Alder Fly

This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Alder Fly.

Alder Fly | www.johnkreft.com

This fly is an old English fly pattern that is hundreds of years old. In fact, some quick Internet research suggests it may have been developed around 1496 when it was included in Dame Juliana Berners first fly fishing book Fysshe and Fysshynge.

I wonder if there is a similar fly in one of my Antique Fly Wallets. Other old fly wallets can be found at Antique Fly Wallets Revisited. I’ll have to check.

I have to be honest. I’ve never fished this fly. Found it and if I were to fish if, I’d do so during a caddis hatch.

I think it would catch fish!

Similar Posts

  • Juan’s Condor Nymph

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Juan’s Condor Nymph. OK, it might not be a true Throw Back Fly, bit it fits my theme of our recent trip to Argentina. Juan Carlos Carrera was one of our guides from SET Fly Fishing during our stay at Estancia Chochoy Mallin in NW Argentina. He pulled…

  • Chernobyl Ant

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Chernobyl Ant. It’s an attractor fly pattern and can imitate cicada, crickets, grasshoppers, and stoneflies. Larry Tullis of Orem, Utah relays the fly’s development in Tying Flies with Foam, Fur, and Feathers by Harrison Steeves. Larry tied up a foam body cicada from a beach sandal in the late…

  • Ray Bergman’s Saltoun

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Ray Bergman’s Saltoun wet fly. The Saltoun is a Ray Bergman dry fly listed in his book entitled Trout (1940 – fourth printing) on page 222, Plate No. 8. Bergman was well known for his wet flies, but his book also lists dry flies, streamers, nymphs, steel head and land…

  • Light Spanish Needle

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Light Spanish Needle. The Light Spanish Needle is another old fly pattern listed in The North Country Fly – Yorkshire’s Soft Hackle Tradition (2015) by Robert L. Smith. Many of these older soft hackle fly patterns come from the Yorkshire Dales in northern England. Wharfedale is a small area…

  • Mother’s Day Caddis

    The Mother’s Day Caddis hatch is well-known and can be amazing to see. And it’s right around the corner. Yes, all those dots in the picture are caddis flying over the water! Thousands and thousands of American Grannom (Brachycentrus occidentalis) hatch at this time of year. These caddis are the ones building square-shaped cases you…

  • Ray Bergman Pathfinder

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Ray Bergman Pathfinder. The Ray Bergman Pathfinder is a Ray Bergman wet fly listed in his book entitled Trout (1940 – fourth printing) on page 169, Plate No. 7. As I’ve mentioned many times, I enjoy highlighting a Bergman wet fly because it forces me to sit…

2 Comments

  1. Hi John,

    The Alder Fly tied as a wet fly and also as a streamer has long been a favorite. Al’s largest river trout (in his life) was taken on an Alder Fly wet-style pattern from the Clark Fork River in north Idaho in 1988. We like to tie the streamer version with a brown or white calf tail wing. Take care & …
    Tight Lines – (Gretchen &) Al Beatty

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the comment Al!

      Your comment is EXACTLY why I enjoy posting older flies. It seems to strike chords/memories in fly fishers and I’m the recipient of their stories! I really enjoy them.

      Thanks again.

      John

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *