As I sit here sipping my martini (proper James Bond Vesper not the bottled muck) I'm mulling over a conversation that I had with the venerable Mr Dixon this afternoon about the original tying of that famous pattern, the Loch Ordie.
According to my 1988 paperback version of John Roberts "new illustrated dictionary of trout flies" the Loch Ordie was tied by W.S Sinclair of Orkney at someone's request and the pattern is as follows
Starting at the bend work forward with the following hackles - black, very dark red/brown, dark red/brown, medium red, honey dun, ginger and finished off with the famous white hackle at the head.
Never having ever seen a honey dun cape and never having the money for every colour of red/brown I used to tie them black, dark red, light red, white and it caught fish. The entry the the dictionary is from Stan Headley (he wrote the Bible you know) so might just be horse pucky but I do recall that this was how the pattern was tied.
I think the pattern changed when flies became mass produced in foreign parts and the price of a fly with seven hackle would not be viable so the pattern was changed to what we know now.
Does anyone else recall it tied this way? Any other anecdotes or fibs?
(Of course it's all pointless now that the gold version is in my fly box but I do like the history of loch trout flies)
Next up the claret bumble...