Continuing with the posting of my original streamers from Streamers365.com, I present the Committee, a fly with a somewhat unique history of creation.
Back in the early 1990’s my good friend Rick Whorwood of Stoney Creek, Ontario, was getting interested in tying full-dress salmon flies. At the time he got this idea to bring some instructors into his home for classes. They were two full days of class, held in his garage with twelve students. On two occasions I sat in on these sessions. The first instructor was Rob Solo, of Newfoundland, and the second was Bob Veverka, of Vermont. These salmon fly lessons played a role in the creation of the Committee as far as my component selections.
A few friends and I had been making annual September treks to the Moosehead Lake region of Maine since 1986,where we hooked up and fished with my brother, Larry, who resides in New Gloucester, Maine. Starting in late August into September before departure, we would get together once a week at someone’s home and tie flies. Not everyone in these sessions was going to Maine, but they also attended for the fun and camaraderie.
One night, my friend Joe Radley and I were having dinner at a bar before the evening session. We came up with this idea to create a fly “by committee.” How this would go, was we took all the components of a streamer, wrote them on separate slips of paper, which would then be placed in a hat. Once the slips were drawn, each person was required to write their component suggestion on the paper without any discussion among anyone else. The Committee developed sight unseen by its contributors, being passed from vise to vise as it evolved. Besides Joe and me, the originators include Truman McMullan, Dave Rothrock Sr., and Dave Rothrock, Jr. I can only recall that I ended up getting the butt and ribbing, that is why, drawing on my recent salmon fly tying lessons, I chose a red chenille butt and the double ribbing of flat silver tinsel backed by fine oval gold tinsel.
On the trip to Moosehead that year, we all had a few Committees to toss around, and it proved to be a pattern that successfully took trout and salmon from the Roach, Moose, and Kennebec Rivers.

The Committee, a “Don Bastian and friends” original pattern. Photo courtesy of Darren MacEachern, Streamers365.com. The hook is a Gaelic Supreme #1 – 8x long Mike Martinek / Carrie Stevens Rangeley Style streamer.
Here is the Streamers365.com link to the Committee: http://streamers365.com/2012/11/321-committee/
Committee
Tag: Narrow flat silver tinsel
Tail: Golden pheasant tippet fibers
Butt: Red chenille
Body: Orange floss
Ribbing: Narrow flat silver tinsel followed by oval gold tinsel
Belly: White bucktail followed by sparse yellow bucktail
Throat: Grizzly hackle fibers
Wing: Sparse red bucktail to end of tail over which are four bright orange hackles
Shoulder: Brown-edged black and tan “church windows” from the back of a cock ring-necked pheasant
Cheek: Jungle cock