My son Charles, Bob Clay and I were nearing the end of our week-long fishing days on Argentina’s Rio Gallegos.
Bob and Charles had caught sea-run browns up to 8 lbs. Me, only a few smaller ones. The piece of water I was on had a good flow and one of the nicer runs to fish. The wind was blowing upstream and caused a good chop on the surface—the wind can blow so hard in southern Patagonia there were times we gave up fishing and went back to the lodge. I fished the run through a couple of times with local patterns getting no action. I knew there were some nice sea-run browns in the run as every now and then one would rise to the surface and always in the same general area.
One more pass but not with local patterns–I strung up a size 2 Lingren’s Indispensable and worked the run. I had a good idea where the fish were laying and when I was in the spot, I swung the fly through but no takes. Sometimes when the fly swings through the holding spot and I do a slow retrieve that upstream movement can produce a take on difficult fish. When the fly swung below me, I slowly drew the fly upstream. That upstream movement was all that was needed to entice the fish to take. Minutes later the guide netted a sea-run brown in the 6 to 7 kg (13 to 15 lb.) range. Our group’s largest sea-run brown of the trip and I added another tick box of rivers and fish I have caught using my fly.
I think if I had to limit myself to one fly for the rest of my days the Black G. P. would be the fly. Ever since its inception in January 1984, it has been catching fish–steelhead, dollies, cutthroats, rainbows, and spring salmon–consistently in all water conditions and on sunk or floating line. In one day on one river in the very recent past on my modified Black GP now called Lingren’s Indispensable I landed nine varieties of fish. Included in that catch were steelhead, rainbow trout to 18 inches, resident cutthroat trout, sea-run cutthroat trout, bull trout, dolly Vardan, sea-run bull trout (not sure if this 27 inch silver-bright fish was a sea-run dolly or sea-run bull trout), whitefish, and Northern Pike minnow.
Black General Practitioner Dressing:
- Hook: Low water or regular salmon size #6 to 5/0. Wrap shank with 5 cm lead wire.
- Tail: Black squirrel tail a little longer than the hook shank.
- Veil: Over squirrel a small golden pheasant red-orange breast feather.
- Body: Black mohair.
- Rib: Silver twist or medium oval tinsel.
- Hackle: Black cock, palmered. Cut the fibres on top so the back lies flat.
- Eyes: V’d golden pheasant tippet feather with black dyed golden pheasant over.
- Back: Two layers of black dyed golden pheasant breast feathers.
- Head: Black Cellire varnish.
In the dawn of 1984 I had the notion that winter steelhead would respond better to a large black fly over the traditional bright ones in use so I dressed a few Black General Practitioners and put them in my fly box. I took my first winter steelhead with my new black fly on February 13, 1984. Using large black flies for winter steelhead was a novel idea back in 1984 and even today you will hear fly fishers claim that you must use bright flies for winter steelhead. How misled they are. At that time, my favourite winter steelhead pattern was Colonel Esmond Drury’s General Practitioner. Golden pheasant feathers play a critical role in Drury’s fly, so much so he considered giving his fly a name with Golden Pheasant (GP) in it. He decided against it and opted for General Practitioner (GP). A wise decision, such as the choice of name can often determine how the fishing community accepts or rejects a fly. Drury’s fly caught the attention of Bob Taylor back in the 1960s and he ordered some from Hardy of England for use on our western waters. The complete story of the General Practitioner introduction to the Northwest can be read in my 1996 book Fly Patterns of British Columbia.
Drury’s GP is an excellent fish catcher and I used it as a model for my Black General Practitioner. However, rather than a polar bear tail I used black squirrel, I changed the rib from gold to silver as silver suits black flies better, and for the wing I discovered some black feathers on a wood duck cape that would lay flat and provide the desired silhouette. I kept the red golden pheasant breast feather over the tail and the golden pheasant tippet eyes. The fly worked like a hot dam and in that first year I caught steelhead from eight winter and summer-run rivers on Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, Thompson, and Dean. Winter-run steelhead really responded well to the Black GP and summer-runs liked it as well or better. Other game fish like it too and there is not a British Columbia gamefish that swims in the waters I have fished that I have not caught on the Black GP. As of this writing I have used this fly successfully in all regions of the province that I have fished as well as rivers in Alaska, Washington and Oregon, Newfoundland, and Argentina, about 90 waters in total. My standard is dressed on a number two hook, but I have dressed it on hooks up to 5/0 for steelhead and down to size 12 for trout.
In my log of the day in which I first used the Black G.P. I wrote:
Place: Campbell River Date: Feb. 13, 1984
Time: 1:30 pm to 4pm.
Water: 40 F, very high, clear above Quinsam mouth, river shaded while fishing.
Weather: Mild day, sunny.
Results: Fished Line Fence Pool for 1/2 hr. then went up to the top of the Lower Island Pool where just after I started around 2:50 I was into a nice fish. I hooked the fish using a #2 Black General Practitioner on a 10-lb-test leader 5 ft long while using a 10-ft Hi-D sink tip. The fish put up a good scrap, taking 10 minutes or so to land. The fish was a wild female, 30 ¾ inches long, and she was released. Fish took the fly well and I was onto her instantly. She was well hooked in the front portion of her mouth.
Over the seasons the Black GP has morphed into a fly I call Lingren’s Indispensable and its dressings and story follows.
One of the many hundreds of steelhead that took Lingren’s Indispensable
LINGREN’S INDISPENSABLE
- Hook: Size 10 to 1/0 low water salmon or Gamakatsu T-10-6H.
- Thread: Black 6/0
- Tail: Black squirrel, with or without a few strands of black Krystal Flash
- Body: Black mohair
- Rib: Silver oval tinsel
- Hackle: Black, palmered
- Wing: Two black-dyed golden pheasant breast feathers tied in flat over body.
Since its inception, I have altered the original fly’s dressing. As the Black GP evolved over the years some of the first things to go were the golden pheasant red breast feather in the tail and the tippet eyes. I sometimes add a few strands of black, red, pearl, silver, or chartreuse Krystal Flash in the tail to add colour and, at times, I do like to dress the Black GP on red Gamakatsu hooks. The Krystal Flash and red hook add sparkle and colour to the fly. However, just plain black without the colour works just as well. I realized early on that the golden pheasant red breast in the tail and tippet eyes were superficial components and that the critical components that attracted a response from the fish were the Black GP’s long supple squirrel tail, the flowing body hackle, and its attractive dark silhouette. As the fly evolved, Bob Taylor would look at the most current version and comment on the lack of golden pheasant in the fly. He is one of the few people who knew how important a role golden pheasant played in Drury’s GP and that fly’s name. With the golden pheasant breast feather and golden pheasant tippet feather eyes gone from my fly and with my use of wood duck or hen hackle feathers for the wing, Bob questioned my GP name and hinted that I should either reinstitute golden pheasant into the fly or consider a different name. In more recent years after one supplier started dying golden pheasant capes black, I used the golden pheasant black dyed breast feathers for the wing but not layered as did Colonel Drury. I dress my black version now with two black dyed golden pheasant breast feathers tied in at the hook eye. Even then when Bob commented on my wayward GP I would respond with “but there is golden pheasant in the wing” and it is still a GP.
During a spring of 2004 coastal cutthroat fishing trip with Taylor, the subject of a Black GP name change rose to the surface again. We were hoping to hit the main salmon fry emergence and planned on fishing silver-bodied fly patterns. We did have some days when the cutthroats and Dolly Varden were slashing the surface after fry but, when the surface was quiet, surface fished fry patterns provoked few responses. I can’t say how many trips I have been on where I was told that you need to have a certain fly to be successful but by the trip’s end the anglers in the party, I was with have discarded their recommended pattern for the Black GP.
The spring cutthroat trip turned out the same. Some of the guys left their supply of Black GPs at home or had too large a fly to fish on our trout rods. Their facial expressions revealed their despair as they witnessed the cutthroats and Dolly Varden attacking my Black GP. I being a generous spirit took pity on the poor souls and dished out an allocation of Black GPs–regular and marabou versions–dressed on six 6 and 8 hooks to Bob Taylor and Charlie Brumwell. And catch fish they did. It was after this 2004 spring cutthroat trip that the name change came up again and because the Black GP has become indispensable to me, I asked Bob if he thought the name The Indispensable was appropriate. He replied that this fly is such a part of you that you should call it Lingren’s Indispensable.
Regular, marabou, and low-water versions of my Indispensable as well a bar-bell eyed version dressed on hooks ranging from 2/0 to 10 line the foam ridges in my fly box and like the advertisement for the American Express card, I never leave home on a fishing trip without a supply of Lingren’s Indispensables. The fly has become an indispensable part on many fishing trips.
It is truly a fly for all seasons, methods, and fish.