classic Michigan dry fly · before 1929, per Halladay family
Dr. Kirgin
Unverified origin Only source is one Deschaine column built on Halladay family information, and the pre-1929 date is family recollection.
History
The Dr. Kirgin is Len Halladay's hair-winged take on the Royal Coachman, with a golden pheasant tippet tail, a peacock herl butt, a red yarn body, a divided white bucktail wing set spent and a single brown hackle. Halladay named it for Dr. Kirgin, an Ohio physician he fished the Boardman River with.
Hair-winged dry versions of the Royal Coachman are usually dated to 1929, but Halladay's grandson told Tom Deschaine that Halladay was tying this fly well before then. That claim rests on family memory. Deschaine adds that Halladay's red yarn was a Chadwicks wool mending yarn.
Materials
| Hook | Mustad dry, sizes 10 to 16 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 6/0 |
| Tail | Golden pheasant tippets, a small clump of four or five |
| Body | Peacock herl on the rear quarter, red yarn ahead of it |
| Wing | White bucktail, divided and spent |
| Hackle | Brown, one feather |
Sources
Know more about this fly's history, or spot a mistake? Send a correction.
No photo yet. Every photo on michfly is of a fly tied for the site, so they're added a few at a time.
Original recipe cards for many Michigan patterns are kept at the Michigan Dry Flies archive, built by the late Tom Deschaine.