The Masters: Dr Bell

[maharg]

The Masters

Dr Howard Alexander Bell.
It could be argued that Dr Bell is the father of imitative fly fishing due to his work on Blagdon in the 1920s. He returned from the horrors of the First World War to continue his practice in the Wrington area. He fished Blagdon every Friday and conducted autopsy’s on thousands of trout. In a time when most anglers were using traditional Scottish and Irish trout flies, Dr Bell decided to look deeper into the trout’s diet. He was a very private man and he left no published works. He did however leave us with some remarkable flies.
As he studied the trout’s food it was clear that they fed mainly on buzzers. He then devised the first ever example of its kind,

Bells Buzzer.
• Hook : 10 - 14
• Thread : Black
• Body : Tying silk, floss or wool - black
• Rib : Flat gold tinsel
• Breathers : White wool



Further studies spurred him to create his amber pupa and the grenadier.
Amber nymph
• Hook : 8 - 10
• Thread : Black
• Body : Amber seal's fur 2/3rds
• Thorax : Black seal's fur
• Back : Any blae coloured feather fibre.
• Throat hackle: a few fibres of honey dun hen


He also suggested a smaller size of say a 12 with a hot orange thorax.
The original sedge fly imitation.

Grenadier
• Hook : 12 - 14
• Thread : Orange
• Body : Orange seal's fur
• Rib : Gold tinsel, oval
• Hackle : Two turns of ginger or light furnace


No record exists of what Dr Bell actually intended this to imitate and I have seen it listed as both a wet and dry fly. Perhaps an adult/ emerging buzzer or even a cow dung fly????
The man gets very little credit for his pioneering work on Stillwater, nothing like Skues or Halford get on rivers. Perhaps this has helped to rectify things.
ATB
Graham

see here as well
The Master: Tom Ivens
The Masters: Gordon Frazer

[arkle]

There is a school if thought, that thinks the Grenadier may be used to imitate a beetle pattern. Orangey red has always been & is still a very "killing" colour on Blagdon & Chew. Though some prefer a brick-red for their grenade's.

[mancfly]

Great post Graham! I enjoyed looking through your series on The Masters. Those that paused and pondered rather than follow the herd.

Yes the Grenadier would be a good representation of the Soldier Beetle that can appear in large numbers for a couple of weeks in the summer. Can't remember exactly when though, i should keep a log..........maybe

[darwin]

Graham,
Nice work on these, well done. Very good educational information for those of us that do not know these flies and creators.

[maharg]

Cheers guys, good to get some feedback.

[flyfishy61]

Originally Posted by maharg

The Masters

Dr Howard Alexander Bell.
It could be argued that Dr Bell is the father of imitative fly fishing due to his work on Blagdon in the 1920s. He returned from the horrors of the First World War to continue his practice in the Wrington area. He fished Blagdon every Friday and conducted autopsy’s on thousands of trout. In a time when most anglers were using traditional Scottish and Irish trout flies, Dr Bell decided to look deeper into the trout’s diet. He was a very private man and he left no published works. He did however leave us with some remarkable flies.
As he studied the trout’s food it was clear that they fed mainly on buzzers. He then devised the first ever example of its kind,

Bells Buzzer.
• Hook : 10 - 14
• Thread : Black
• Body : Tying silk, floss or wool - black
• Rib : Flat gold tinsel
• Breathers : White wool



Further studies spurred him to create his amber pupa and the grenadier.
Amber nymph
• Hook : 8 - 10
• Thread : Black
• Body : Amber seal's fur 2/3rds
• Thorax : Black seal's fur
• Back : Any blae coloured feather fibre.
• Throat hackle: a few fibres of honey dun hen


He also suggested a smaller size of say a 12 with a hot orange thorax.
The original sedge fly imitation.

Grenadier
• Hook : 12 - 14
• Thread : Orange
• Body : Orange seal's fur
• Rib : Gold tinsel, oval
• Hackle : Two turns of ginger or light furnace


No record exists of what Dr Bell actually intended this to imitate and I have seen it listed as both a wet and dry fly. Perhaps an adult/ emerging buzzer or even a cow dung fly????
The man gets very little credit for his pioneering work on Stillwater, nothing like Skues or Halford get on rivers. Perhaps this has helped to rectify things.
ATB
Graham

see here as well
The Master: Tom Ivens
The Masters: Gordon Frazer

nice piece of history here, have sometimes used a grenadier on farmoor 1 when was a club water, shows how these old patterns can be productive too as our modern ones, the bells buzzer is a cracking imitation so lets hope some on here will give it a go tying and fishing with, what white wool you think ok????

[mot]

I'd seen Dr Bells buzzer before in the classics threads but the other patterns are new to me, so thanks for that. I like the look of the amber nymph and will attempt to tie some up. Unfortunately I don't have any honey dun hen, is there anything I can use as a sub?

Cheers
Mot

[roll cast]

Nice work Graham, didn't see these before now

[falsecast]

Beautiful flies Graham. The amber nymph is tied on a big hook. Looks like it will fish in the surface for a good while. Will have to add one or two to have a try with

[roll cast]

I did a step by step for the amber nymph but tied it slightly differently as I was tying from some of them I have been given