Tightline Productions brings us the Dorato Hare’s Ear. I wanted to add to this post a comment by a personal friend of Bill Dorato, the creator of this fly. Ed over at the SparseGreyMatter.com forum had this information and posted it in a thread and I thought it was interesting.
I viewed the video and found it overall well done..a few comments : when i first started fishing with Bill,in 1967 he had just developed the hare’s ear to match the bouncing caddis on the Battenkill..a twitch just before the fly got to the slashing riser usually resulted in a take…by the way, Willie never ever cut the belly hackle on his fly…that was Dick’s idea which he inserted into his article in Fly Fisherman magazine..In fact, Willie and I talked about this at length..he believed for a fly to be twitched, the hackle should not be cut as the bristle finish would cause the fly to break thru the surface film impeding a skitter…One evening we were fishing the Battenkill in Vermont when a #18 mayfly started hatching..I threw my hare’s ear over the fish and he took…Willie asked me what fly and I said “your hare’s ear” and we both laughed..Since then we decided if a hare’s ear was to be used for a mayfly, we would split the wings and lenghten the tails…for a caddis, the tails were to be tied 1/4 shank length and the wood duck wing need not be divided…i still have a few of Willie’s ties and love to look at them when i’m feeling down..What memories…In 1967, Dick and I drove to Montana where we encountered maybe 5 fishermen in our 3 week stay…in the Barns pool on the Upper Madison, I murdered the big browns using my favorite fly..a #16 Dorato Hare’s Ear! Thanks for the trip down memory lane…
We have a winner! I love this fly and used to use one all the time and sort of forgot about in the rush to find the next big thing. Thanks Paul!
Hah, nice! Well, you should use it this season then!
-Paul
Hi…I am Bill Dorato’s niece. I have over 300 flies tied by Uncle Bill & have been saving them to try & find out if someone he knew would like to have them. I did not really know many of his buddies but the name Del Bedinotti was mentioned many times when I spoke to him & I did not know how to reach him. That being said, as I am much older now, I am divesting myself of many items. I put these 300 + flies on eBay as I did not know what else to do with them. If you know how to reach Del I would rather give these flies to someone who was a close friend of Bill’s rather than sell them.
Please contact me if you know Del thanks…Leslie
Hi Leslie,
Yes, I may be able to reach Del Bedinotti. I am trying now.
I will email you at the email you have submitted.
This is very interesting and I’m thrilled that you have contacted me.
Thank you,
-Paul J. Beel