Bucktailing in Puget Sound

     In about 1979-80 I was introduced to the following three patterns by Mr. Roy Patrick, so that I could tie them for sale in his fly shop in Seattle.  Little did I know at the time that these three patterns were to become my most successful salmon and sea-run cutthroat patterns for salt water.  Tied lightly, on small hooks and retrieved in a rapid, jerky motion such as a wounded bait-fish might have, these patterns are deadly.  Where they are really fun however is when fished by the method known as “bucktailing.” 
     Bucktailing is done when the water is flat and calm, usually in late summer.  In a small boat, going at a good clip, the fly is let out behind the boat and dragged along behind, right in the prop wash of the outboard.  You know that you are going fast enough when the fly begins to produce a rooster-tail of it’s own.  With the fly no more then about 15 or 20 feet behind the rapidly moving boat, with the drag off and the clicker on, you move around hunting for the fish.  If they are present, it won’t be long before they are streaking up behind the boat to snatch the fly, hooking themselves in the process (the reason for having the drag off) as they savagely grab the fly and bolt with it away from the boat.  The flies for this sport are usually tied on the heavy side to kick up a good wake behind them when they are dragged. 
     This is not how I usually have fished them however.  Usually it is a more standard approach of casting and retrieving.  My largest salmon caught though was on a tube fly version of the candlefish, sent down on the down-rigger to about one hundred and twenty feet, where upon the fly popped off the down-rigger, revealing that I had hooked into a king salmon of over 30lbs. 
     Easy to tie, versatile to use and extremely productive, these three have become my all time favourite salt-water flies.   I give you the patterns as best I remember them, which luckily are coincident with the patterns listed in Joseph Bates “Streamers and Bucktails, The Big Fish Flies,” as I no longer have the note paper on which Mr. Patrick wrote down the notes for me to tie from. The history given with each pattern is also from Bates, though anyone who has done any serious salmon fishing in Puget Sound knows this stuff already.  

Candlefish Bucktail    (As dressed by Roy A. Patrick)
Head:  Black, usually with white painted eye and black pupil
Body:  Medium flat silver tinsel. (If no ribbing is used, embossed tinsel is preferable.) 
Ribbing: Medium oval silver tinsel (optional)
Wing:  A very small bunch of white polar bear hair, over which is a very small bunch of pale green(*) polar bear hair, over which is a very small bunch of pale blue(*) polar bear hair. These three bunches make up the lower third of the wing. The middle third is a small bunch of medium red polar bear hair. Over this is a very small bunch of pale blue polar bear hair, over which is a very small bunch of pale green polar bear hair. As an optional topping a very small bunch of French blue (or violet) polar bear hair may be added. If this topping is not added, the two colors marked with an asterisk may also be eliminated. All the colors of hair are of the same length, extending well beyond the end of the hook.
     This fly, which originated in the Puget Sound area of the Pacific Northwest, was designed to imitate the candlefish, a prominent bait fish for coho (silver) salmon. It is the result of studies made by anglers there to obtain a combination of colors which would most closely approximate those of the candlefish. Prominent among these anglers were Roy A. Patrick, Letcher Lambuth, and Zell E. Parkhurst, all of Seattle, Washington. The fly is one of the few standard patterns, and one of the most successful, for fly fishing for coho salmon.

Herring Bucktail    (As dressed by Roy A. Patrick)
Head: Black, usually with white painted eye and black pupil
Body: Medium flat silver tinsel. (If no ribbing is used, embossed tinsel is preferable.)
Ribbing: Medium oval silver tinsel (optional)
Wing: A very small bunch of white polar bear hair, over which is a very small bunch of pale green polar bear hair, over which is a middle band of a bunch of polar bear hair of gun-metal gray. Over this is a very small bunch of dark green polar bear hair, with a very small bunch of dark blue polar bear hair over this.
     This is a companion fly to the Candlefish Bucktail, and is a scientifically designed pattern made to imitate the herring, a common bait fish for coho (silver) salmon. The fly is used extensively in the Puget Sound area of the Pacific northwest and is one of the few standard patterns for coho fishing. It was designed from the angling experiments of a group of Puget Sound anglers, notably Roy A. Patrick, Zell E. Parkhurst, and Letcher Lambuth, all of Seattle, Washington.

Coronation Bucktail       (As dressed by Roy A. Patrick)
Head: Black, usually with white painted eye with black pupil. (The heads on  many coho flies are made purposely large to imitate the heads of bait fish)
Body: Medium flat silver tinsel
Ribbing: oval or embossed silver tinsel. (This is optional but is preferred by many anglers in order to give greater light reflection.)
Wing: A bunch of white polar bear hair, over which is a bunch of bright red polar bear hair, over which is a bunch of medium blue polar bear hair. The three bunches are of the same quantity and length, extending well beyond the end of the hook.

     Usually these flies are dressed rather heavily. Single-hook flies can be tied on No. 2/0 or 3/0 long-shanked hooks, usually with ringed eyes so that a spinner may be attached for trolling.