Rick Whorwood ties and fishes Spey and Dee flies for steelhead in Ontario and British Columbia. He owns & operates Rick Whorwood’s Fly Fishing and Fly Casting School in Ontario, Canada, www.flycastingschool.com. Rick teaches single and two hand fly casting, and guides. Besides this, he ties some beautiful flies.
Rick began fly tying in the early 80’s after a number of years tying trout and bass flies, he gained an interest in Classics Flies, including Full Dress, Dee’s and Spey’s. After about 10 years at the vice tying Classic’s, he was fortunate to have the Canadian postal service contract him to tie a Jock Scott, which they photographed and used the image on a postage stamp. The stamp was released in 2005.
Rick has been profiled or published in many well known magazines and daily publications. One of his Full Dress Classic’s (Silver Doctor) was featured on the cover of Fly Tyer Magazine. At one point he even got involved with an aviary, but that’s another story.
Below are flies tied by Rick and some interesting information about each one. Rick wanted me to note that these particular flies are what he uses for fishing and not display quality. To find out more about Rick Whorwood visit his website at http://www.flycastingschool.com/ or his Facebook page.
Lady Caroline Spey
Steelhead fooled by a Lady Caroline Spey
Brown Wing Killer
The heaviest Atlantic Salmon caught on a fly by a woman, Mrs Clementina “Tiny” Morison, Caught a 61lb Salmon In the Lower Shaw Pool River Deveron, Scotland 21st of October 1924 Length, 52 1/4″ Girth, 32″ The fly; Brown Wing Killer
Dallas Fly George Kelson, The Salmon Fly, 1895 J.H.Hale, How to Tie a Salmon Flies, third edition,1930.
The fly pictured here; I took the liberty to change the body from wool to silk and changed the hackle & reconfigured the hackle & ribbing.
Dallas Fly (strip wing)
Body; three turns of yellow Berlin wool followed by black wool
Ribs; flat silver tinsel, oval gold tinsel, red and blue thread
Hackle; black spey cock’s hackle from end of body but wound the reverse way, crossing the ribs
Throat; golden pheasant red breast hackle
Main Wing; two strips of plain cinnamon turkey
head; orange wool
The Akroyd Dee
It was originally tyed back in the late 1800’s, Kelson (1895) and later Pryce-Tannatt (1914) both listed this fly in their books on Dressing Salmon Flies.
Dee style flies were named after the river Dee in Scotland, as were Spey (river Spey) and Don flies (river Don) etc. These styles were later fished on many different rivers world wide for Atlantic Salmon & Steelhead (Haig-Brown).
The Akroyd pictured here was tyed yesterday and will be fished. I’ve also took the liberty to tye it in different colours & vary it a bit. The Dee style wing stabilizes the hook so it swims true (hook down). Spin one up and give it a go !!
The Akroyd (pictured)
tag: silver tinsel
tail: a topping and tippet in strands
butt: black herl
body; rear half light orange seal’s (sub) fur, front half black floss
hackle: yellow hackle over the orange, heron (sub) over the black floss
rib: oval silver over the orange seal’s fur, flat silver and twist over the floss
throat: teal
wing: cinnamon turkey
cheek: jungle cock
Material Source:
www.canadiantubeflies.com
First Cast Fly Shop; 519-766-4665 Guelph
Book Source:
Spey Flies & Dee Flies; John Shewey
Spey Flies, how to tie them; Bob Veverka
Salmon Patterns; Mike Radencich
The Drake
This pattern is in Michael Radencich’s book, Salmon Fly Patterns, pg. 70.
Originally from;
Francis Francis; A Book on Angling, fourth edition,1876
The Drake
Tail; tippet sprigs and yellow toucan (I used marabou for toucan)
Body; orange,red, & black pig’s wool (seal’s fur or sub)
Rib; broad silver tinsel (flat tinsel)
Hackle; coch-y-bondhu dyed dark orange
Throat; lavender hackle
Wing; two strip of pintail or summer duck (wood duck)
Material Source:
Bryant Freeman
Eskape Anglers
Contact; (506)-386-6269 or [email protected]
Yellow Eagle
Eagle Patterns
These flies were originally dressed some 100-150 years ago, the feather they used came from the shin area of the bird. Obviously and for good reason, the feathers are now illegal.
Turkey Marabou is a great substitute, and readily available from most fly shops.
The fly pictured here is the Yellow Eagle
Major A.T. Fisher, Rod and River 1892
Yellow Eagle
Tag; silver twist
Tail; red breast feather from the golden pheasant
Body; yellow 2/3, scarlet 1/3 seal’s fur (sub)
Ribs; flat silver tinsel and oval silver
Hackle; eagle dyed yellow (marabou sub)
Main wing; silver speckled turkey with white tips
