Frank Hornberg was the creator of the Hornberg Special. While
the fly is familiar to many, relatively little is written
or known about the man. He was born February 27, 1882 in Wisconsin.
In 1920 he became the first game warden assigned to Portage
county Wisconsin and served there until his retirement in
1950. Frank Hornberg was a classic example of an old-time
game warden and a colorful public figure. He died June 15,
1966 in Santa Rosa, California. It was during the 1920’s he
developed the fly that bears his name.
The standard Hornberg as typically described in current flyfishing
literature and as sold commercially has a few salient features.
It is tied on a 2 X long streamer hook. The shank is wound
with silver tinsel. Yellow calf tail or small hackles are
then tied in as an under wing. The wing consists of two gray
mallard flank feathers tied parallel and vertically along
the shank. Jungle cock eyes are attached so that the second
eye shows. The front is then wound with grizzly dry fly hackle.
Hook sizes usually range from 10 to 6.
Frank Hornberg initially designed
the Hornberg Special as a dry fly. Several sources claim that
he designed this pattern in the 1920’s. Then in the 1940’s
the Weber Tackle Company helped him develop the fly for commercial
production. The 1940’s were the golden age for domestic fly
production and Portage county was then the home to five tackle
companies. Of these the largest was the Weber Tackle Company.
The Hornberg Special became one of the flies listed in their
catalogue. It probably was this catalogue listing that contributed
to the widespread distribution and usage of the Hornberg Special.
The Hornberg can be fished as a dry fly dead drift or fished
as a streamer below the surface of the water. Alternately
a combination approach can be employed. It can be cast out
upstream and drifted until the fly swings below and dangles.
Then the fly can be pulled under the surface and stripped
in as a streamer. Fished as a dry fly the Hornberg is suggested
to represent a caddis or stonefly. When stripped subsurface
it is intended to represent a baitfish.
While the above is probably the most common form of the Hornberg
seen today, it really represents just the current stage in
the evolution of this fly. This current version differs from
the original Hornberg.
The old version differs from the current version by having
wing tips that were lacquered and twisted or stroked to a
point.
When tied in a small size and with the wings tented over
the shank it may well represent a caddis. Frank Hornberg is
said to have tied it as an imitation of lucastrine caddis,
a caddis common to central Wisconsin.
While originally designed as a dry fly, the Hornberg special
must have proven to be effective when fished subsurface. Now
it is mainly regarded as a streamer pattern. Since its appearance
in the midwest, it has gained popularity in the Northeast.
There it became the Hornberg instead of the Hornberg Special
and the wings tips were left unlacquered.
The standard Hornberg is constructed from the following materials
as described by Bates (1950):
| Hook |
Streamer,
size 6 |
| Thread |
Black |
| Body |
Flat
silver tinsel |
| Underwing |
Narrow
strips of two yellow neck hackles |
| Overwing |
Two
barred grey mallard breast feathers |
| Cheeks |
Jungle
cock, fairly long |
| Throat |
4-5
turns of grizzly dry fly collar |
It is not unusual to seen minor substitutions for some of
the materials. The hooks range from 2x to 4x long. The underwing
can be hackle, calf tail or bucktail. The hackle collar is
grizzly or a mix of grizzly and brown. All of these slight
substituions would produce a traditional Hornberg. For example
Leiser’s pattern description (Leiser, 1987) lists the following:
| Hook |
Streamer,
6-10 Mustad 38941, 9671 |
| Thread |
Black |
| Tail |
None
|
| Body |
Flat
silver tinsel |
| Underwing |
Yellow
calf tail, tied so as to tilt slightly upward |
| Overwing |
Flanked
by 2 mallard flank feathers, half a shank past bend |
| Cheeks |
Jungle
cock eyes, 2nd eye showing |
| Hackle |
Grizzly
and brown mixed - tied as a dry fly collar |
However as with all effective patterns variations were made
to the original. Some of these alternative patterns may have
been intended to develop certain aspects. Any of the following
changes would make the result some variant of a Hornberg.
| Underwing
Color |
Orange,
Red |
| Throat |
Soft
hackle tied similar to a salmon collar |
| Wing |
Replacement
of the Mallard by anything else is usually the starting
point of controversy. Some regard Mallard as an essential
component if the fly is to be called a Hornberg. Others
are more forgiving and see no substantial objection to
replacement of Mallard with other barred flanks feathers
such as Woodduck or Teal. More radically substituitions
involves use of other feathers such as Amherst, Silver,
and Golden pheasant. There does not appear to be any consensus
as to what the resulting fly should be called. |
Click
here for variety of Hornberg variations.
Text
by Lindsey Grandison
Bibliography
Rogers, G. Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Fly Capital of the World.
Fly Tyer 2:30-32, 1996
Talleur, Richard. Assembly-line Hornbergs. American Angler
20:71-7
Talleur, Richard. Advanced Hornbergery. American Angler 24:71-77
The summer 1999 Fly fishing & Tying Journal has and excellent
article on tying the Hornberg.
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