Comment: Hi Colin, looking good , i`ll be following your progress for sure

Comment: VERY cool website.....looking forward to watching it grow. Please link mine to yours.....and i\'ll do the same for you. mark..... ;>)

Comment: Hi. Loooks so good, hope you post pics of all your old flies, i really love to look at them. All the best. K-O

Comment: Superb website, lots of useful information. I\'m looking forward to hearing more about Aberdeen\'s rodmakers.

Comment: Well done... interesting website...look forward to watching it\'s development. Please consider linking to the Richard Wheatley Museum.

Comment: Lovely site Colin, like the others I\'m looking forward to seeing it grow. Not the easiest to find, but got here eventually, the wonders of google.

Comment: i love your website i am looking forward to seeing the elle-bell best wishes ellie

Comment: Nice one !!!!

Comment: This site is now at the top of my "Favourites". Would hate to miss any additions. Good luck

Comment: hi all from canada ,what a wonderfull site you have, i truely enjoyed it , i have a few classic reels in my collection and use them when i guide on bamboo rods , i have a fondness for dingleys and young\'s , hardys and i even have a sweet older sharps scottie reel with red agate , was so nice to read your pages , well done , come for a fish sometime in canada with me on the bow river , canada\'s # 1 best trout river

Comment: Great site Colin, well done. I have a couple of Dee\'s for you, let me know where to send them. Looking forward to the book. Regards Chris.

Comment: Looking forward to the book, but a fine website. Congratulations will be in order when the book is finely published!!!!!

Comment: Great site Colin i check it every day. I love looking at the old flies Rocky

Comment: I love your web site nice to see all the vintage flies and takele. Keep up with the great work and I look forward to seeing more. thanks James

Comment: Being an Aberdonian a lot of this will bring back memoriesof Brown\'s and Dicksons in Belmont Street.

Comment: Nicely done, looking forward to your book. Please keep the site updated on the book\'s progress, title and release date. Info on J S Sharpe is great,

Comment: Excellent website with lots of great information. Looking forward to future visits. DPLee

Comment: Very Very Nice

Comment: Hello Colin, Very nice meeting you at the British Fly Fair, I hope we get the chance to meet again. I\'ve thoroughly enjoyed browsing your website.

Comment: Colin, Please post the P-T article you mention in "cool stuff". I\'m sure a lot of people would be very interested in it. Website is progressing very well. Still one of my first ports of call Barry

Comment: Colin this is a very nice and informative site. I am going to bookmark it and will visit every so often. Bob

Comment: Great Site!! Love the vintage Dee\'s!! Marked as a favorite!

Comment: Outstanding web site, and very interesting subject. The Dee, it\'s people, fishing, and history has always fasinated me.

Comment: Colin, My congratulations on an exceptional site. Something here for everyone. The history of patterns and flies (especailly to little known and obscure) is especially interesting to me. Thank you for your work on this site and also to those who have contributed infomation for you to include.

Comment: Excellent Site Colin , Keep up the good work.

Comment: Colin Thanks for taking time to contact me and make me aware about your informative site.I will promote it through some contacts and mediums which will assist you reach a wide base of viewers.Best wishes with your endeavours and congratulations for producing suc good reference material. Ken Reid DDSFB Aberdeenshire

Comment: Good site; I know a lot of research has gone into this at various places up and down the river (The Boat Inn, Potties, to name only two). Looking forward to having a few casts with you at Tannar Mouth with Alex in the new year. Great site, Dave

Comment: Very cool website! Fascinating artifacts, facts, and fables. Too bad you can\'t put a nice Scot accent on all the descriptions... just for effect. Thanks for sharing a wealth of information.

Comment: Just read your biog. I have evidently confused you with another Colin Innes who is a solicitor in Edinburgh! Sorry! Donald

Comment: Hi Colin, I am interested in obtaining information on Hugh Snowie of Inverness and would appreciate any information or references regarding his life, business, or family, that you know of.

Comment: Dear Colin, Surely the missing "Benkle" is the "Benchill" named after the Tay beat? It strikes me that we are dealing with uneducated spelling in some local quarter here. Yours aye, Donald

Comment: Inspired Site, I\'ll be visiting frequently

Comment: Wonderful resource to brows through. Thanks your for your hard work.

Comment: This post concerns the Spey flies series in Knox\'s book of 1872. First the Riach series which Knox calls "Reeach". If only dear old Knox had realised how this mis-spelling grates with the Scots. The name is Riach, with the "ch" pronounced as in the Scots word for a lake namely "loch", not as in the word "reach". The surname Riach derives from the old Scots Gaelic word for "royal". I think I may have identified the man Riach after whom these flies are called. He was a prominent businessman and civic councillor in the area in the nineteenth century. More info soon. As to the Speal series. The word "speal", pronounced "spyal" is the Scots Gaelic word for a scythe. Look at the shape of the wing of the fly. It is just like a scythe-blade. Gaelic started to disappear from Dee-side shortly after the Reformation but many of the Gaelic names in the locality are preserved to this day - see "The Place-names of Upper Deeside" published by Aberdeen University Press about 1980. As for Speyside, well, without keeping the Gaelic associations, a whole lot of distilleries would go out of business!

Comment: Fascinating site - Superb achievement

Comment: wonderful and useful site colin. i\'ll be around often, Bud

Comment: Wow, I am most impressed. Bought a JS Sharpe Rod the other day and was just looking it up and found your site. I\'ve been collecting for 3 or so years and have a few items I need to identify so my contact you again idf that is acceptable. Cheers Chappie

Comment: Hello Colin, I see I will be spending some time on this lovely website. Cheers, Muzzy

Comment: very nice website - using sometie my 8.3scottie with my gordon reel - amazing troutfishing - go ahead pls

Comment: a lot of work done here mate, looking forward to its progress

Comment: Colin, great site, loads of info look for ward to seeing site grow.

Comment: Hi Colin. Great site mate. I just fished Dee last week,wish I could have paid you a visit for a chat and a pint. I went to visit Somers but they were closed unfortunately. Keep up the great work/site. Best Regards Neil.

Comment: I wish I had found this site a long time ago. This is not just a great web site, it\'s a brilliant historical resource. I am in you debt and that will only grow as I spend more time looking around, studying and benefit from all that is there!

Comment: I came upon your site while trying to find more of W. Murdochs writings about flies for the Dee. Very cool! I particularly like the pictures and illustrations of vintage flies. I am a fly tier, and it\'s really good to see what they looked like when they were originated. I just added you to my faforites. Very nice!

Comment: Fantastic website,very interesting. Any info on Edinburgh tackle makers? All the best, Alan.

Comment: VEry Cool! loads of info on here.

Comment: Superb website, Colin. I visit all the time, just gettin around to signing in. Thanks for all of the fascinating information! -Jeff

Comment: Great site Colin, its "Ellie Belle" for me. Frederick. UK.

Comment: Colin, wonderful site!I see a lot of friends have beaten me here.Let us all know when your book comes out.I know John Shewey is coming out with another book on Spey flies also. His first book has always been my bible up to now.Say Hi to Phillip Glendinning. He\'s a hard man to keep in touch with. Cheers, Joel

Comment: Hi Colin, your site is one of the best the fly plates,patterns and imformation is just great to see. All the best.

Comment: Colin your website is a fascinating, very good job in archiving Aberdeens flies, Are you going to the BFFI if so I will hope to catch up with you there. Best Regards Sarah

Comment: You have created a very interesting site, i will visit it very often. Interesting to see a picture of colin simpson and of the huts by river dee

Comment: Brilliant site and very informative. Will definitely buy the book. Recognise your picture from seeing you at tackle auctions. I have a number of vintage flies in my collection and will try and find some which may be of use

Comment: exellent web sight, enjoyed the fly archive, look forward to the book

Comment: Colin, I am linking to your site immediately. It\'s an important catalogue that deserves much broader recognition and I\'m sure it will achieve that.

Comment: I have always liked fly fishing and your site is great.I will email my brother out west the link.

Comment: Ernest Calder, gunmaker, founded his shop at 67/69 King St in 1913. He was the son of William Calder of Guild St. Ernest Calder\'s shop closed in 1959. The "branch" of William Calder in George St was probably a shop of Grace Calder, his daughter. Ernest is my grandfather.

Comment: I have been looking for a pattern with a mohair wing and found one on your lovely site. Thank you for a great resource. Now to the tying bench to give it a go.

Comment: I have an ongoing love-affair with Dee patterns and to be honest,, I think i have found a new home!!!!! Just an amazing site you have here Colin!!!

Comment: Great website, I like the historical elements. My youth was spent in Aberdeen working for a gunsmiths there so some of these names are very familiar to me as gunmakers as well as fishing tackle makers. Playfair is the name that sticks out for me due to the important gun making business. Both Charles Playfair( I) and John Lyell have nice headstones in the King Street Cemetery in Aberdeen.

Comment: One of the best sites for an incredible journey through classic fishing, thank you.

Comment: Obviously my interest springs from my namesake. And I\'ll be darned if old J.S. doesn\'t look just like my grandfather. Appreciate the fine effort you\'ve made here! Would love to hear more about Sharpe\'s rods especially the trout rods, their histories, values and their actions. ie: what action would a Featherweight 8\' 6" have? What line would best fit it? Where would it fall in a quality ranking of Sharpe rods. Would also enjoy learning more about The Gordon reels. Thanks so much! Dave

Comment: Your site makes me want a fishing hut!! I\'m a former executive director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing, so lucky me, have gotten to play with much of what you present! including Irish flies from the late 1700\'s!

Comment: Hi Colin Love the website and if you dont mind I will provide a link to it on FishDee on the flies for the Dee page.Well done. Ken

Comment: This website is a wonderful gift to all of us who ties this wonderful classics.It is truly a great inspiration for me! Thank you, and all the best whishes.

Comment: could you tell me more about hugh snowie & son of inverness, i have got a fly reel made by them, dont know about them, thanks scott

Comment: Gentlemen, Those of you who wish to tie Spey or Dee flies might be interested to visit the Canadian Tube Fly Company website where they offer heron hackles (completely legal except in the USA)in a variety of colours.

Comment: Hello from ICELAND This is a very interesting site about Classic Salmon flies and vintage fishing stuff

Comment: Wonderful site Colin !! I have been visiting your site for a few years now and finally saw the "Guest Book" - LOL That\'s what you get when you have such great site , loaded with information !! Mike

Comment: Hello Colin, May I ask you a question? My father passed about 7 years ago and he left me a bamboo fly rod marked, "J.S. Sharpe Ltd. "Scottie" ABERDEEN Featherlight 4 - 5. The label\'s rubbed off a bit, but I can also make out what looks to be the word "Impregnated. It is between 35 and 45 years old I am guessing. Can you tell me anything about it? Thank-you in advance! Eric

Comment: I love your site, I have a small collection of vintage flies, please go to the website above , then to vintage flies volumes 1,2,3 and vintage reels under the same website www.fowlerperiod.com.There is also a free video filmed on the Grand Cascapedia river showing my son LANDON FOWLER land and release a 32 lb. Junior World Record which still stands today.I love your site and extensive collection. JIM FOWLER

Comment: Fantastic site, Colin.

Comment: 4 years later and I am still coming back to view your wonderful website.

Comment: What a wonderful resource - legendary and scholarly. Browns of Belmont Street...

Comment: How did I miss you at the BFFI. I got to know Phillip Glendinning and Sarah Briston but you came in under the radar. Your website is a treasure. I finnally found some clarification about "spey hackle". I will keep revisiting it for sure. Your ssite is like fresh air blowing the cobwebs and dust out of the repititious cliches of the usual literature. Thanks much.

Comment: Thank you for the job you do. Great website!

Comment: You\'ve created a wonderful site, most worthy of its subjects. Loved the typo "Price of Wales" in the article on JS Sharpe!

Comment: Wow,came across this site looking for a picture of a Lee Blue & Grey -Kelson Fly.Haven\'t found the fly but I am astounded by this site.My Grandmother was born in Aberdeen so this site really means something to me.I am enamoured by the TRUE history of flyfishing and to know my grandmother grew up in a place with a real contributing history to this sport makes me proud.Tomorrow when I get back from fishing I am going to read this site more.Please contact me via e-mail when your book is available.

Comment: Colin, What a great site! They say each day we learn something new and by visiting this site that is so true. One of the best sites around and a `goto` for information. Keep up the good work and tight lines for this season and the other ahead.

Comment: I have really enjoyed your site. I have a group site on Facebook called Cotinga Classic Salmon Flies. Many wonderful and talented tiers use the site to post pictures and comment on Salmon Flies they tie. I have reference this site for them to use as a place to get tying information on patterns and all the other things you manage here. I wish you continued success and hope that it is not a problem sending people to this site for Salmon Fly information.

Comment: This is the URL for Cotinga Classic Salmon Flies posted of Facebook

Comment: just got a William Blacklaws & Son Maker’s 16ft 3pc+spare tip as a 40th B/day prezzie braw site mun

Comment: Welcome back Colin, have really missed the great info & pictures on your site. Nice to see it back in operation again. All the best, Barry

Comment: simply beautiful. Compliments

Comment: Love the story about William Blacklaws. Would you be referring to William Burnett Blacklaws, born 1820, died 1900? Father was John, mother Isabella Leighton. William Burnett Blacklaws was married to Isabella Westland. William B. Blacklaws is my 3rd great grand uncle, so interested in knowing if this famous fisherman is my uncle!

Comment: Colin, this site made my day! As a Classic Atlantic Salmon Fly Tier, this was time well spent!!! Keep posting!

Comment: what an amazing site,i have been tying old repos of salmon flies for years, your site is the best online, the mostess of fishing regards and happy wrappings.

Comment: WOW very nice a lot of work must have gone into this site THANK YOU an exellent site for reference material

Comment: Nice work, I like this site a lot. Thank you.

Comment: Thank you. You have provided the "roots" for my passion for Steelhead and Chinook Salmon.

Comment: Excellent website and I repeatedly access to note original patterns that I can tie for Steelhead and Salmon. I am most interested in the old Dees and Spey flies and astonished at the amount of your research results. Thank you. I had not seen the variety of Gold Riach spey flies. Thank you again. I have saved several pictures to use at my vise.

Comment: Colin, What a remarkable accomplishment! Hind sight is 20/20, and you have provided the best history of original flies, the source for the future of fly tying. Thank you Clark Ps. I go through your website daily. Just found the Irvine fly believing possible good for Steelhead and Chinook Salmon here in Idaho. Thank you again.

Comment: A treasure trove for those of us who have just jumped into the classic, thank you for sharing the resource

Comment: Buogiorno Colin. Splendid website....really splendid

Comment: A truly remarkable website. As a keen fly fisherman, classic salmon fly tier and vintage salmon flies collector (in the beginning stage), I am very impressed by the completeness and detail of your postings.An excellent reference. Thank You!

Comment: How are we made aware of updates to your wesite. It is a very important resource we, especially I follow.

Comment: Hi and first, Happy New Year I hope you could help me with the tying desciption on "the Winnie" and help me and told me where I can find a shop with this wingmateriale. I have looked on severals sites but I coudn\'t find it. Best wishes Per

Comment: I recently purchased a J S Sharpe 9 foot 5 weight "Aberdeen" split bamboo fly rod. I found out from the serial number that it was made in 07/1962. It is in perfect condition and I love it.

Comment: Our Party caught several salmon on a Sir Charles on the Don at Alford in 2012.It is on several of your lists, and was popular c.1910. See also good reviews of Don literature at www.river-maps.co.uk with six salmon flies illustrated.

Comment: Great Site! Always looking here for new classics to tie. Keep up the good work your site is a wealth of knowledge.

Comment: Hi Colin, this is the best page about flies no doubt. I took The liberty to copy a fly on The P D Malloch page. I send it to your mail, hope you like it. Best regards Anders Eriksson.

Comment: Hi Colin, this is the best site for real classic salmon flies, that exist. Keep on rundning it. I took the liberty to copy a P D Malloch fly and sent it to your mail, hope you like it? Best regards Anders Eriksson.

Comment: Hi Collin Bravo what at homepage, it will take me several days to get thru. Cheers Per AKA Taonga

Comment: Hello Colin, just viewed your website for a moment. Don\'t have time to tarry now, but I will be back for sure. Wonderful job putting everything together. Cheers and tight lines!

Comment: I rather like the new text section added above the recent restoration addition to the spey flies section site,"So what does a really old Spey Fly look like?" good show Colin!

Comment: A very inspiring page you got! Those vintage flies just have that something that is irresistable😃....

Comment: An excellent site, look forward to the book (Guy a Robertson has you beat on that one, having had his published) Lovely Abel reel from Isobel, lucky bugger! Keep up this excellent resource.

Comment: Hi Colin,just discovered your web-site,loads of really useful info:definitely one of the better sites!! Just finished a 2/0 Slaughter King,and if it is of any use to your collection/site you may have it,i will send a photo by attachment to your e-mail.Great site !!

Comment: What a fantastic resource. Totally,totally enthralled . Daily reading for a fledgling salmon fly tyer. Starting the ballina series this evening. I live about 8 miles from the Moy.

Comment: When I was 10 years old my mentor fly tier gave me a copy of Hardy\'s 1922 catalog. I was mesmerized by the salmon flies. Now I have your site to view as well. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

Comment: I found your site while researching fly tyer Isabella Hermiston of Kelso. Very nice site!

Comment: An obscure, off-topic (?) question: I am researching Sharpe\'s of Aberdeen use of the Scotty image as their trademark, appearing as early as 1929 from some pictures on your site. They are looking into it for me, but any old images or knowledge you may have would be appreciated.

Comment: very good your page and well told and photographs of the first fishermen, I admire all that and also I learn I am a permanent consultant of this page .Congratulations

Comment: Thanks, I learned a bit about a Scottie 4" reel that I own. Delighted that it was attached to the Dingley reels.

Comment: Living in Northern California but from Hampshire in the UK. I never had the opportunity to fish Scotland, but I wish that I could afford it. Still, the Steelhead and salmon fishing is not shabby here on the west coast. I love the patterns on your site and I\'m tying some of them to try here.

Comment: When I was 15, I was given a small sectioned, Singapore made, bamboo fishing rod by an aunt who lived abroad. I used it occasionally when camping, then donated it to Alison Innes, your mum, in the mid 70s, as she said her son was interested in fishing. I imagine this was your first rod. Anyway, I love your website and will tell my fishing friends about it. Your mum gave me details of your site and book.

Comment: some time ago I discovered your page and as I\'m learning to tie flies, many of these stories interested me tying and riggers of old masters. This is a great product that you have armed here is very complete, attractive and I thank you for sharing...

Comment: Colin, have finally finished reading Lost Flies, wonderful book. You have established yourself as a Scottish National Resource! Can\'t wait for your book on James Harper to come out. Cheers, Joel

Comment: Excellent source for classic patterns. Great to see the originals. Love the history lessons. Thank you for your contribution in sharing the classics.

Comment: Your website looks amazing! I love it! So proud of you and your amazing talent.

Comment: Your website looks amazing! I love it! So proud of you and your amazing talent.

Comment: Bonjour Colin. Great site. I specially enjoy Cplayfair and the vibration rods. I build 3 Greenheart spliced trout rods for wet flies . One 11 ft ( according to your rod plan ) another one 9\' 3" and one 8\'6" .They are quite well balanced and I enjoy their power action. If you find rod plans or tapers for a 14 ft and a 9 ft, could you please send them by e mail or publish them ? thank you et Sincères Salutations pour le travail de recherche. ps : don\'t blame my English

Comment: Still cooking with gas I see Colin. Congratulations on the new books, - would love to get together and chat sometime.