Traditional Atlantic Salmon Flies have been part of my life ever since I found a large leather fly case in the family Potato Patch, in the Summer of 1951..  This discovery was the beginning of a quest of a ten year old to make these flies as they were displayed in this case. After several weeks of attempting to find the owner of the case, without any luck, I decided it would be part of my fly fishing bag, which I carried to the river with me daily. The bag was a WW II Canadian Air Force gas mask bag which I carried my leaders, fly box, and this leather case.  Every day on the river  while sitting in the boat, either guiding a sport or just resting the pool. I would open the case and study its contents, all the flies were made with gut eyes,  the pages in this leather case contained many of these flies. The owner of these flies is no doubt in salmon fly heaven, but he created a desire in me to make these flies as they were displayed, and if he is up there watching, I think he has a smile on his face.  

The place was Greenfield, Queens County, Nova Scotia, on the Banks of the Medway river, the hotel was the Freeman House, where many sports from the eastern seaboard of the United States came  for their quest to catch the elusive Atlantic Salmon. My Dad was a fisherman and a Guide, the best on the river. He also worked for the Paper mill in Brooklyn Nova Scotia as a Wood Surveyor. He tied flies for these sports, with one hand, as he lost his right arm in a sawmill accident. I was his right arm when it came to holding the feathers which he could not hold when making a wing for a fly.

Learning from him and from books, I have in my 67 years,  reproduced what my mind retained from this fly book, which I use while fishing for salmon early in the months of April, May and June on the Medway. The Silver Grey was my favorite, but I have landed bright spring salmon on the Silver Wilkinson and the Durham Ranger, Dusty Miller, and Mar Lodge, just to name a few memorable ones..

A foot note to this, when I moved to New Brunswick to make a living in the electronic industry, I neglected to bring the fly book with me, and in trying to locate this book I have met with a dead end. (unimportant then-- Important now).

There will be many additions to this collection of flies, as well as a layout of the substitute feathers which I use in creating the  regulated originals, or endangered exotic feathers.

Feathers used in this collection have been in the family for over sixty years, as time goes by, I find these feathers are worthy of being placed on some steel to preserve their beauty. An attempt to obtain the original feathers today would cause hardship on the birds which are on the brink of extinction. Please make an attempt to produce substitutes. The Substitute feathers for these flies are shown on the Substitute page.

Bryant Freeman