Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”

by Rusty Dunn

A 12 year old boy named Walt moves with his family to Roscoe, NY in 1919 and meets a friend named Harry on the first day of seventh grade.  Walt and Har­ry shared an interest in fishing, and they became fast friends.  Roscoe lies in the heart of the Catskill Moun­tains, with famous trout streams but minutes away.  The area is a paradise for two outdoorsy twelve year olds, and this chance encounter led to a lifelong friendship.  The two boys and their future wives even­tually became legendary fig­ures of the “second gen­eration” of the Cat­skill school of fly tying.  They fol­lowed a decade or two after the Cats­kill style was fully refined, but they set the standard for quality of Catskill tying through much of the 20^th century.  If Amer­ican fly fish­ing were to have a royal family, the two couples – Walt & Winnie Dette and Harry & Elsie Darbee – would surely be the kings and queens.

Walt Dette (1907-1994) and Winnie Ferdon Dette (1909-1998) tied and sold Catskill flies for nearly 70 years beginning in 1927.  Walt realized at a young age that quality flies were in high demand by Roscoe’s angling visitors, and he thought that a fly-tying busi­ness might be prof­itable.  Winnie’s parents owned the River­view Inn, a lodge on the Bea­­verkill River that catered to fly anglers and was a perfect place to sell flies.  The trouble was, neither Walt nor Winnie knew how to tie the light, airy, perfectly proportioned Catskill flies tied by their famous originators.  An­gling giants such as Theo­dore Gordon, Herman Chris­tian, Roy Steen­rod, and Edward Hewitt established the Catskill style in the early 20^th century, and their fly pat­terns were in great demand by fly-fishing cognoscenti.

Walt Dette, therefore, approached a noted fly tyer, Reu­ben Cross, in 1928 and offered to hire Cross for fly-tying les­sons.  Walt promised not to divulge Cross’ tying meth­ods and not to com­pete with his fly-tying business.  Cross re­fused, saying he wasn’t about to share his closely guarded tying secrets.  Undeterred, Walt bought six dozen of Cross’ flies, in­cluding most or all of the local favor­ites.  Walt, Win­nie, and Harry then metic­u­lously disassem­bled the flies wrap by wrap, fea­ther by feath­er, knot by knot while taking notes and sketch­ing dia­grams.  The results yielded step-by-step guides to Cross’ exact tying se­quences.  Having thus been “men­tored” by an unwitting Reuben Cross, Walt, Win­nie, Harry, and (lat­er) Elsie Darbee began tying com­mer­cially.  In time, all four became unsur­passed mas­ters of the deli­cate Catskill style.

Walt and Winnie Dette sold flies at the River­­view Inn beginning in 1929.  The inn attracted some in­fluential an­glers from big eastern cities, and demand for their flies grew.  They soon pub­lished a mail-order cata­log that included 100 different patterns of mostly Catskill designs.  The quality of flies tied by Walt and Winnie is leg­endary.  Their consistency of propor­tions, beauty of con­struc­tion, and remarkable dura­bility were simply the best of the best.  Unlike their reluctant men­­tor Reu­ben Cross, Walt and Winnie freely shared their tying meth­ods and knowledge with anyone interested.  They taught fly tying to their daugh­ter, Mary Dette Clark, who in turn taught her grand­children.  The fam­ily business, Dette Trout Flies, still operates today as it has for dec­ades – from the front room of Walt and Winnie’s mod­est home on Cot­tage Street in Ros­coe, NY.  Stop in for some his­toric flies and a glimpse of a golden age of Catskill fly fishing.

Walt Dette designed many flies, but only a handful per­sist today.  Walt’s best known patterns are his Cof­fin Fly, an imitation of Green Drake spinners, and the Del­aware Adams, an attractor dry named after the Dela­ware River. The upper Delaware was a poor trout fish­ery until the 1960s, when New York State built two bot­tom-draw dams that created ~70 miles of quality tail­water fishing.  The river today offers some of the finest trout fishing in the East.  Walt developed the Dela­ware Adams in the 1970s as an alternative to Pennsylva­nia’s pop­u­lar and effective Henryville Spe­cial.  It is an excellent attractor that floats well, is high­ly vis­ible, and – most importantly – catches fish at all times of the year.

Copyright 2023, Rusty Dunn

Delaware Adams