Mark Willigar Flies

Athol Wine
Mark Willigar Flies

This fly stems from asking a guy what he caught a grilse on one morning, and he lied and told me it was similar to this pattern, but I found out later, it was actually something else he caught it on. Me being a young guy and bothering him to ask "whatcha catch that on?", he wasn't a very friendly sort, so he reluctantly answered me, telling me it had a wine colored body, squirrel wing, and yellow hackle. I promptly went home and proceeded to tie a reasonable facsimile. This is basically what I come up with. I explained it to a guy that knew him, and he said "he lied to ya boy, it was a Cosseboom he was using that day!" The thing is, for several seasons, I caught salmon on this fly and still have one in my box, good thing I was gullible enough to believe him. This is also named after a community where I fished salmon growing up.