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 After reading
Bill Lovelace’s very interesting article about the Matuka I
thought about the developments of the flies made here in Australia. It may not
be very well known, but according to all the evidence, it seems it was an
Australian who first bound the wing to the body in the fashion now considered to
be standard for Matukas.
 The original Matuka (Matuku) was similar to the picture to the left
(Click on it to Enlarge It), with the
feather only tied in at the head as is normal for streamers to this day. In 1929
a Mr Critchley-Parker returned from a trip to New Zealand with ideas, and
designed a couple of patterns for use in the Great Lake and other waters in
Tasmania.
  Those patterns, the Red and Yellow Perils,
seen to the left and right, were designed along the same
lines as the original Matuka. To alleviate the problem of the wing getting
tangled around the hook during casting, he got together with a well known tyer
of the time, Dick Wigram who solved the problem by lashing the wing down. It has
been that way ever since.
To the best of my knowledge it also seems that the first fly produced in this
fashion in New Zealand was the Parsons Glory, probably their most famous Matuka
and still one of the best. It appeared on the scene in the mid to late thirties.
 In the meantime Matukas really
took off here in Australia with many different tyers adding their own
patterns over the years. Dick Wigram, who I have already mentioned,
designed a whole series of Matukas ranging from all black to his famous
Robin - shown on the right. He went a step further with the Robin. The first section
of the body was tied as a butt and the wing was tied in at this point
cocking it even higher away from the hook bend.
 Another professional tier of the era, J.M. Gillies, produced a whole series of
Matukas or Longtails as they were also known. Reg Lyne , another well known
tier marketed his own patterns which included a couple with plastic bodies. A
whole series of Whitebait patterns evolved for use in estuaries for sea trout -
mainly in Tasmania but also for general use as lake flies all over the country.
I`ve selected a fair variety of patterns popular over the years in the picture
below just for comparison.
 Bob
Frandsen lives in a small town near the Gippsland Lakes which are an extensive estuarine system in East Gippsland
in the South/East corner of Australia in the state of Victoria. He is a regular
contributor to Salmonfly.Net and is amongst other accolades, he is listed in
Steve Thorntons
Fy Tyers of the World.
You can see Bob's Flies on Salmonfly.Net at
The Flies of Bob Frandsen.
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