Presents... the Sol Duc Spey Fly (Syd Glasso)

The Sol Duc Spey was named for the Sol Duc River, a beautiful stream which threads from the glacial peaks of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula to the sea in our Pacific Northwest. The pattern belongs to a series of flies developed for use on the steelhead of the famous region. There are three flies in the series, The Sol Duc, Sol Duc Dark and the Sol Duc Spey. They were originated by Syd Glasso, a flyfisherman and flytyer of extraordnary talent. Glasso tied flies that were in a class by themselves.

He lived in the small logging town of Forks, Washington, known today among flyfishing and flytying circles as the spot that Syd Glasso fished, and the spot where he developed some of the most beautiful Steelhead patterns ever tied. This cheerful little town is still the destination of those seeking to experience the wild steelhead fishing that Mr. Glasso enjoyed, with both summer and winter runs in the Sol Duc, Calawah, Hoh, and Bogachiel Rivers in the area. The name "Forks" comes from the confluence of the Bogachiel, Calawah and Sol Duc Rivers and lies very near the Hoh River and it's famous temperate rain forest.

Glasso was truly innovative and a unique individual when it came to tying flies. He had an eye for detail and an exceptional ability to select material to sculpt into the shape and style of the hook he was tying on. The base of his flies or the style was set by the shape of the hook, in fact most of his flies were tied on the finest old salmon irons. Fine points and barbs, longer shanks and the finest of returned eyes.

His flies were finely tied with the slimmest of bodies, long graceful hackles, low set wings and finished off with tiniest and neatest heads. This in itself was quite a feat, most flies tied at this time were finished with marble sized heads - yet Glasso had all these materials exploding out of a tear drop. His flies are sleek and tied to perfection. He fished these patterns with confidence. The patterns he is best known for are his Steelhead Spey flies. While developing these patterns, he studied Atlantic Salomon fishing and tying methods. The original Spey patterns were the base of his flies that he developed for Steelhead flyfishing. "Spey" patterns originated on the River Spey in Scotland. Each river had its own set of local patterns, for example the Dee flies which are characterized by low, split wings. The Speys were classified by their long graceful body hackles and tented mallard wings. They were traditionally fished in the currents of the River Spey in early spring when the water was high and cold, in many ways similar to winter or spring steelhead conditions.

Most of the early Spey patterns were originated in the mid-1800's by streamside gillies. With their long mobile hackles it was thought that they had a shrimp-like or prawn-like look in the water. The best place to see examples of Syd Glasso's flies are in the plates of Trey Comb's Classic work "Steelhead flyfishing and flies". This is where I first became inspired to study his unique style of tying flies. Another publication where Glasso's artistry can be observed is in Bate's epic book "Atlantic Salmon and Flies and Fishing" (Bates, Joseph D., Jr). Glasso and Col. Bates compared notes (and flies) across geographical and cultural angling boundaries.

The Sol Duc Spey is a beautiful Steelhead Spey pattern with its bright Orange body, long yellow body hackle, tipped off with a black throat and winged with a set of low riding electric Orange hackle tips. One of my favorite Glasso patterns along with his Orange Heron.

Sol Duc Spey

hook	low water salmon hook size 2 or 1
body	rear half fluorescent orange
floss	front half hot orange seal's fur.
rib	flat silver tinsel. body hackle, long webby yellow hackle.
throat	long black Spey hackle.
wing	four matching hot orange hackle tips.

When tying the Sol Duc Spey I select a hook that has a slightly longer shank in size 1. For the body material and tying thread I use single strand waxed Rayon floss in fluorescent orange. I'll change over to 6/0 Danville red thread to finish off the fly at the head. Using waxed floss as the tying thread allows you to create the slimmest body profile.

Start behind the eye of hook and wind the floss back to the spot on the shank just above the point of the hook; then tie in the flat silver tinsel rib.

Start winding the floss towards the eye of the hook, but when you reach the spot where the second turn of tinsel will lay, tie in the body hackle of long yellow hackle.

Then proceed with my body material ( rayon floss ) to the middle of the body of the fly and add seal fur dubbing to finish off the front half of the body. Keep the dubbing as sparse as possible . This is when I tie off the floss with 6/0 tying thread in red.

I then take my flat silver tinsel rib and make five turns of tinsel and tie it off, then wind the yellow body hackle along the back edge of the tinsel and tie it off.

Apply the hackle so the fibers are sweeping toward the back of the fly.

Next I'll tie in the long fibered black Spey hackle for the throat, usually two turns. Clear any fibers from the top of the hook and pull the fibers down and towards the back of the fly. Now you ready for the wing.

The wing consists of four matching hot orange hackle tips. The best hackles for this are taken from a number 2 or 3 grade Rooster neck dyed hot Orange. Try to select hackles that are the right size for a fly this size. You should just strip off the webby or fluffy section of the hackle. The overall length of a hackle to fit a size 1 fly are between 1 3/4 to 2 inches in length. The best hackles in this size come from the sides of the neck, two from each side placed together make up a four hackle wing. There are a limited amount of these hackles on a neck so use them wisely. The shape of these feathers lend themselves to a low set wing. Try to set the wings so they sit low over the shank of the hook, a tent like appearance that veils the body slightly, ending at the back of the hook.

The wings should not extend beyond the bend of the hook.

Make sure wings are secure and finish off the head. When finishing off the head be sure to keep your thread flat with no twist. You want the thread to tie in flat. This helps in tying smaller heads on your flies. I use 4 coats of Cellire to finish off my heads.

Notes on Materials:

The hardest part of tying Spey flies is finding the correct hackles for the body hackles and throats. Their most important feature is the length of the fiber, then its texture and the thickness and length of the stem. The original material used were Heron hackles, now illegal. They had hackles with long fiber length and the texture most desired to tie flies with. Herons are water birds so their feathers naturally lend themselves to tying flies. Today we try to find materials with these qualities... not always easy. For the Yellow body hackle on the Sol Duc Spey we have a few modern day substitutes:

Yellow schlappen, a webby hackle taken from the sides of the tails of a Rooster make a good hackle, long enough fiber and a long thin stem. They are much like the original Spey Cock's hackle. They are white so they can be dyed any color.

Another hackle would be from the flank section of a swan or goose, bleached so to burn or remove some of the web then dyed yellow.

Mallard flanks of the largest size can be dyed yellow and make a fair sub.

The best hackles for a modern day substitute would be the hackles from a White or Brown Eared Pheasant. The natural color is white so they can be dyed the right shade of yellow.

The throat hackle is black and there are several hackles that can be used. Blue-eared Pheasant hackles can be dyed black for this purpose. Also on a blue-eared skin are feathers from under the tail that have a black or iridescent color that can be used in this natural color.

Some other feathers that can be used for throats on Spey flies are silver pheasant crests ( wound on like a hackle) or the black feathers taken from a ruffed grouse neck tuff. Its a natural black feather with a soft texture and long fiber length and the thinnest of stems to work with.

"There's something about a Spey fly in that it is dressed in the most rational way yet achieved of stimulating life struggling beneath the surface of the water "

- Eric Taverner: Salmon Fishing (1931)

- Bob Veverka