This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Langtry Special TBT.
I found this old article from the Bend Bulletin in a box of donated fly tying materials describing the Langtry Special.
A friend of mine took his first fly tying lesson many years ago from Judge Virgil Langtry in a Maupin, Oregon church basement. Langtry was an Oregon Circuit Court Judge and evidently enjoyed fishing the Deschutes River around Maupin.
As with many popular flies, there are many variations. Kaufmann’s Stimulator comes to mind and looks very much like the Langtry Special. In Randall Kaufmann’s book entitled Tying Dry Flies (1991), he states his Stimulator was developed from a variety of other popular flies.
Here is Kaufmann’s Stimulator Golden Stone.
I tied this size 8 Langtry Special today to imitate a Golden Stonefly, but wished I had it on the Lower Deschutes last week on our fishing trip. I wonder if any of the fish still recognize the fly! I’ll save it for the next trip down the river.
Enjoy…go fish!
Do you have a date on the Langtry Special? It would be interesting to ask Randall if he knew of this fly prior to 1991. I may be totally off base, but I seem to recall that Kaufmann’s had John Hazel guiding for them at Maupin around then, if not earlier.
Wayne
Thanks for your comment about the Langtry Special. No, I don’t know when the fly was developed. There may be several people around that know the answer. Just another little bit of fly fishing history.
John