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

  • Checking My Fly Box

    I finally got around to checking my fly box to see if I need to tie a few March Brown mayfly imitations. I hope to fish them later this week on a favorite river. I know, it’s not March, but April is when they hatch on this water. I checked the Fly Imitations for Spring…

  • Don Martinez Golden Quail

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Don Martinez Golden Quail. Don Martinez (around 1903 – 1955), was born in Washington, Connecticut. His fly tying was influenced by fishing the Catskill area of New York. Martinez moved to Chicago where he was in the real estate business for a short time before moving on…

  • Stalcup’s CDC Biot Comparadun TBT

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Stalcup’s CDC Biot Comparadun TBT. You may have seen a couple Shane Stalcup flies in previous TBT posts. I received a Comment of appreciation for highlighting Shane’s flies from a friend of his, Jimbo Busse. I always enjoy receiving Comments about my TBT posts because I’ve stirred a thought…

  • 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…

  • Diving Damsel

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Diving Damsel nymph. I learned about the Diving Damsel nymph from a customer who contacted me to tie up a few custom flies. He had saved an article from the March/April 1997 edition of American Angler magazine. The article title was Designs on Damsels by John Shewey….

  • LaFontaine Diving Caddis

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the LaFontaine Diving Caddis. If you’re a frequent visitor to RiverKeeper Flies, you might recognize a theme of several LaFontaine Caddisflies, including the LaFontaine Deep Sparkle Pupa and the LaFontaine Emergent Pupa. Brown & Green Diving Caddis In the past week or so, we’ve been fishing later and…

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 *