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Pont d'Audemer



It is pretty interesting, to figure out the history of this pattern and how it found it's way into the European fly-boxes.

This fly has somehow two origins. One in in England, and the second one in France. Let's look at the English roots. On the river Mole in Surrey, England a tying style was developed, which gave the fly a unique way of floating. The fly is riding horizontally on its hackle, the body is submerged, and the wings, which are pointing over the hook's eye are well visible.

Various pattern were developed based on this style, one of them is the Pont d'Audemer. Interesting is, that this fly, even if it is based on a British style, was developed in the Normandie and become very popular there and in other areas of Europe.

Charles Ritz recommends this fly in his book 'A Fly Fisher's Life' (Erlebtes Fliegenfischen) as excellent fly for the rivers Risle, Andelle, Charentonne. Eponym of the pattern is a little town in the Normanie.

Browsing through this pattern's variantions is interesting too. Some of them add a hackle tail to the fly, which would change the floating behavior of the fly tremendously. Charles' book shows a drawing of the fly, which has a tail. For small variations the raffia can be replaced by yellow silk, and the rib can be done by a dark green thread.

A variant of the pattern reached the US as well. Garry LaFontain promoted a fly called the 'Occasion'.

Pattern of the Occasion:

Hook:	light wire, 12-16
Half Body:	Red floss
Hackle:	one cree feather and two cream feathers
Wings:	hackle tips of two regular cream hackles

The reader should note, that only the front half of the body is covered with material and that no tail is added. This flies has the same floatation hehavior as the English Mole Flies.

How to tie the Pont d'Audemer

Hook:	Std. Dry Fly Hook, downeye	Place Hook in vise.
Thread:	Black 8/0	Start the thread at the hooks eye, and wind a base to midshank. Return the thread to the start point. Leave a tiny spot free at the eye.
Wings:	Wood Duck Flank Fibers	Take a bunch of feather fibers and measure them against the hool's length. Tie them in at the hook's eye with the pinch, tips pointing over the eye. Leave only a small gap at the end, just enough for a small head. Using figure-eight wraps divide the fibers into two bunches, but don't bring them into an upright position. We will do this later. Advance the thread to the bend, completing thus the thread base.
Rib:	Peacock herl, and yellow thread, twisted	Tie in the herl at the tip, and the thread. Peacock herl is very fragile, especially at the tip. You mostly have to shorten the tip in order to get a more durable portion of the fiber. Advance the thread to the eye.
Body:	Natural raffia	Cut a length of raffia, approximately 3 inches, and moisten it with water. Split it into small strips, width depends on the size of the hook. Ensure that the strip is still moisten and tie it in behind the wing, but leave space for the hackle. Wrap the raffia back to the bend and return to the tie-in point.
		Take the yellow thread, twist it carefully with the peacock herl. To avoid breakage of the peacock, use more tension on the thread and wrap the herl around it. Take one turn behind the body on the bare hook, and than wrap to create the rib. If the herl breaks, you can use the yellow thread to tie in the herl again at the bend, and you have a second chance to do the rib. Tie off the rib and snip off the excess.
Hackle:	Brown dry fly	Prepare the hackle as usually. Tie in by the steam. Wrap the hackle, and tie off very close by the wing.
Head:	Black	Advance the thread into the small gap between wing and eye, grasp the wing with your fingers of the left hand and pull them in a 45 degree. Use the forefinger to separate the two wings. Hold one wing between thumb and forefinger, the other wing is kept from forefinger and middle finger. After setting the wings in an angle of 45 degrees, form a little and, whip and you're done.