Dave Richey OUTDOORS

Halladay and  his wife Rilla ran the old Mayfield Hotel. Mayfield, a small village near the upper Boardman River, was serviced by the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad. To help supplement his income from running the Mayfield Hotel, he became a fishing guide, and in 1916 or 1917, he began tying flies for his fishing guests.

Most of these  people came north from Illinois, Indiana and southern Michigan. It was just a short trip to the Boardman River, and an even shorter trip to the shores of the Mayfield Pond. It was along the banks of this small pond that this famous fly was born.

Legendary guide and fly tier Len Halladay of Mayfield, Michigan. He invented the Adams fly.

Halladay invented several flies that worked on the pond or river for he and his clients, but the Adams became the most popular. Other flies he tied included the Dr. Kirgin, Halladay's Michigan Caddis and the Hair Stone.

It may have been a Michigan attorney named Harold Hinsdill Smedley of Muskegon who made the Adamas fly popular in his noted book, first published in the first edition of his book "Fly Patterns & Their Origins." Smedley, in writing about Halladay's Adams fly, stated:

"Leonard Halladay, of Mayfield, Michigan, was the first to tie this truly "Michigan;s favorite fly" which was named for Charles F. Adams, an attorney from Lorrain, Ohio."

Halladay told Smedley: "The first Adams fly I made I handed it to Charlie Adams, who was fishing in a small pond (Mayfield Pond) in front of my house," Halladay said. "It was made to be fished on the nearby Boardman River and the pond one evening. When Dr. Adams returned the next morning, he wanted to know what I called it. He called the fly a "knock-out), and I said we would call it the Adams fly, since he had made the first good catch on it. The popularity of this dry fly continues to increase.

"I simply combined the basic colors of the fly. The Adams combined two basic colors — brown and gray — and the wide wings suggest a spent fly, and barred wings help make the fly more attractive to fish. The official christening took place about 1922, near the Boardman River. I used only the dry fly for my fishing."

Lou B. Adams, son of Charles Adams, told Smedley: "Since Dad and I spent practically all of our fishing time together, and have both used this particular fly ever since it was originated, we have noticed that althouguh it is at all times a steady fish getter, it seems to be especially effective if there are flying ants on the stream, and we have both thought it is the 'bug" that it apparently simulates.

My first personal exposure to this famous fly came at the hands of my teen-age mentor, Max Donovan of Clio, Michigan. He felt the Adams fly tied on a No. 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 hook, was perhaps one of the steadiest producing flies used on the Manistee and AuSable rivers near Grayling.

"A person could give me a fly box filled with different flies, and if it contained only one Adams, that is the fly I'd use," Donovan told me back in the 1950s. "I don't get too many chances to wade the river, but when it comes time to wade the river, I want to be casting a dry fly that produces trout. I'm told it matches a number of emerging flies, and that is one reason for its popularity — it produces good trout catches."

Donovan was a hemophiliac and an amputee, and he could wade the AuSable River near Wa Wa Sum, and flick casts here and there under and alongside the sweepers, and would catch 10 trout for every one I caught. Since he was my mentor, and I was trying to learn from this master sportsman, I secretly began carrying a half-dozen Adams flies in various sizes. When we would meet again at the end of the fishing day, and compare catches, my success rate made a major jump and suddenly I was catching as many fish as my teacher.

All of these thoughts went through my mind today as Edna Sargent, formerly of Mayfield and a friend of  the late Len Halladay, and it was she and other members of the Kingsley Friends of the Library, who made items available to preserve the Heritage of Len Halladay, the Adams fly, and the Mayfield Pond. Hearing people talk today brought back many wonderful memories of a legendary fly tier and the fly he created for this area. This bit of history helps keep the memories alive for many anglers who still fly-fish the Boardman River, and I'm proud to be one of them.

The library is just east of Kingsley on M-113, and is easy to find. Anyone with fly-fishing fever in their blood should visit the special room set up to honor Len Halladay and the Adams fly he invented just a few miles north of the library. It's well worth the visit.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors