I went to a book store today and while waiting for the wife to finish up, I picked up a "Fishing Facts" magazine. What caught my eye was the article titled "catching slabs on the original crappie lure". I had to know what this was, where we started. The article spoke of a doctor whose last name was Estes. He was born in the early 1800's and grew to be a fisherman that was recognized by James Henshall in "The Book Of The Black Bass", a very well recognized book in the history of fishing. Dr. Estes tied a fly that, in appearance, has a resemblance to a traditional salmon fly though smaller. The body was of blue chenille wrapped with gold wire, a bit of hackle around the nose( looked palmered to me), A sparse tail of one small yellow and red hackle tips forming a V, and what is guessed as a pair of Mallard flank wings. All this was tied on a standard looking hook of average dimension with no size stated. It states that the hook was snelled to the leader and a shot(literally a buckshot with a v formed into it with an knife like tool) crimped to the snell of the hook. As best I can remember this was first documented in the mid 1850's. We haven't come very far from then to now in terms of tying, though the materials have changed greatly, namely the invention of nylon. The article was worth the price of the magazine to me, though I left it on the rack. I have 3 magazines I haven't opened yet, didn't see the sense of another. It was in the June/July issue that will soon come off the racks. I thought some of you might care to look it up, I enjoyed the piece greatly.