Spruce Peacock

This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Spruce Peacock, a fly pattern developed by Polly Rosborough.

Spruce Peacock | www.johnkreft.com

I found this fly on a display at the International Federation of Fly Fishers Museum in Livingston, MT. I took this picture of Polly’s Spruce Peacock through the glass display in a dark room and I think it turned out quite well. It’s is one of several flies in a display entitled Polly’s Proven Killers.

The Spruce Peacock appears to be a variation of the Spruce Fly, originally developed in the 1930’s by Don Godfrey to catch sea-run cutthroat trout on the Oregon coast.

Ernest H. “Polly” Rosborough (1902 – 1997) tied a large variety of flies but is probably best known as an author of Tying and Fishing the Fuzzy Nymph (1965). Polly lived in Chiloquin, Oregon and his home river was the Williamson River. 

Here are a couple other TBT Rosborough flies – the Dark Caddis and his Grasshopper

Enjoy…go fish!

Similar Posts

  • Rogan’s Fancy

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Rogan’s Fancy. I found this fly on the wall in the cabin we stayed in on the Madison River. I wasn’t aware at the time, but my friend Richard Rohrbagh tied it.

  • Davie McPhail

    There are a lot of talented fly tyers out there. A rare combination is when you find someone who can tie beautiful flies and TEACH too. Davie McPhail is one of those tyers. Davie is from Scotland and has a Youtube channel I frequently watch. Youtube states he joined on June 26, 2009 and has posted…

  • Lady Caroline

    I thought it appropriate to offer the Lady Caroline as this week’s TBT fly. Yes, I just blogged about tying it in the last week in Tying Spey Flies – I’m Scared, but it’s perhaps the most famous spey fly. John Shewey in his Spey Flies & Dee Flies book suggests there is evidence “Geordie”…

  • More Euro Nymphs

    I’ve been tying a lot of flies lately. At out last Central Oregon Flyfisher’s Winter Fly Tying class, owner Jeff Perin of The Fly Fisher’s Place in Sisters, OR taught three nymphs. His class inspired me to tie more Euro nymphs. So I decided to tie up a few of Jeff’s fly patterns for my…

6 Comments

  1. James, great idea! I agree..it would be great if John would develop or create the step by step tying instructions and material lists for his Throw Back Thursday flies. Including the pictures of each step. Winter fun thing keep him buzy HA!

    1. James

      Thanks for your comment. You know, I do provide fly pattern sheets for quite a few of my Throw Back Thursday Flies…just not all of them. I have to fish too!! 🙂

      John

  2. You know this is Ron Anderson favorite fly. Ginman always gave him big heat about using it. Ask Ron about that.max

Leave a Reply

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