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Melvin Bay fly pattern was one of Jim Warner's creations. As with many flies there is a story behind them. I have a handful of his files, some are his creations others are patterns he tied for his shop that others created. I have a bunch of Carrie Stevens patterns that he tied and sold in large numbers. He had a pattern called the Wolfeboro Bay which was basically a Mickey Finn that was topped with a white marabou plume. The Melvin Bay was identical to the Wolfeboro Bay but he substituted a dark blue dun marabou plume in place of the white one. Story goes that he was trying to wean a few of the locals off the traditional Grey Ghost which is how the Melvin Bay came about. I've seen this fly tied many times and often the marabou is very light grey. My understanding is the color of the marabou needs to be dark blue dun. It is supported in the flies I have of Jim Warner......all the grey is dark blue dun. The challenge comes in finding the marabou in the dark blue dun. When I see it, I scoop it up because os is hard to come by. The body on this fly is very unique. It is wrapped with silver oval tinsel and ribbed with flat river tinsel. I often have this as a pattern to sell at shows I tie at. If a real die hard Winnipesaukee angler comes by my table and sees one of these flies it gets an immediate reaction. Usually the story starts with "thats a deadly pattern". Hook Partridge Heritage 7 or 9x down eye streamer Body Silver oval tinsel ribbed with flat silver tinsel Throat Red hackle fibers Wing First layer sparse yellow bucktail or capras Second layer sparse red bucktail or capras Third layer dark blue dun marabou plume Fourth layer black silver pheasant crest or black ostrich herls Head White eye with black pupil
1 Comment
Manuel Franco
12/3/2023 06:05:31 pm
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AuthorScott Biron is a fly tyer from New Hampshire. Archives
December 2023
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