The Doctors
The first description I could find for the Doctor flies was in Francis Francis' "A Book On Angling"-1885. Permit me to quote the dressing for "The Doctor" as Francis named it. In later years The Doctors would become more specific in names and varied in color and material usage. But the original was known simply as "The Doctor". "This is a very general and deserved favourite- one of the most general favourites we have, in fact. Commencing, then, at the bend of the hook, tie on as a tag three or four turns of fine gold twist. Tail, a single gold pheasant topping; over this, as a butt, a turn of scarlet crewel; body, blue floss silk, with a hackle a shade or two darker, wound on from tail to head (this is varied at times with a blue jay's feather); silver tinsel (in large flies of all kinds the tinsel may be rendered more conspicuous by the addition of some twist wound on beside it). At the shoulder a brown grouse, partridge, or bustard hackle may be wound on; a blue jay is sometimes used over the blue hackle. The wing is a mixed wing, containing fibres of bustard, dark turkey, argus pheasant, and claret, blue and yellow fibres of stained swan feathers, the latter predominating. In smaller flies mallard and pintail are introduced. The head is of scarlet crewel.
Francis also mentions a dressing for the "Silver Doctor".
George Kelson, in his book "The Salmon Fly"-1895, lists the dressing for the "Black Doctor", the "Blue Doctor" and the "Silver Doctor". They are all different in appearance but quite similar to the original Francis dressing of "The Doctor".
The "Black Doctor" seen here is from the 1914 publication "How To Dress Salmon Flies" by T. E. Pryce-Tannatt. It is also very similar to the original Francis pattern of almost thirty years earlier. The blue body is, of course, black in the image above with scarlet hackle along the body and guinea fowl hackle for the throat. But the wing has thje same sequence of red, blue and yellow swan. This feature, you might notice, is common to the Black , Blue and Silver Doctors of Pryce-Tannatt. In fact, the wings of these three flies are identical.
The fly seen here follows pretty closely the Francis Francis version. The predominance of the blue hackle in the body, the blue floss body and the Jay are common between these two flies. The throat seen in the fly above, however, is actually blue dyed guinea fowl hackle! I have also taken the liberty to fashion a solid red laquered head instead of the more traditional red crewel.
The Kelson version of the "Blue Doctor" used chatterer over the tail and for cheeks. The sequence of the primary colors in the married wing are altered too, going from yellow to light blue to red ibis. In the version seen above the order is (from bottom to top) red, blue, and yellow. Kelson says of the "Blue Doctor", "One of the early fancy patterns on the Tweed and well known on all rivers." The Doctor flies in Kelson are attributed to James Wright, a noted fly dresser of his day.
This pattern, taken from Pryce-Tannatt also, has the flat silver tinsel body typical of the "Silver Doctor" also of Pryce-Tannatt. But here the throat is a bright yellow hackle and the wing is unencumbered by any embellishments other than the married wing which uses no less than five different colors of swan! It is basically a simple fly, yet striking with no overlays of Teal and barred Summer Duck or Bronze Mallard. The yellow topping cresting the fly shares the same coloring in the throat and tail.
The three Doctors shown on this page, along with the "Silver Doctor" shown on a previous page, surely do their part for establishing the medical profession in the world of classic, atlantic salmon flies. I hope that you enjoy looking them over and making your own comparisons.
This salmon fly, which is technically known as a wholefeatherwing, was also listed in "A Book On Angling"-1885-Francis. The body is more typical of a later day version known as the "Durham Ranger". The Francis "Black Ranger" used golden floss and colored pig's wool while the Kelson and Pryce-Tannatt patterns referred to as "Durham Rangers" used colored Seal's fur. So the early "Black Ranger" of Francis' time was the forerunner of both of the later versions of the "Black Ranger" and "Durham Ranger". One obvious point of departure between the Francis pattern and the later Kelson and Pryce-Tannatt versions was that the former used kingfisher for cheeks while the latter patterns used Chatterer.
Anyone wanting to see the dressing of the "Blue Ranger" should consult the Francis book. This pattern seems to have been dropped in later years as neither Kelson nor Pryce-Tannatt listed it in their books.
As was noted under the history of the "Black Ranger", the "Durham Ranger" of both Kelson and Pryce-Tannatt originated from aspects of the "Black Ranger" of Francis. Though Francis used colored pig's wool in the body of the "Black Ranger", Kelson employed dark orange and black Seal's fur and Pryce-Tannatt dubbed orange, fiery brown, and black Seal's fur for the body. Other than that all three authors' flies all look basically the same. Kelson says of the "Black Ranger", "This fly is well known throughout the United Kingdom." Of the "Durham Ranger" he says, "Rivers- Tweed, Spey, Lochy, Tay, Don, Earn, etc., etc."
First known as "The Highlander" in Francis Francis, this fly has undergone a number of changes until it came to the version seen above, which is the Pryce-Tannatt pattern. In Francis the dressing is as follows: Tag: silver twist and gold floss; Tail: a topping; Butt: black ostrich; Body: gold-coloured floss, nearly half up the body for a small fly; if large, a few turns of silk, and then yellow pig's wool, above this dirty olive-green mohair; Ribs: silver tinsel; Hackle: pea-green hackle from tail to head, blue jay at shoulder; Wings: sprigs of tippet gold pheasant tail and mallard, with pintail over, double jungle cock on either side, and overall a topping; Head: black.
Though there was no green in the Francis "Highlander" wing, there was in "The Green Highlander" pattern listed in Kelson's book. Also the dirty olive green mohair of Francis became green Seal's fur in the Grant pattern in Kelson. This latter dressing also calls for green swan in the wing. As can be seen in the fly above there is a great deal more color added, namely slips of yellow and orange swan to compliment the the green swan. There is also the addition of Indian Crow for cheeks.
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I hope that you have enjoyed learning about some of the interesting changes in regards to the Doctors, Rangers and Highlanders. I trust there is more information on the particular flies seen on my pages. If you have any facts or opinions on anything that is shown or written here, please email me. I would enjoy hearing from you.