Innovative Western Fly Tyer
Through his fly shop, mail order business and extensive correspondence and fishing experiences with other famous fly fisherman—Joe Brooks, Lee Wulff, Ray Bergman and Preston Jennings, to name a few, Dan Bailey became known as one of the most innovative fly tiers in the West. Using his knowledge of Eastern fly patterns, Bailey adapted these patterns to his experiences on Montana streams into a wide range of new and innovative fly patterns. A few famous fly patterns credited to Dan Bailey are:
- Marabou Muddler—an evolution of the Muddler Minnow introduced in the 1940s and still one of the most popular trout flies on the market today.
- Mossback Nymph—A extremely popular woven stonefly nymph pattern that Bailey introduced in the 1940s.
- Bailey Wulffs-Black, Grizzly, Blond and Brown hair wing dry flies named after Lee Wulff.
- Red Variant—A 1940s quill bodied may fly imitation adapted from eastern quill bodied flies.
- Green Drake—A 1950s may fly imitation originally tied for West Yellowstone anglers fishing Henry's Fork in Idaho.
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“A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.”
—Malcolm Bradbury (b. 1932)
“Practically everyone now bemoans Western man’s sense of alienation, lack of community, and inability to find ways of organizing society for human ends. We have reached the end of the road that is built on the set of traits held out for male identity—advance at any cost, pay any price, drive out all competitors, and kill them if necessary.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)
“I fly in dreams, I know it is my privilege, I do not recall a single situation in dreams when I was unable to fly. To execute every sort of curve and angle with a light impulse, a flying mathematics—that is so distinct a happiness that it has permanently suffused my basic sense of happiness.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)