While browsing the Web I ran across a couple of wonderfully tied flies that were in the style of Queen of the Waters. This type of fly is a very old fly dating back to the 1800s. Instead of rewriting that history here, I suggest heading over to Don Bastian’s blog post about Queen of the Waters to read about it. I have also added his Queen of the Waters Rangelely style Streamer below. Yet another example of fly tying craftsmanship. You can read more about it in Don’s same blog post.
After seeing these flies, I just had to post about them here. According to Mike Valla’s book, Tying Catskill-Style Dry Flies, palmer dry flies like Queen of the Waters evolved and were quite popular in the Catskills. Today the Queen of the Waters fly is tied more as a showpiece than for fishing. Around the time Catskill style dry flies were gradually developing, a version known as the fanwing became popular. This type of dry fly floated well and was easy to see.
The Catskill style Queen of the Waters recipe is as follows:
Hook: #10-14 Allcock 04991 or Mustad 94840
Thread: Tan 8/0 Uni-Thread
Wings: Mallard Flank
Tail: Medium to dark ginger
Body: Orange silk with fine gold tinsel ribbing
Hackle: Medium to dark ginger, palmered
Queen of the Waters Catskill style dry fly – tied by Karsten Neben
Queen of the Waters Fanwing – tied by Darrell Howard
Queen of the Waters – the hook is a size #2 – 8x long – Gaelic Supreme Martinek / Stevens Rangeley Style Streamer. – tied by Don Bastian
Thanks Paul, for the referral to my site. I didn’t back track your link, but I wanted to mention that there is also a photo of a Queen of the Waters Rangeley Style streamer on my blog, the pattern was taken from an original created by Carrie Stevens. Thanks again! Nice drys here! Darrell had sent me his fly.
Don, I actually should have added that to the post anyway. I hope you don’t mind, but I went ahead and included your photo of your Rangeley Style Queen of the Waters. Thanks and wonderful work as usual!
It’s cool that Darrell had sent you his fly. He sent it to the right guy!