Harold Gibbs' Striper Fly

[dims]

I bought a copy of Flyfishing in Saltwater over the holiday and read an article about his famous Sliverside pattern. Any one tied or fished one (Showed a picture of 3 variations). Tied a couple from the pic. but didn't have the salmon egg style hooks they showed the flies tied with. I used 1/0,2/0, & 3/0 standard saltwater hook. Looked on some of the fly pattern sites but only came up with his name and fly name (No how to ). It looks like a great fly to add to the arsenal. :brow

[Tie-Dye-Fly-Guy]

i studied the original and most common variant with bucktail two years ago. big 4th of july party near cape ann shore. during the fireworks off beverly harbor with hundreds of onlookers i drunkingly clouted as i tied the fly on to the tippet that on this day a red white and blue fly will catch a fish on the first cast. people thought i was some kind of majician as i landed one with very first cast. they all thought the fly was a joke for the holiday and were in amazement at my feat. i didnt tell anyone the secret slayer potential of this fly with the moron sax gang as studied by gibbs himself. the top tye is great as it never fouls and dont have to keep checking fly as you fish at night on the jetty with beer, babes, and bass under the rockets red glare. tie one on, the fly is still great.

[dims]

i studied the original and most common variant with bucktail two years ago. big 4th of july party near cape ann shore. during the fireworks off beverly harbor with hundreds of onlookers i drunkingly clouted as i tied the fly on to the tippet that on this day a red white and blue fly will catch a fish on the first cast. people thought i was some kind of majician as i landed one with very first cast. they all thought the fly was a joke for the holiday and were in amazement at my feat. i didnt tell anyone the secret slayer potential of this fly with the moron sax gang as studied by gibbs himself. the top tye is great as it never fouls and dont have to keep checking fly as you fish at night on the jetty with beer, babes, and bass under the rockets red glare. tie one on, the fly is still great.


TDF-Guy, cool story and glad to hear they work well. Did you tie yours using the salmon egg style hooks or the standard saltwater hooks? Mine look o.k. but I thing for the blue bucktail I need one that has real long hair towards the end of the tail that almost curls a little to make the nice swoop back. I have some like that just the wrong color..................Oh well off to the fly shop again!--127-3-

Tight lines, dims:cool:

[Nate S.]

I asked my father about this for you. (one of the sources for the article). H.N.Gibbs would be his Grandfather in law and my G-Grandfather. Anyway, he's tied these and watched Harold tie them as well. He didn't have too much to say about it. He indicated it's pretty much a straight up fly as is shown in the article, no fancy tricks or special techniques. Same materials as listed in the article etc. He suggested you could contact Ed Mitchell, the author of the article and he may have some more insight. I hope this helps a bit.

Nate

[Captcastafly]

Additional Resourse Help!

Rhody Fly Rodders (Ole Timers)

Al Brewster, Old Cape Cod Salties
Armand Courchaine
Art Burton
Ron Montacavo

[mgustav]

Ollie Rodman, in his 1944 book, Striped Bass - Where, When and How to Catch Them, gives the following fly pattern descriptions:

The Harold Gibbs fly:

# 4 long-shanked hook with turned down eye
Silver body, no tag
Wing: 3" white bucktail fairly full,
11/2 " bright blue feather as cheek, tapering to point, each side
Shorter cheek, (tied over blue feather) of brown feather with white rib (1/4 " long)
Painted yellow eyes, with small black dot for pupil.

In McClane's book he gives this recipe for the Gibbs Striper fly:
Head: black with a little yellow painted eyes with red centers
Body: Narrow flat silver tinsel
Throat: Few strands of red hackle fibers, rather long
Wing: a bunch of Asiatic goat hair with some of the underhair left in
Shoulder: section of dark blue swan wing feather, half as long as wing, placed to make a stripe down the center of the wing
Cheeks: short barred bali duck

and then there is Frank Gibbs fly:

#4 Sproat hook, turned down eye
Silver body
4" white impala tied full
Atop the white impala, 3" red bucktail
3" barred rock hackle feather on each side
Shorter cheek, (tied over hackle feather) of brown feather with white rib (1/4 " long)
Painted white eyes, with small red dot for pupil.

I use the Harold Gibbs striper fly and it is good, especially in the morning.

[striblue]

I have a couple original Gibbs flies, and will post some pictures once I figure out my new digital camera. FYI.. as Ray says....Chceck with Al B. and Armard as well. Al Brewster also tied that fly for Harold as well.... he also gave me "Papy's Special" and the Frank Gibbs fly. The original Gibbs striper fly will have blue swan feather over the bucktail.

[NE Sportsman]

Guys,
This sounds like a winner. Thanks for adding the recipes. Anybody have a picture to share as a reference?

thx
ed

[mgustav]

This is my tie of the Joe Gibbs Stripers Fly.

[NE Sportsman]

Mgustav,
Thanks for adding the photo. The recipe that you gave us from Ollie Rodman's book mentions a brown feather with a white rib.

do you interprete that to be a barred woodduck flank feather? From your photo it appears that is what the cheek is.

Thanks for the continued help.

ed

[mgustav]

I use that feather and I use a jungle cock breast feather, the dark oval shaped feather with a white line.