The Pink Lady - Fly Tying Appalachian/Great Smoky Mountain Trout Patterns

Created by George LaBranche of New York in the early 1900s, the Pink Lady is an elegant mayfly dry fly pattern that made its way to the Great Smoky Mountains in the early part of the century.
Hook: #10-16 Dry fly
Thread: White
Tail: Golden Pheasant Tippets
Body: Pink floss
Wings: White duck quills
Hackle: Ginger or white dry fly
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Great Smoky Mountain Fly Tying Books
Hatches and Fly Patterns of the Great Smoky Mountains, by Don Kirk, amzn.to/2HLZuVT
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Angler's Companion, by Ian Rutter, amzn.to/2HQwDQr
Southeastern Flies, by L.J. DeCuir, amzn.to/3l0McTG
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"George LaBranche's High Holt: A place in His Life and Work," by Timothy Belknap
The American Fly Fisher, Spring 1992, Volume 18, Nr. 2
www.amff.org/wp...
Savage Flies is a project with the mission of encouraging and teaching fly tying to as many people as possible. The channel is named after one of my western Maryland homewaters, the Savage River. I've been uploading at least three new videos a week (usually Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday).
Thanks for stopping by. Please let me know in the comments if you have any tips or tricks that could help me or anyone else watching.

[@toddfriedmar8126]

I was fishing a mountain stream in Washington yesterday and stopped getting hits on my go to fly patterns. Happened to have a Pink Lady in my fly box. Instantly, the native Westslope Cutthroat trout hit it. Found this video and going to tie up more for future outings. Thanks for the story and tying demonstration.

[@martyrothman3933]

Thanks for another great one

[@marshallbaldwin8960]

This is another great dry fly pattern. Thank you Matt

[@bigdaddy99929]

Enjoy your presentations. Step by step and love the historical introduction! Thanks

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Clyde! I do like digging up the history when I can. Cheers. -Matt

[@davehall2160]

Great looking fly Matt

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Dave! Much appreciated.

[@mikeney5113]

Of course you have done it again.nice tie!!!

[@SavageFlies]

Ha! And of course you are first to watch and comment. 😀 👍 I love it! Thanks Mike.

[@glenndotter5065]

Great fly in Maine on Kennebago!

[@arthurskim7898]

Outstanding tip on setting up the wings. As always thank you for posting. Bravo Zulu

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Chief! Glad it was helpful. :-)

[@OttoJulian_]

Pretty interesting about the guy at NY and his stocks!! He was already a rich guy and after that we can only imagine!! I like the colors and honestly, the name as well 🤭🤭
Don't ask why haha. Tail looks amazing as well!!! Cool all around!

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Otto! I think they've called a lot of flies the "Pink Lady" over the years but this is probably the original. :-)

[@MusicNiceEveryday]

Hello! Very interesting!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@SavageFlies]

Well thank you my friend!

[@flyrodhiker8326]

I love this channel! And I got to say I love the fact that you don’t always tie an “Instagram fly”.

[@SavageFlies]

Thank you! And yep, I'll finish the video if I only make a couple of mistakes. Sometimes though, it could be a disaster and I just scrap the whole thing. Nobody sees those flies. :-)

[@joeduca8582]

Hi Matt, thanks for the link, got it off the Royal Lady video. Nice fly, great history research too - you da man! Those upright wings, great job btw, reminded of the "dial a box" flies I use to buy at K-mart before I started to "roll my own", they worked great for crappie. Seems I've heard of LaBranche before, also "pink" bodied flies. Maybe in that Ian Whitelaw history of fly fishing in 50 flies book. I think in that book there's maybe a story of red fly that the color washed out to a pink? Then the fly was a killer. I know I read that somewhere. Better than than finding the urine stained belly fur of a vixen ( female fox ) for the body on a Hendrickson dry fly. Thank you Matt🥸👍

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Joe! I don't recall a story about George LaBranche in Whitlaw's book. Not to say there isn't one, but I haven't pulled that one down in a while. K-mart's "dial a box?" Oh my... you're dating yourself there! 🤣

[@hotspotnymphing]

Great fly! I love the amazing backstory. I have never seen a pink Mayfly in real life but the fish sure like this one. Thanks for sharing!

[@SavageFlies]

You bet! Fish can be attracted to some crazy colors sometimes. Thanks for watching my friend. :-)

[@DeboraExum]

Enjoyed watching this one. I am curious. Do people collect these or are they made purely for function? I can imagine a display case full of handmade flies.

[@SavageFlies]

Some people do collect them, usually the fancier salmon flies are more for display than fishing. These simpler trout flies are for actual fishing. But we do put them in shadow boxes sometimes and it can make pretty cool wall art. (If you're a fisherman!)