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Baigents Brown (foreword and dressing by Tony Downing)

Here is something for Practical Fly. It’s a Dry Fly that was invented around 1900, it has quite a story with it.

Way back in the 1990’s, I worked for a firm that ran Coaches & Taxi’s. On a trip with a fare in the taxi, a chance remark about Fly Dressing brought a remarkable response.
I told my fare, a Lady, who was in her Eighties, that I was going to a meeting of the Fly Dressers Guild that evening.  She asked if I knew a man called Donald Downs.  “ I’m picking him up at the railway station, and taking him for a meal”, I replied. At the time I was secretary of the Branch.
She went on to tell me that she had corresponded with DD for many years, writing articles for the Fly Fishers Journal, and that the two had never met. Could it be possible to arrange a meeting. YOU BET. A couple of phone calls and it was fixed.

The Lady I was driving, turned out to be the Granddaughter of the Late Dr William Baigent, of Northallerton.
The man who invented the BAIGENTS BROWN, and other variants as they became known.

Needless to say, the evening was a huge success, and it was the start of a friendship that lasted for eight years, until sadly she died.
During that time I was invited to her house from time to time, to look at books from Isaac Waltons time, and to see the materials that Dr Baigent used, and she used. At one time they bred their own Birds for Fly Dressing.
She actually tied a Baigent, specially for me, using only her fingers. (She was never allowed to use a vice), and in her eighty fourth year.

Tony

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This fly was devised at the turn of the last century, by Dr William Baigent, of Northallerton.

There is a series of these flies, collectively known as variants. When asked what they represented, Dr Baigent replied “ I don’t know, I tie flies to catch fish, not to mimic other flies”.

 

The dressings for the Variants is exactly the same, only the colour changes

                      ---------------------------------------------------------

Dressing:- in order of tying.

Hook,     Hyabusa 372, #12.

Thread, Pale Yellow Uni 06.

Wing,    Two slips of Hen Pheasant centre tail.

Hackle,  Long Fibred and Stiff, Furnace Cock.

Tail,  optional, not on original, Furnace cock hackle fibres.

Body,     Pearsalls Yellow Marabou Floss Silk.

 

                     -----------------------------------------------------------

Instruction assumes a right hand tier.

 

Place the hook in the vice and run on the Pale Yellow uni thread, make 12 turns away from the eye. Select TWO slips, (one from each side) from  a Hen Pheasant Centre Tail Feather, and fix in position by pinch & loop method. 



TRIM WASTE

From an Indian Cape, selecr a hackle feather with fibres approx 1.5 times the hook gape and tie in, leaving the feather hanging over the eye.



TRIM WASTE

If you want a tail on your fly, Tie it in NOW

Take a piece of Pearsalls Marabou Floss Silk, approx 6” long, double it and tie both strands in together, making sure that one strand is directly on top of the shank.



   
 

With the thread above the barb, cut the piece of Floss Silk that lies on top of the shank, leaving 1.5ins hanging as a tail. Return thread to thorax area.

Now wind the other strand to form the body of the fly, tie off and trim waste.
 

Take the short piec of floss at the tail and untwist it until it will lie flat. Now bring it over the body and tie in where the body ends. Trim waste.

Wind hackle, 4 turns behind the wing, and 2 in front, tie off and trim waste. Make a neat head, add a drop of varnish
    

Your finished fly should look something like this.
 


 

Caddisman Nov 2008

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