the Ginger Quill from the water and dry gently. Position the quill at the point directly above the barb or tip of the hook. Holding the quill at an angle tie in with firm rap as close to the small tapered tip of a diameter reasonable for the size of the fly. Wrap the extra quill length on top of the shank, rim the excess, advance dubbed thread with ingle, tight wraps and let the bobbin hang at the thorax.
6) Begin wrapping the quill in single, wraps allowing slight exposure of the Olive dub, to the thorax. Tie off with firm wraps, trim the excess and let the bobbin hang. NOTE: It is not uncommon for the quill to split or fray while wrapping. Soaking should have avoided this, but if it does fray – start over and maybe soak longer. Usually thirty minutes is more than enough. Some tiers will use a small amount of head cement, applied to the quill with a bodkin for strength and hardness against fish teeth after it is tied in. Let it dry before the next step.
7) Select one Ginger Rooster hackle and one Grizzly rooster hackle measured for the size hook selected. Strip away about three sixteenths of the barbs at the cut end. Check at this point and compare the diameter of the hackle stems. They need to be close in thickness. Stack the two together with the shiny side up and the top one extended ever so slightly past the bottom one. Tie both in at the same time by holding at a slight angle on the tier side of the hook about one eye length in advance of the quill finish point. Wrap firmly and trim any excess stem. Advance the thread to two or three eyelengths back of the eye and let the bobbin hang.
8) Choose the top hackle and wrap in turn that are close but also slightly open to allow for the second hackle. Maintain the shiny side toward the eye as you wrap. When the hackle reaches three eyelengths back from the eye, hold the hackle with one hand, straight up, and use the other hand to wrap the thread, trapping the hackle. Wiggle the thread as you bring it around and the barbs will separate from the stem avoiding bunches. Using the wiggle make three wraps to firmly tie in and trim the excess. Let the bobbin hang.
9) Repeat as above, wrapping the second hackle between the wraps of the first. trim the excess. Form a head with thread. Whip finish and apply head cement.
- Tom Adams, Tim Wilhelm