North Country Spiders

Ive recently purchased my season permit for the River Clyde and look forward to spending some time on the upper reaches of the river. I'm hoping to make my first trip of the season to the river next week.

Influenced by Robert L Smith's modern book on the old North Country Fly tradition  I've been at the vice topping up my spider box for the Clyde.

I'm attracted to the simplicity of river patterns and also find the tradition of the North Country Spiders very interesting and intriguing.

Another aspect of the North Country Spiders I find fascinating is the use and history of the traditional silks and threads.

To let you understand many of the old traditional threads and silks  used in the old spider patterns are very much sought after and can be quite costly to buy, specially the quintessential north country spider material of Pearsall's Gossamer silk. 

Unfortunately I've only got two or three spools of the original Pearsall's silk and so began searching for an alternative or better still even looking for the original Pearsall  at a sensible price.

I soon noticed semperfli are doing a material they call "Pure Silk" So I sent off for a couple of spools. Unfortunately however my package got damaged in transit and I only received the one spool. 

Over the last few days I've been using the semperfli vintage orange pure silk. It has a thicker gauge than Pearsalls but is a decent alternative.

All weekend I've been tying spiders making use of the threads I've got. 

As much as it's very aesthetically pleasing to use the original materials it doesnt matter a jot to trout however I will keep looking out for that elusive bargain of original Pearsall's silk In the meantime I will just have use what I've got and try a few other alternatives.