Fly Plates

I was asked to make a 24 streamer fly display for a friend of mine Danny Hashem, who wanted to give it as a gift.  Great project and it came out very well.  All of the patterns were New England based and several are some lesser know ones.  
On top of that I came across some Canadian postage stamps of historic fly patterns.  One of the stamps was the Cosseboom.  The Cosseboom is a very historic salmon fly pattern that is widely known as one of the more productive patterns.  The fly was developed by John Cosseboom back around 1923.  I happen to have a good friend who is a descendent of John Cosseboom and an avid fly angler and tyer.  I figured who better to get one of the first day issued Cosseboom stamps with a fly I tied to go with it.  After I tied the fly and posted a photo I was contacted by another fly tyer who said he had some of John Cosseboom's original floss that he used on the fly and send me some.  I re-tied the fly, re-mounted it and gave a bit of history to my friend Chuck Cosseboom.
This I have mentioned many times but I grew up fly fishing on the Androscoggin River in the town of Errol, NH.  My grandfather had one of the first camps that he build at the base of Bragg's Bay.  Its kind of cool but he was very friendly with the legendary game warden Harry Hurlbert and purchased the land for the camp from Harry.  I remember a few times seeing Harry visit the camp and my grandfather.  For me the river always was and still is a special place.  My dad his brother and many other relatives all fished the river and learned of its unique history.  When I came upon the Canadian fly stamps I also found one for the Androscoggin River and its first day issue.  I turned that into a gift for my friend Rick Estes, who like myself has a lot of history with the big river.  The challenge with this was to find some streamer patterns that were old and had some history to the river and or northern NH.  Several years ago I uncovered a few which I tied and then I developed one of my own the 13 Mile Special.  The plate now occupies a space in Rick's new fly tying room.