TIE 'N FLY BOX - DAN BLANTON'S WHISTLER SERIES

THE FLY BOX

Dan Blanton's Whistler Series

As tied by Capt. Gavin Platz

Dan Blanton is certainly one of the greatest pioneers in our saltwater fly fishing history. His achievements are really too many to list here, however, here are just a few of them;

• Recipient of the Federation of Fly Fishers 1990 Arnold Gringrich Memorial Life Membership award for outstanding achievements in fly fishing

• 1995 The Silver King Award for contributions in Saltwater fly fishing

• 2002 he was inducted into the NCCFFF California/ Nevada Hall of Fame

• 2009 he was inducted into the Catskill fly fishing Centre and Museum Hall of fame

As well as all the accolades above he is a prolific writer, photographer, fly casting / fly fishing instructor and, of course a magnificent fly tier.

As a fly tier he originated the ‘Whistler Series’, ‘Punch Series’, ‘Sar-Mul-Mac Series’, ‘Sea Arrow Squid Series’ and the ‘Delta Eelet’ saltwater fly patterns. His patterns originated in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

I was first introduced to the famous book Saltwater Flies by Dan Blanton at a fly fishing talk by our own famous Rod “Harro” Harrison in the early 90’s. We had all seen Dan Blanton’s flies in the fly tying books and magazines of the early 90’s but none of us really understood the amazing ‘engineering’ that had gone into his flies. A lot of you will probably think they are simple flies to tie when you look at a picture of them. They certainly look simple and pretty, that’s for sure. The fantastic part of Dan Blanton’s flies is not their exterior appearance but what has been built into the body of the fly... and this is totally unseen.

Like a lot of fly tyers of the early 90’s, and even fly tyers today, we could all very easily copy the hot and new patterns of the day, including Dan’s Famous patterns and trust me our versions looked awesome and we all thought they fished as good to. But we were all wrong. In the early 90’s I was lucky enough to have a one on one chat and few beers with Harro and got to checkout his fly box. The flies which caught my eye was the Whistler and the Sar-mul-Mac flies. During this discussion about the Whistler, I learnt it was developed out of a necessity in 1964 (55 years ago) to imitate a Bucktail Jig that was used in the San Francisco Bay area to chase Stripers. I was very impressed as it’s very difficult to copy the action of a lure with a fly, most times the fly isn’t active or aggressive enough to incite a reaction from a predator.

Dan Blanton achieved this action - firstly by using a short shank hook with 10 wraps of .035 lead wrapped on the front of the hook under the body of the fly and secondly by adding a generous amount of Bucktail in the tail of the fly. What the lead did was drop the head of the fly and the Bucktail, which is honey combed internally, holds in air and this created a lift in the tail accentuating the head dip of the fly. Dan Blanton was so far ahead of the game that his fly construction on the Whistler Series has only changed slightly over 55 years.

Some of the innovative changes he made to his original tie include adding a bunch of Flash material which extends the tail by 50% called a flash tail, another to tie the fly on a 60 degree Jig Hook. Both of these changes have increased the imparted action of this amazing fly to make it even better.

I was able to find an actual tie written by Dan Blanton, so I’ll use this to ensure I tie it correctly.

Gavin

MATERIALS

Hook - Gamakatsu SL12 S #4/0 (this range of hooks were designed by Trey Coombs. Author of Bluewater Fly Fishing)

Eyes - Xlg Bead Chain silverWeight - .030 lead wire

Tail / Wing - Bucktail, Flashabou Pearl and Silver, Krystal Flash, Grizzley Hackle

Gills - Medium Red Chenille

Collar - 4 x Webby Schlappen Hackles

Step 1 - Lay a bed of thread on the shank of the hook and secure the bead chain up against the eye of the hook.

Step 2 - Wrap 10 wraps of .030 wire, ending behind the eyes and overwrap with thread and glue.

Step 3 - Tie in a generous amount of Bucktail to the top of the hook.

Step 4 - On top of the Bucktail tie in 50 / 60 strands of Flashabou - I used pearl and holographic mixed.

Step 5 - Tie in another colour of Bucktail on top and use Krystal Flash to enhance the tail/wing.

Step 6 - Tie in a Grizzley in on each side, curved face in.

Step 7 - Tie in Red Chenille, at the Bucktail tie in area then make only two wraps of the Chenille.

Step 8 - Tie in 3 webby hackles and palmer forward. I use 2 x White, 1 x Pink, 1 x Grizzley.

Step 9 - Whip finish the fly and glue.