Once confined to a few remote and obscure rivers in Scotland over a century ago, Spey and Dee flies now enjoy worldwide popularity, thanks to the pioneering efforts of people like Syd Glasso, Dick Wentworth, Walt Johnson, Dave McNeese, and others. But it was the "Lady Caroline" Spey fly that somehow managed to survive the period from 1900 to 1950 when interest in Spey flies was virtually nonexistent, being overshadowed by the "gaudy" full-dressed Irish salmon flies. This fly, first tied by Geordie Shanks, the head "ghillie" at Gordon Castle on the Spey River in the second half of the nineteenth century, was the long thin thread that bridged the gap back to an era when the old Spey patterns were cast after the king of fish. Had this fly been lost in the fog of history, the entire concept of the Spey fly would likely have been lost with it.

It is to Geordie Shanks that this catalog is dedicated.