I’m constantly being asked about the history of fly patterns so I thought I’d use this part of the website to cover some of the more important milestones, most of which happened in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s. Even though there are many more books being written nowadays, most of the original ideas were spawned 30 to 40 years ago. The year 1965 seemed to kick everything off.





The first No-Hackle Fly -- 1965
Swisher & Richards -- AuSable River
 Hair Wing --Split Tails


Between 1965 and 1966, the tails were made of hair or hackle fibers, either clumped or split with thread and the wings were made of hair or hen hackle fibers, either clumped or spread from waterline to waterline. Carl and I simply called it a Hairwing or Henfiber No-Hackle. Years later, someone else “re-invented” it and called it a Comparadun.

In 1967 we refined the pattern and called it a Sidewinder No-Hackle. Duck Quill wings were mounted from the sides of the body and we split the tail fibers around a ball of dubbing. This gave us 4 outriggers and more positive flotation.

Sidewinder After 12 Fish

Duck Shoulder Sidewinder 

Green Drake Paradun
C Richards   1968

Catskill Paradun

Sulphur Sidewinder

Sulphur Paradun
AuSable River

Before Erinie Schweiberts "Matching the Hatch" and our "Selective Trout" hit the market, spinners were basically ignored. Now, for some hatches, they can be the most important stage to the angler because they're on the water longer than the duns. Most spinner patterns on today market use synthetic fibers for the wings, mainly because they're so easy to tie, but if you have super-fussy fish, light gray hen tips are much more effective. Partridge is also very deadly.

Original Hen Spinner
Tying tip: Mount wings concave sides up
for better floatation and more realism.

Trico Hen Spinner
Size 22----1968

Extended Body Hen Spinner

Double Wing Hex Spinner

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