The Whisperer’s Fly Box

Much Ado About Something

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Picture # 1 shaving brush variations. All catch fish, Deer hair (left), Hare hair (middle), I didn’t tie this one, Possum hair (less left).

Picture # 2 Caudal Filaments or tail  of a Dun and Spinner  seeking refuge on board  ‘The Trout Whisperer’..

Picture # 3 moggy  before negotiation,  arbitration and reconciliation and realisation!
Pictures of  ‘after negotiation, arbitration and  reconciliation’ have failed are not available. Remember, I use road kill.

Picture # 4 feed whiskers through the bead head; this keeps them longer on the shank. Loosely hold whiskers in position with a few turns and adjust length before tightening the thread.

Picture # 5  The ‘bees knees’ bead head Nymph with whiskers and  Alpaca wool brushed out. Looks good enough to eat.

Picture #6 A Quoll, recently bailed up by my Rottweilers for invading their territory without a permit but safely released.

Picture #7 A Possum showing a full ‘flog’ of whiskers, more than I have on my head or so it seems. About 20 each side, enough for about 15 flies.

Flies come and go not just the once you squash or kill with your supermarket supplied WMD’s (Weapon of Mass ‘Distraction’ – as if you didn’t know) - fly spray.

I’m talking about such classic ‘dries’ as Hardy’s Favourite, Greenwell’s Glory, Watson’s Fancy, Royal Coachman (– now called Australia Post, because it delivers – eventually!) or the ‘wets’ like Graig’s Night Time, Taihape Tickler, or Alexandria and many more. Some of you might not even know most of those names or have never fished with these flies. I have, it gives not only my age away but also tells you that I am at this ‘game’ for quite some time.

Not that fish don’t take those ‘oldies’ any more, but fishermen don’t buy them any more. And if fishermen don’t buy them any more, shops don’t stock them any more and if shops don’t order them any more, the factories in China, Africa or Asia don’t make them any more and if they don’t make them any more, fishermen don’t use them any more, and if they don’t buy them any more, shops … ad infinitum (etc, etc, etc.).

Having said that, the wheels of industry must keep turning and churning and fly fishers are the hub of that wheel. New flies must hit the market, utilising new materials like foam, plastic, or are replacing other natural materials like seal fur whose use is now frowned upon and no longer desired or available in an effort to make the seals commercially less marketable. They still slaughter (the seal killers call it ‘harvesting’) the seal for other trifle reasons, but it makes us feel better if we don’t buy seal fur. I’ll put my cards on the table right here, I am against the slaughter of baby seals and will not buy seal fur.

Alpaca hair or is it called ‘wool’? can be obtained by shearing rather than killing the animal and it is so much easier to die and tie.  Let’s face it seals don’t have that much fur to start with and they need every bit of it to stay warm amongst all that white stuff. New artificial dubbing materials also have become more refined, come in many colours and even shades of colours, are easier to use and are more durable.

One fly material, although not artificial, I seem to have more and more use for in my fly creations is possum hair. My shaving brush is much more buoyant tied with possum hair rather than tied with the conventional deer hair, or hare hair (say that quickly when you’re sober) and so is my possum merger. (picture #1)

But recently I discovered the material “of choice”, as they say in the medical profession, for my nymph and spinner caudal filaments. Picture #2

Caudal filament? What the heck is the Whisperer on about now? The pubs aren’t open yet and he uses foul or is it fowl language already. Stay with me folks; ‘caudal filaments’ are the fine, flexible, filamentous extension of the caudal-fin tip of chimaeras. There you go; you’ve known it all the time, you just never got around to ‘googleing’ it.

What you didn’t know is that they’re commonly called tails, the anatomical directional term means: ‘toward the back’, ‘toward the tail’.

And what may you ask is that recently discovered material “of choice”?

Wait for it…. Whiskers. What? I hear you think – Whisky? NO – Whiskers!

Picture #3

What the hell is good about whiskers? Well I’ll tell you what is good about whiskers, EVERYTHING.

They’re strong, don’t break, don’t kink, don’t squash, they are flexible, perfectly shaped, long enough for the longest caudal filaments a nymph or spinner would like to sport.

Take my word for it, whiskers are the bees knees – oops!

In my case I get my whiskers from the opposite end from where I get the possum tail. But you can use your moggy or doggy whiskers or even rats, if you have any in your chicken coop, garden shed or pantry.

Possum whiskers are black and that’s suits me fine, but if your ‘Sylvester’ or ‘Rover’ has only white whiskers, don’t despair, there are permanent marker pens which – and I just checked one – dry instantly, are water proof and mark on anything, so it says, and whiskers come under ‘anything’.

You can colour your whisker to suit your nymph or spinner body, brown, green, black or orange or even speckled.

The ‘Achilles heel’ of my nymphs has always been its tail – just stay with me on this one. Any of the deer hairs or feather fibres I used to use are too soft, too brittle, too short or too whatever. I tried deer hair, fox tail hair, moose hair, but these either kink or squash easily or are just not well shaped and they vanish before my 2000 casts are done.

Whiskers, so I discovered, are another ‘kettle of fish’ altogether. Well, whiskers/hair, by design is almost indestructible; it doesn’t rot/decay quickly as we discussed under leaders and tippets in my book and is strong enough to sustain 5000 casts and a few seasons in the flybox for another 5000 casts or so next season.

Picture # 4 & 5

Whiskers function like proximity detectors or warning antenna when a subject is too close to focus on. If you would cut a pussy’s whisker, it soon grows back, just like hair (except mine, it has given up growing since my teens or so it seems, the money I save on shampoo I spend on shoe polish) and further more the square/cut end will wear to a point again.

On the nymph they also function like proximity antenna sort of like the rear gunner. If something touches the caudal filaments from behind, usually something hungry, the nymph is being warned.

In Tasmania (due to the absence of Foxes – or so we hope) we have our fair share of road kill and most have whiskers. Kangaroos, possums, hares, devils, wallaby’ etc so there is no shortage of whiskers for me. I don’t have to mutilate the moggy or doggy and so my Rottweilers never have to ‘donate’ any whiskers. So, before you’re going to ask the pussy to give up a whisker or three, you better contact your ‘Local Animal Rights Group Representative’ [LARGR] and ensure that it is classed as a donation instead a mutilation. Consult your family members, have a war council and an RC (Reconciliation Commission) or something. It works for governments, why wouldn’t it work for you?

Negotiate! Lets face it, cats are amazingly intelligent creatures. Your bargaining chip is ‘Dine for discerning cats’ or catch-it-yourself skanky scrawny mice. Cats know what a win loose combination that can be! But wait, there are feral cats, stray cats, neighbours ca… let’s not go there. In the words of Sergeant Schulz – “I know NOTHING”! (I can say that even with a German accent – and that’s no accident) And you better do nothing without the tacit authorisation of … well… something or somebody.

Don’t send demoralising and politically corrected e-mails to me, I am past retribution and …. I’ve gone fishing.

Tight lines and good luck, I got away with that by a whisker.

If you would like to contact me for comments or contributions click here: thetroutwhisperer@bigpond.com