The final edition to my list of original streamer patterns from Streamers365.com, 2012, is the Ace of Spades. It was posted on Streamers365.com on December 27, 2012. Here is the link: http://streamers365.com/2012/12/362-ace-of-spades/

I was also delighted to receive a copy of Donald A. Wilson’s recent book, Tandem Streamers, and discover that he included the Ace of Spades in the book, page 65, the sample pattern was tied tandem by Dan Legere, owner of the Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville, Maine. The Ace of Spades was created in the late 1990’s from a desire to simply use claret and black together in a streamer pattern. There is also an English fly of the same name, quite different, but at the time I was unaware of it. Guess this isn’t the first time that happened…

I also have to add the humorous story of how my good friend Truman, discovered that the Ace of Spades was included in Tandem Streamers. This summer, in July, Truman and I planned to go to the family cabin for a couple days. We were just going to hang out, relax, and mostly tie flies. Truman, ak. TG, had recently gotten interested in tying tandem streamers, and I had tied tandems for Forgotten Flies back in the late ’90’s. TG came to pick me up, and while I was getting the last few things ready, he sat in a chair and picked up my copy of Donald Wilson’s Tandem Streamers. He thumbed through it for a couple minutes, then all of a sudden, TG blurted out, “What the hell is this expletive deleted?”

“What?” I asked.

“Ace of Spades streamer, originated by Don Bastian,” he replied. He was kidding of course, as close friends do.

Ace of Spades, original streamer by Don Bastian. Photo by Darren MacEachern, Streamers365.com.

Ace of Spades

Tail:                 Narrow sections of black duck or goose quill, curving upward **

Body:              Medium flat silver tinsel

Rib:                 Fine oval silver tinsel

Throat:            Black bucktail to end of body followed by a shorter bunch of claret hackle fibers

Wing:              Four claret saddle hackles over which are two black saddle hackles, topped with four strands of peacock herl

Cheek: Jungle cock