The Blue Jay

Fly & photo...Peter Dunne.

The Blue Jay is another really simple but yet beautiful Irish classic. It belongs to the family of Jays which includes the Claret Jay, the Black Jay and the Dirty Orange. The dressing for the above fly is taken from Edward Fitzgibbon's "Book of the Salmon" 1850. Fitzgibbon, who wrote under the pseudonym "Ephemera", wrote of the Blue Jay that it was one of his standard flies for the south of Ireland and that it was quite a productive pattern with which he had a lot of success, especially in the Southerlandshire area. He also describes another version of the Blue Jay that has a tail of several tippet fibres, Mallard and light blue Macaw. Here he also adds a blood-red hackle to the blue-jay throat. The wing is composed of Golden Pheasant tippet, Mallard, light blue Macaw and Kingfisher. He recommends that this version should also be varied for the summer and early Autumn mornings and evenings with an orange body instead of the blue floss silk. Hardy and Francis-Francis also list a Blue Jay in their respective books, but their patterns differ quite considerably from Ephemera's.






The Dressing: (Ephemera)

Tag: Orange floss silk.
Tail: A small Golden Pheasant topping.
Butt: Black Ostrich herl.
Body: Light blue floss silk.
Ribs: Gold tinsel.
Hackle: A Blue-Jay hackle.
Wings: Guinea fowl feathers, mottled turkey, silver pheasant tail, Mallard, and a topping.
Horns: Blue and yellow and red Macaw.
Head: Small, of Black Ostrich herl.


The Dressing: (Hardy)

Tag: Silver tinsel.
Tail: A topping.
Butt: Black ostrich herl.
Body: Medium blue floss silk.
Ribs: Silver tinsel.
Hackle: Blue Jay.
Throat: A yellow-dyed cock's hackle.
Wings: Bustard, golden pheasant tippet, green parrot, purple-dyed swan and Gallina.
Head: Black.


The Dressing: (Francis-Francis)

Francis-Francis describes his Blue Jay as being similar to his Blue Doctor. It should have a mixed wing with a topping over and be tied in the same way as the Blue Doctor but with a blue jay instead of a blue hackle.