Ricky Bassett has been casually tying Rube Cross patterns lately. Rube Cross is an important fly tyer in the history of Catskill dry flies.
Here is a sentence taken from the book, The Founding Flies, by Mike Valla.
“Many consider Cross’s dry flies, along with Christian’s and Steenrod’s to a lesser degree, the very earliest patterns representing what is known as the Catskill style.”
(I would highly recommend this book, because it tells the history and shows many photos of various fly tyers of the past. I have looked back at this book many times. It is very well written and extremely well done.)
The two flies that have caught my eye recently that Ricky has tied are the Black Drake and Brown Mallard originally tied by Rube Cross. Check out the photos and recipes below.
Black Drake
Black Drake
recipe:
Thread: Black
Hook: Standard Dry Fly
Wing: Black hackle points
Tail: Ginger hackle barbs
Body: Black floss
Hackle: Ginger
Rib: Silver tinsel
Brown Mallard
Brown Mallard
recipe:
Hook: #10-16 Mustad 94840
Thread: Tan
Tail: Bronze mallard with a couple ginger hackle fibers
Wing: Bronze mallard
Body: Tan fox fur
Hackle: Dark to medium ginger
Very nice. Few things, if any, are prettier than a properly tied Catskills style dry. Nicely done.