White Miller Dry Fly

This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the White Miller dry fly.

This is a fly a customer gave me as a sample to tie for him, a size 12 short-shank hook.

I did some quick research on a White Miller dry fly and couldn’t find much at all about the origins of the fly. It was listed as a fly the Dette’s tied in the Catskills. Most White Miller’s I found generally talk about the wet fly version. In fact, my usual source is Ray Bergman’s Trout and sure enough, I found it on Plate 9.

The fly itself seems fairly simple to tie, with one exception – the quill wings.

Perhaps they are simple for you to tie on the hook, but I certainly have problems with them. As I tell those who ask for advice on improving their fly tying, practice…practice…practice.

Well, I decided to take my own advice and tie a dozen each of size 12 and 14 White Millers.

It’s still a work in progress for me, but here are three that turned out OK. Not good, just OK.

I didn’t have very good white hackle for these flies. What I found in the garage was a Keogh tyer’s grade cape.

As I said earlier, I still need to practice more.

If you have more information about the White Miller dry fly, leave a Comment below and I’ll update this post.

Enjoy…go fish!