The Little Trout of Samuel R. Slaymaker II

I have been tying these trout imitations for decades, in sizes from 12 all the way up to size 2.  In the smaller sizes I often omit the cheeks and may even just paint a white dot on the head.  I have found it doesn't matter though.  Fished accross and down, or dragging in a frantic twitch accross or up stream, these flies can be murder.  Tied with polar bear hair in place of bucktail they virtually come alive in the water. 

I present the patterns as originally listed in Bates' "Streamers and Bucktails, The Big Fish Flies."  1979 with commentary as needed. 


Little Brown Trout Bucktail
As per Bates, with a slight alteration*
Hook: size: 2-12, 6x long
Head: Black
Tail: A very small breast feather, with the dark center removed, from a ringneck pheasant.  The feather is as long as the gap of the hook and curves upward.
Body: Wound with white spun wool
Ribbing: Copper wire (narrow flat gold tinsel may be substituted, *I used medium oval copper tinsel)
Throat: None
Wing: Of four very small separated bunches of hair, extending slightly beyond the tail.  A very small bunch of yellow bucktail over which is a very small bunch of reddish-orange bucktail, slightly blended.  Over this is a very small bunch of medium dark squirrel tail, topped and slightly blended with a very small bunch of dark brown squirrel tail. 
Cheeks: Jungle Cock

Little Brook Trout Bucktail
As per Bates
Hook: size: 2-12, 6x long
Head: Black
Tail: A very small bunch of bright green bucktail, under or over which is a section cut from bright red floss, both slightly longer then the gap of the hook.
Body: Wound with cream coloured spun fur
Ribbing: Narrow flat silver tinsel
Throat: A small bunch of bright orange bucktail, the same length as the tail. 
Wing: Of four very small separated bunches of hair, extending slightly beyond the tail.  A very small bunch of white bucktail over which is a very small bunch of bright orange bucktail, slightly blended.  Over this is a very small bunch of bright green bucktail, topped with a very small bunch of barred badger hair
Cheeks: Jungle Cock

Little Rainbow Trout Bucktail
As per Bates
Hook: size: 2-12, 6x long
Head: Black
Tail: A very small bunch of bright green bucktail, slightly longer then the gap of the hook.
Body: Wound with pinkish-white fur
Ribbing: Narrow flat silver tinsel
Throat: A small bunch of pink bucktail, the same length as the tail. 
Wing: Of four very small separated bunches of hair, extending slightly beyond the tail.  A very small bunch of white bucktail over which is a very small bunch of pink bucktail, slightly blended.  Over this is a very small bunch of bright green bucktail, topped with a very small bunch of natural badger hair
Cheeks: Jungle Cock

The first of this trio to be tied was the Little Brown trout, followed by the Little Brook trout.  The colours were decided by having a pair of small hatchery fish, a brook and a brown, cast into clear plastic resin.  This could be manipulated to expose the different colours of the fish separately.  Then the correct shade of material was chosen.   They were originally tied for production by the Weber Tackle Company of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. 

All three of these streamers have done so well in catching fish that they have been featured in several national magazines and in Slaymaker's own book "Tie a Fly, Catch a Trout"(New York: Harper & Row, 1976).  It was this reputation and the obvious beautiful looking realism that drew me to these streamers, and I have not been disappointed. 

Bali Duck or Yanosh streamers

At left we see two streamers, the Bali Duck and the Jesse Wood Streamer.  They are both as per the patterns in Joe Bates' 1981 tome, Streamers and Bucktails.  I will describe the patterns momentarily.  Firstly though I wanted to pose a question:  What really is Yanosh, also known as Bali Duck? I don't mean, what do we substitute for it today, I mean, what was the real thing?
I did a web search and found references to cooking recipes and other non-related things, but not the answer to my question.
I began examining ducks to see if I could decipher from the pictures where the feathers would come from on the duck, and what the original Bali duck was.
There are several species of  duck where the drakes possess feathers resembling in some way the feathers I see in Bates;  Baikal teal, Falcated duck, Pintail, Gargany, and Oldsquaw in early summer plumage for examples.  Endeavouring to find the one most like the photos though was tough.  I don't know any one who owns any of the above mentioned ducks, and though I have several Pintail skins, these initially seemed to me the least like Yanosh/Bali of the lot.   I managed to get some winter Oldsquaw, and was disappointed, still havent managed Falcated, Baikal or Gargany.
After talking online with many people though, and locally to a few old-timers who remember this stuff as a kid, I re-examined my "hoard" of Pintail, compared it with better photos and decided it was close enough, and in fact was later informed by a couple of reliable sources that indeed Yanosh was Pintail.
So here I present two Yanosh streamers, the Jesse Woods and the Bali Duck.  Attributions are listed in the photo.  The patterns are as follows:
Bali Duck Streamer
Head: black
Tag: narrow flat gold tinsel extending well into the bend
Butt: two turns of black chenille
Tail: fifteen or twenty strands of golden pheasant tippet, tied rather long
Body: medium embossed silver tinsel.  Just behind the throat is a forward butt of about four turns of peacock herl
Ribbing: medium flat silver tinsel between the two butts
Throat: two turns of brown hackle, tied down.  The hackle should be very soft and sparse.
Wing: two Bali  Duck feathers (sometimes known as Yanosh) back to back with the bends exactly alike and extending out past the tail by a tails length.
Cheeks: Jungle cock
Originated by Arthur Bates of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, for fishing the St. Marys river at the outlet of Lake Superior, and named by Ray Bergman in 1948.  As the trout (known locally as "Soo" trout) are very large, this fly is usually dressed on a size 2 hook.
Jesse Wood Streamer
Head: black
Tail: A narrow section of red duck wing feather, tied rather long.
Body: medium embossed or oval silver tinsel.  In early versions the body was dressed with fine silver wire.
Throat: furnace hackle tied back and down.  It should be short and thinly dressed.
Wing: two Bali duck feathers extending just beyond the tail. The upper part of the feathers should be light brown, the lower jet black.
Cheeks: Jungle cock, fairly short.
Originated by Jesse Wood of Warwick, New York in 1926, and developed with help from Ray Bergman.  Originally Wood preferred it dressed as a tandem, but Bergman liked it better in singles.  Known in Canada as the Demon Streamer.
The feather described here for the wing sounds a lot more like Baikal teal then it does Pintail.  I have been thinking lately that perhaps Bali or Yanosh wasn't so much a particular duck, as maybe the body part of a group of ducks.  I don't know really, so I leave it as an unanswered question.  What was the real Bali originally, and how do I get some?  (of course!)