Dette Flies
In September, 2004 I was sent a large collection of old flies by my 94 year old Uncle in New York. He had acquired the flies from the estate of a childhood friend of his who had recently passed away. The collection contained about 150 large wet flies, nymphs, streamers, and deer hair bass bugs. Some of the flies had obviously been used, many were loose in two old cigar boxes, and many were still in envelopes and small boxes marked William Mills & Sons or Abercrombie & Fitch. Based on the fly patterns, the labeled envelopes, some printed material from Mills and A&F that accompanied the flies, and the original owner’s age, I concluded that the collection dated to the mid-1930s through the mid-1960s. There was more.
The collection also contained 6 small Mason boxes of flies that were obviously of better materials and workmanship than the others. Each box was labeled in pencil stating the number of flies, their pattern, and their size. The total count was 5 dozen dry flies and 1 dozen nymphs. Each box was full as labeled and all of the flies appeared to be as new as the day they were tied. Because of the quality of materials and workmanship, and the style of the flies, I was sure that one of the better known Catskill fly tiers had made them and began a search to determine who the tier might be.
My search ended with Mary Dette, daughter of Walt and Winnie Dette. She positively identified the 3 sample flies I sent her, from both the workmanship of the flies and her father’s handwriting on the Mason box lids. Of the 3 sample flies that I sent to her, Mary identified the Cowdung as being tied by Walt, and the Hair Wing Royal Coachman and Grey Hackle as being tied by Winnie. She was gracious enough to send me a letter of authentication and patient enough to tolerate the subsequent phone calls that I made to her asking some follow up questions.
Of primary interest to me were the Yellow Body Brown Nymph and the lack of tails on all of the Cowdung dry flies. Mary told me that her father, Walt, had indeed made molded plastic “hardback” nymphs during the late 1930s - early 1940s but had given up the project because the flies proved not to be effective. She also told me that the Cowdung flies should have tails of brown hackle fibers and that moths had probably chewed the tails off.
I was also curious about the hooks because they appear to me to be English hooks rather than Mustad hooks which came into common use after World War II, and about the Conover pattern which wasn’t one of the sample flies that I had sent Mary for authentication. Mary told me that it would have been Winnie who tied the Conover, and that Walt and Winnie had used Allcock hooks in their early tying. Considering the presence of the molded “hard back” nymph and the use of what I believe to be English hooks, my guess is that these flies were tied around 1935 –1945.
Steve Williams
Lexington, NC
September, 2004