Silver Doctor Salmon Fly

I am a big fan of trawling through a cracking website called Feathers, Flies and Phantoms which is dedicated to classic salmon flies and their history. I am fascinated by the stories behind these flies and find myself harking back to the days of old and imagining the anglers who would be out on the rivers fishing with them. The website is a wealth of knowledge and it is out in an easy to follow way. I'd highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the traditional salmon flies and dressings.

My 2nd attempt at a married wing Silver Doctor. 

My 1st attempt at a Sliver Doctor I tied a few weeks back.

I have always wanted to tie classic salmon flies myself so I set out to attempt to tie a Silver Doctor first as it is one of my favorite patterns. The first one I attempted was tied only using the materials I had to hand but with the help Phil Glendinning and advice from Kenny Maciver, I have got to this stage. This tying is a vast improvement on my first tying of the fly as you can see but there is still along way to go before I can confidentially say I managed no problem. This fly took about 5 hours to tie. It took me numerous attempts to tie in the married wing. They guys on the videos on YouTube make it look so simple. I can assure you it not! I'm only too aware that there is still plenty of room for improvement but overall I am quite pleased with how this fly turned out given that it was only my second ever try at a married wing fly. We shall see what the salmon think of it later on in the season when it will be going for a swim in the River Dee.