How Much Do You Know About The Quill Gordon?

[JackM]

Gordon was an interesting character. Though he was good with children and kept a few firm friends, he was taciturn and reclusive, and despite the many letters he wrote (some of which have been preserved for us by John McDonald in The Complete Fly Fisherman: The Notes and Letters of Theodore Gordon) he was secretive about his fly tying methods, almost to the point of paranoia. He had a nervous energy that was fuelled by hand-twisted cigarettes and he took the odd glass of spirits to bolster up his morale, but his character remains elusive.

In 1890, when Gordon turned 36, American fly fishermen were still wedded to the wet fly. Gordon fished wet too, but unlike many of his fellows, he fished upstream, and he noticed that trout would take the fly avidly in the few moments that it floated at the beginning of a cast. This prompted him to write to F.M. Halford, who responded by sending him a packet of dry flies. Gordon soon discovered that there were two problems with Halford's flies: first, they imitated English insects; and second, they were designed for the smooth currents of English chalk streams, rather than the rush and tumble of the Neversink. He had some help from G.E.M. Skues, who sent him quantities of capes, but in the end Gordon began to design his own patterns, using stiffer hackles than his English models. His most famous pattern was the Quill Gordon, the fly that gave American fly-tiers the confidence to break away from the shadow of the English school.

http://www.flyfishinghistory.com/theogord.htm

 

[sundrunk]

I know Gordon did a lot of wet wading in his time. I thought I read once how the old timers would wrap their legs in seal skins, but even with that I am sure it got pretty cold.

 

[JackM]

Wayback Machine

http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/551/Mayfly-Epeorus-pleuralis-Quill-Gordon

I am going to catch this hatch in 2011. I'll figure out where, but should I be successful, what will I enjoy? Tell your QG stories to get me motivated.

 

[pete41]

might be the most beautiful of dry flies-When I was rookie it was Gordon and Skues that stood above all others in our sport-but i have no stories other than he was a randy little dude-

 

[Maurice]

I know the Quill Gordon was tied with a quill by Theodore Gordon. I know that the Quill Gordon Mayfly has a dark dun wing and the imitation has a wood duck flank feather for a wing. (barred and tan).

I am not sure when or why the Epeorus plueralis became the quill gordon or was associated with that tie. Just goes to show you can be renowned for the wrong reasons.

Its a pretty tie that resembles a march brown more than a quill gordon.

 

[gutcutter]

jack
gordon's quill (H. Epeorus pleuralis) do the job quickly!
they begin molting while under water usually while still atached to the bottom, and while swimming to the surface are shedding their nymphal shuck. by the time they reach the surface, they seem to "pop out" as duns.
surface film emerger patterns and floating nymphs don't work well.
when you get a "perfect day" you will see trout rising steadily in the lower sections of pools taking duns in feeding lanes. the perfect day is COLD! when gordons hatch in balmy weather, the trout seem to ignore the drys and concentrate on the swimming transitional nymphs.
a classic wet fly like the one you posted will work well, but i prefer a deep transitional emerger off the bend of a nohackle or parachute dry.
hope this helps.
where are you planning on fishing this hatch?

 

[sandfly]

I think gordon saw the spinner instead of the dun..the dun is a dirty yellow/olive color while the spinner has the color of the quill. I tie all my wets with dubbing and my duns and tie the spinner with the quill. I have seen the dun's here in size 10 very large for them. will be going out for them again this year.

growing up on the broadheads used to fish the quill gordon hatch with Ernie Schreibert.

 

[JackM]

I have not decided on the location, perhaps a location of historical importance.

 

[pete41]

The Catskills-are they still there or were they leveled for a super Walmart?

 

[dryflyguy]

I've hit some quill gordon hatches on kettle, pine, and fishing creeks.
But timing them can be pretty tough. They seem to start a little earlier than the hendrickson, which I've come across much more often.
However, I've often found them hatching at the same time too, and it can be hard to tell one from the other by just watching them on the water. You pretty much have to catch one and check the underside of the body. As sandfly has pointed out, quill gordons do have an olive cast to them. And hendricksons have a reddish or pinkish colored body.

I tie my quill gordons using dark gray turkey flats for the wings, dun hackle, grayish tan dubbing body, and gray tail

 

[PaulG]

In all my years of flyfishing I've never fished a QG hatch. Never lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time. Mybe this year, I'll get lucky!

PaulG

 

[osprey]

I'm not real up on the history the history of this pattern but the dry fly version seems to work for numerous hatches that ive fished which may or may not have been the actual QG , for example in a pinch it can imitate a march brown , blue quill , hendrickson etc. one tip i can give , if you've ever tried to remove the fuzz from a strand of peacock tail to get the bare quill called for by the pattern you know how tough that can be. Try this , lay the strand flat on a hard surface and using a regular pencil eraser rub the herl off by stroking it with the eraser from but end to tip till all the fuzz rubs off , works pretty good with a little practice.

 

[afishinado]

Here is a PAFF blast from the past with some good pattern info on the subject:

http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=11807&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

 

[JackM]

So we have discussed this before, eh? Anywaysss, this color discrepency that has been mentioned, do you think it may vary because Gordon fished mostly farther north and east of our QG streams. Was most of his fishing in the Catskills at the time? Perhaps the mountainous New York bug is indeed darker in the dun phase on it's abdomen. Has anyone fished both PA and Catskill QG hatches? Are the bugs visually identical? Finally, in this string of questions, do you think barred natural yellow duck feathers are the key to the pattern? or for that matter, underbelly color?

 

[afishinado]

Jack,

The GQ fly you posted appears close in color and segmentation (the body anyway) to the natural dun on the underside. Check these pics:

 

[JackM]

Article By James Marsh, flyfishing guru of the Smokies (there are many)

And, another, same author.

Article By Paul Weamer, flyfishing guru of Pennsylvania (there are many)

And, another, no author to credit.

From the last article:

The way that the Quill Gordons hatch allows the duns to be caught in the faster waters of the streams. When the trout are feasting on the duns, they do not get as good a look at the fly due to the disturbance of the faster moving water, giving the advantage to the angler.

 

[sundrunk]

I've seen quill gordon duns on the water, but more often it's the spinner that is the most rewarding to fish over. IMO.

Like other early season patterns Quill Gordons usher in the coming of spring, bringing with them the hope and promise of a fishing season in renewal.

 

[dryflyguy]

Jack -

I've also seen quill gordons on the delaware river, and they look the same to me.

I've never understood why wood duck wings are used on that traditional quill gordon fly. Why imitate a slate gray wing on the natural with a flecked brown wing materiel? When I started tying, I learned to use matching gray feather segments from mallard wings.
These were used on all gray winged may flies.
But they're a PIA to tie IMO. And very fragile. After catching a fish or 2, these wings usually quickly got splayed out, and looked terrible.
I started using turkey flats, and like them a lot better

 

[shortrod]

Jack,

Having spent most of my stream time in SW pa, I have only had one opportunity to fish this hatch in isolation. It was a bitterly cold mid April day on a small SW brookie stream. The QG duns were riding the surface everywhere too cold to get airborn. However the trout were just as sluggish and I saw only a couple of rises and no repeats. I was unable to coax any fish to rise to a dry QC imitation so I stuck with the wet as in your picture. I had a few half-hearted bumps and only hooked one fish.

A couple of years ago I fished Pine creek above Galeton and saw some large grayish mayflies that may have been QGs as well as some caddis and some Blue Qulls. After unsuccessfully trying several imitations, the fly that worked that day was the QG wet. May have been taken for a caddis emerger or it may have been a QG they wanted after all.

If you want to try to hit the Gordon in upper NC PA area and want a place to stay or company let me know.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Well Jack, you prodded some long dormant brain cells which now have me about ready to go on a book hunt.Probably tomorrow as it's due to rain.some where is a book by "Sparse grey Hackle"(I believe),in which he and friends searched out Theodore Gordon's last resting place.
Never fished a Gordon hatch although the guys I met in new York talked about it .