John Glaspy Flies

    Tricolor
          A John Glaspy Fly
             

Tricolor is tied by contributing fly tyer John Glaspy. See his extensive notes about this fly below. John has been adding regularly to our collection of Pacific Salmon flies with some flies that you will want to have in your box. You can see more of his flies for Pacific Salmon at The Flies of John Glaspy.

John's Notes: This fly earned a permanent place in my Alaska Silver Salmon flybox based upon a single performance. One evening a few years ago, after a day on the river, I was showing a friend how to tie the Battle Creek, a good salmon fly in its own right. I found I had no pink chenille, so I used chartreuse for purposes of the demonstration. One of the nattering nabobs who seem to materialize when you're tying flies at a fishing lodge opined confidently that the fly we had tied was worthless. Of course, this made me determined to use the fly the next day. On that one memorable morning, all of the usual flies were performing adequately, producing an occasional fish; the new fly produced a salmon on every cast, and this continued until the hook was bent and dulled beyond hope. I had no others, and, mortal once more, fished the rest of the day with our usual flies, with average results. Having performed spectacularly and died bravely, the new fly deserved a name, so we called it the Tricolor because it reminded us of the Irish flag. Since that day, the Tricolor has never repeated its debut magical performance, but has been a consistent producer. Over time, it has become a valued second-stringer, something to try when the fly that should work fails. It is useful for both Silver and Chum salmon; I have no experience using it for Kings. I have since noticed that the combination of an orange head or collar with a chartreuse body is used in several salmon flies with which I've had success and this may be the secret of the Tricolor.