This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is called The Baker. It’s another Atlantic Salmon fly I pulled out of an older box, the same box as The Kate and Rosy Dawn.
The Baker is one of the oldest classic Atlantic Salmon fly patterns. As I’m learning with my brief history research on these flies, several well-known tyers had slightly different variations. These include Francis Francis and Kelson to name a couple. And the fly in the picture is a slightly different variation from the fly dressings I found.
I read the fly was credited to a Mr.Jewhurst of Tunbridge, Kent, England at the beginning of the 19th century.
Here is the dressing per Geo. M. Kelson from his book The Salmon Fly, page 109:
| Materials | |
| Tag: | Gold twist and light blue silk. |
| Tail: | A topping and Gallina. |
| Butt | Black herl. |
| Body: | Yellow silk, light orange, blue and dark claret Seal’s fur, equally divided. |
| Ribs: | Gold tinsel. |
| Hackle: | Dark claret from second turn. |
| Throat: | Gallina and light blue hackle. |
| Wings: | Two tippets (back to back) veiled with Golden Pheasant tail, light Bustard, Grey Mallard, Peacock wing, Swan dyed light blue, yellow, and dark claret; and Mallard above. |
| Horns: | Blue Macaw. |
Kelson’s note after the dressing states “One of the oldest standards, and a favourite on most rivers.”
Enjoy…go fish!
