Paul: The "Peacock Fore & Aft" is a very popular fly here in Arizona. Also the Renegade is really a "Fore & Aft" pattern. Also popular here. There is a local fly tyer that has wrapped gold tinsel in, oposite of the peacock, and he calls it an Arizona Peacock Lady. Claimes he invented it. I guess he invented the variation. Peacock is a wonderful product that changes with the light conditions. I'm amazed that there are not more patterns using it. You can also get a gold hue in the herls if you leave it out in the sun. That makes for an interesting fly also.
Alan Di Somma Phoenix,AZ. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Marriner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:52 AM Subject: Re: [VFB] Origins of important fly patterns > Steve, I spent a few minutes this AM on your fore and aft query. As a > wet fly, this design has been around for some 3 or 4 centuries; in the > case of salmon flies they were called grubs. > However, the earliest mention as a "dry" fly that I came across was in > Jean-Paul Pequegnot's book, French Fishing Flies. He records a series of > patterns by a Doctor Juge known as Mouches Exquises (Exquisite Flies) > first created in 1918. Pequegnot also mentions that a Horace Brown > (Kennet in England) also claimed the design named Fore and After or Fore > and Aft flies. Datus Proper puts this claim as from the 30's, at least a > decade after Juge. > > Interestingly, although few use the design today, Pequegnot says he used > them extensively for 20 years and took half his trout and grayling on > them (French trout need to be very selective, as the first error is > virtually always the last). > > Bodies of these flies (sizes 12 - 18) are tying thread; here are a > couple of patterns: > Coquine: Yellow body; badger, grizzly, or grey hackles. > Taquine: Red body; grey hackles. > Pont-Aven: Red body; coch-y-bondhu hackles. > Gauloise Bleu: Yellow body; dark blue-grey hackles. > > This last is J-P's favourite fly and he writes that he thinks he has > taken several thousand fish on it. > > Cheers, > Paul > http://www.galesendpress.com > -- > Paul Marriner > Outdoor Writing & Photography. Member OWAA & OWC. Author of Stillwater > Fly Fishing: Tools & Tactics (Print [NEW] & CD), Modern Atlantic Salmon > Flies, Miramichi River Journal, Ausable River Journal, and Atlantic > Salmon.
