Fly Fishing Forum banner

Steelhead Fly of the week – Dean River Lantern

6K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  Eric 
#1 ·
Dr. Arthur Cohen of San Francisco, California invented this fly for fishing the Dean River of course. He has also been credited with discovering Edge-Brite as a fly tying material. The original Dean River Lantern was tied with mono fishing line wound over a base of brightly colored floss. Bob Wagoner, a professional fly tier from Lewiston, Idaho is credited with making this fly popular. Although it is not called for in the original recipe, I have also seen this fly dressed in green.


Hook: Up eye salmon hook.
Tail: Black Squirrel tail.
Body: Red, Orange or Yellow Edge-Brite over silver tinsel.
Collar: Soft hackle, color to match body.
Head: Color to match body.
 

Attachments

See less See more
1
#2 ·
Charlie,

I've seen the latern tied with every color Edge Brite that has been available (i.e. orange, red, pink, yellow, purple, green, and blue). And since the latern is really only a comet tied with Edge Brite over tinsel for the body (I've seen gold, copper, blue, red, pearl, and green tinsel used as underbodies), they can, have been, and are tied in all the comet color variations folks have thought of.

Some of them are even tied with bead chain or lead eyes, just like some of the comets.

You didn't mention how bright the bodies on laterns are though. Sun glasses might be needed to tie them on if the sun is out.
 
#3 ·
Russ,

Since I tied that thing I haven’t seen the Sun out around my neck of the woods, rain, rain and more rain, but I know what you are talking about. Edge-Brite has some interesting properties. From the picture the stuff looks like is opaque but it is not.

I wanted to do a few different colors but Edge-Brite has been hard to find in my area. I think I am going to have to dig out the catalogs this fall.

Charlie.
 
#6 ·
Beautiful job!

This fly, in weighted and unweighted versions, depending on where the fish are, works well for Chinook and Chums in fresh water. The green dressing you mentioned is often very effective for Chums.

Cheers,

Eric
 
#7 ·
Thanks Eric,

Any particular size? I don’t often go after salmon in my local rivers but I went out Monday for steelhead and the river was loaded with Chinook. I had some luck with the steelhead but the Chinook would not even look at what I was chucking at them.

Charlie.
 
#9 ·
Lantern sizes for Chinook:

We didn't use really large flies -- generally 4's. Fish were clustered in the slowest parts of the pools and bead-chain eyes on sink tip lines were enough to get the flies to their level. Many of the grabs came on a slow strip back through the holding areas. The fish would take from straight behind with a gentle, almost trout -like "pluck pluck" at the fly before latching on with a solid pull.

Cheers,

Eric
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top