Last week, someone used the search term “wet flies tied with jungle cock” to find currentseams. I found that intriguing because I had never tied a wet fly with jungle cock in my life. Sure, I’d done classic steelhead patterns. And untold numbers of flatwings and bucktails for stripers. But not a single wet with that most enchanting of feathers, the enameled nail from the cape of the male junglefowl.
Well, if someone took the trouble to navigate all the way to my humble site, they must have been disappointed when their search came up empty. And so, lonely internet sojourner, I took to the vise just for you. I have no idea who you are. But I hope you come back some day and find the little gift I left for you. And I thank you for the one you gave to me.
Here are four wets from Bergman’s classic, Trout. Clockwise from upper left: Silver Jungle Cock, Dr. Burke, Lord Baltimore, and Secret Pool No. 1. They are all tied on a size 8 1x short, 2x strong hook, the Orvis 1641.
Tying notes: Some tie the Silver Jungle Cock with a longer shoulder; I kept mine more thorax-like. I think this would make a great steelhead fly. It was the easiest of the four to tie.
You can tie the Dr. Burke with as many or as few peacock sword hackles as you like. I chose four for this size. Trivia: Dr. Burke is Dr. Edgar Burke, the man who painted all the files in the color plates at the beginning of Trout. Dr. Burke is credited with creating the Secret Pool No. 1 pattern.
The Lord Baltimore is the first Bergman-style wet I tied with a quill tail. It was far less intimidating than I imagined.
I didn’t have any claret hackle for the Secret Pool, so I used wine marabou. I also tend to use more golden pheasant tippet fibers in my tails; again, that’s an individual choice for each tyer. No matter how many fibers you use, I like to show the second black band.
currentseams.com 
Fantastic. I’ve had some jungle cock feathers in my possession for a while but I’m still waiting for a great reason to use them. Very fine job Steve.
Thanks Steve. Don’t be shy about using your nails for streamers, too. They make a great, impressionistic eye.
Wonderful flies, love the JC on them. Glad you put this out there. Beautiful stuff.
Thanks, Kel. I’m glad I saw that search term. There’s something captivating about this style of wet, isn’t there?
Beautiful feather wing flies! Just stepping into that world… The mechanics for tying on the wings will take a while to master…
I hadn’t tied quill wings in a good couple years before this winter. The Lord Baltimore gave me fits. Glad you liked!
Looking for a source of quality matched pairs of feathers. Any suggestions?
Don Bastian used to sell them. I bought a few from him at a show a while back. A lot of what I’ve got comes from my local fly shop. Like all feathers, it helps to be able to eyeball them. Nice thing about match quills is that they’re pretty cheap.
My local shops don’t carry that sort of thing. May have to wait til I go back up to Elderege Brothers in April – spey class!!! 🙂
Nice work Steve, very nice! And to your commenter, Thoughts on Design, I wanted to note that I am going to be at Eldredge Brothers in March teaching two days of classes, one on wet flies, the next day on streamers. The class info is ont heir website, and they also have a small selection of matched duck and goose wing quills.
Regarding the questions. The pandemic has surely changed our lives. My wife and I are retired and we try to keep our heads occupied with books etc. The zoom chats you ran were great and helped to make me aware of all the things I do wrong and some I do right. Have not done a lot of farmington river due to the heat. Last couple of weeks ventured out to Boneyard and Beaver Pool. Have a farm pond that has a lot of panfish and good size bass, so have gotten lots of practice.
Sounds good, Dan. I’m stoked that you liked the Zooms. Did you see I’m doing a public one (Little Things 3.0) for the Middletown Library on Oct 14?