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

by Rusty Dunn

Summer approaches, and the sweet of the year is fading fast.  The abundant hatches of spring, when fishing is easy and everyone is an expert, will soon fade.  Before you know it, the dog days of summer will be at hand.  If you’re like most fly anglers, you’ve suf­fered your share of indignities so far this season.  Insults from those picky fish of March, who refused your finest BWO imitations.  Were they too big or the wrong shade of olive?  Maybe the trout were feeding on midges?  Who knows!  Or those snobby trout of April, who slashed at every­thing except your beautifully tied caddis imitations.  Or those single-minded fish of late May and early June, who keyed on some indecipherable feature of emerg­ing sulfurs and thumbed their noses at your entire fly box.  Summer, however, is a time for some angler payback.  Hatches have waned both for you and for the trout.  The trout can no longer afford to be choosy.  It’s time to tease and torture the little bastards.  Time to drive ’em crazy.  Time to show ’em who’s boss.  Yes, it’s time for Edward Hewitt’s Neversink Skater, one of the most unlikely flies you will ever see.

Edward Hewitt (1866-1957) developed his Neversink Skater in 1937 for the sultry days of summer on New York’s Neversink River.  The fly is the essence of simplicity, tied only of thread and hackle.  The hackle, however, is outra­geously long.  Hewitt con­ceived of the fly while watch­ing large trout leap for fluttering butterflies in broad day­light.  Skaters float high and delicately, perched on the tips of their over­sized hackle.  When skipped, skated, and danced over trout, skaters often provoke violent and repeated at­tacks.  They are unorthodox attrac­tors – flies for those bright sunny days when the sur­face is barren and the fish are lethar­gic.  It’s a fly with an uncanny ability to raise fish from the deep at a time when nor­mal dry fly fishing is futile.  Many dis­tinguished authors, includ­ing Vince Marinaro, Charlie Fox, Charles Brooks, John Atherton, and Ernie Schwiebert sang its praises.  They all described the magic of Hewitt’s Neversink Skater and its ability to take untouchable fish on bright sunny days.  ­As Vince Marinaro said,

“The only safe rule I can offer is that the fisher­man should carry a few at all times and try them when everything else fails – or try them before everything else fails.”

“Variants”, “Spiders”, and “Skaters” are related dry fly designs that all utilize overly large hackle.  They are high floating flies that ride lightly on the sur­face.  First intentional use of oversized hackle to float a dry fly is attributed to Dr. William Baigent in 1875.  His ‘Baigent’s Brown’ would be considered a Vari­ant in today’s jargon, although he didn’t use the term.  Vari­ants have long tails, optional wings, and a collar of hackle that is about one size larger than normal pro­portions.  Spiders go one step further.  They are simi­lar to Vari­ants, but have no wing and sport a collar of even longer hackle.  (The term “Spider” also refers to soft-hackled wet flies origi­nating in the north of Eng­land, but they are very different beasts.)  Vari­ants and Spiders are classic English patterns, but Hewitt’s Ne­versink Skater is uniquely American.  It takes the concept of oversized hackle to the extreme.  Skaters have no body, tail, or wings – only wraps of enor­mously long hackle.  They are hackled puff­balls and, like the pro­verbial thistle down, land gently and float softly.  They “tip-toe” on the surface guided by the slightest tug of leader or puff of wind.

Try fishing Skaters during those slack periods when nothing is hatching.  Treat the fly and leader with floatant, cast up-and-across or down-and-across, and skate it over likely holding water.  The fly should twitch and bounce irregularly and lightly.  Keep it high, dry, and moving at all times.  Be prepared for explo­sive rises but set the hook slowly.  A skater’s hackle shields the hook point, and its hooking ability is rather poor.  The thrill of moving large fish in clear water on sunny after­noons, however, makes up for poor hook sets.  The added satisfaction of taunting those previ­ously super selective trout into sub­mission under tough condi­tions should be reward enough, espe­cially following those indignities of spring.

Copyright 2023, Rusty Dunn

Neversink Skater

Wrap two hackle feathers at mid-shank with the dull sides facing each other.  Popular hackle colors are honey, gin­ger, badger, furnace, black, and brown/grizzly mixed.  Finding suitably long hackle is difficult, and it should be cherished.  Coq de Leon rooster saddles have some excellent hackle for variants, spiders, and skaters.