I recently published a short feature series on W.C. Stewart’s spiders, three ancient and traditional Scottish soft hackles. They first appeared in print in Stewart’s 1857 book “The Practical Angler or the Art of Trout Fishing, more Particularly Applied to Clear Water.” Here now is a single reference list of the trio: the Black Spider, Red Spider, and Dun Spider, a photo of each pattern, and a link to the original post with my comments and tying instructions. If you’re interested in reading an online copy of Stewart’s Book, you can find one here.
W.C. Stewart on the soft-hackled feather: “So soft are they, that when a spider is made of one of them and placed in the water, the least motion will agitate and impart a singularly life-like appearance to it.” — W.C. Stewart
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Apply these to clear water near you, and let your mind wander back a few centuries. Picture Stewart on a wee Scottish burn, fishing his beloved spiders upstream…
currentseams.com 
morning, for us that missed your shows – it would be great if you did a video on the process of tying the above wet flies –
Thanks for the comment, Jim, and you’re right, these are video worthy. Especially since now I have my voice back…
Just stumbled across this page, great to see such authentic and well-dressed renditions of Stewart’s standard patterns. Still staggers me that ’The Practical Angler’; his impressive, concise and thoughtful distillation of angling knowledge, was written when William Stewart was a mere 24 years old.
Richard, I can’t thank you enough for your kind words, and I’m thrilled that you liked what you saw. I still haven’t read “TPA” all the way through…must do that.
[…] I received a message last week from a fan of Stewart’s Spiders. He was delighted to find them so lovingly rendered on this site by yours truly, so I thought it might be a good time and place to revisit them. (Yup, I’m still encumbered with house stuff and other projects.) If you haven’t seen them, you’ll like. This is simplicity, elegance, and deadly rolled into a single pattern format. Here’s the article link. […]