Charles Bickel (1891- 1945) Founder of "Mouches de Vallorbe", fishing the Orbe river in Vallorbe, Switzerland in 1941 Rolf Frischknecht (1959- ) New owner of "Mouches de Vallorbe", fishing the Orbe river in Vallorbe, Switzerland in 2024
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"Mouches de Vallorbe" - the first and biggest fly tying atelier in Switzerland for more than 100 years. Leaving his job as a worker in the metal industry, Charles Bickel opened about 1920 in Vallorbe (Swiss Jura ) a small fly making factory, with mostly women as fly tyers. He experimented with new materials and new tying procedures. Being himself a flyfisherman, Bickel developed many flies, true innovations- which were, in contrast to many new flies, not only nice, but also catching (lots of) fish. Different "Mouches de Vallorbe" including the famous CDC Bickel were sold from Vallorbe to the shops in Switzerland. After his early death in 1945, the business was initially continued by his widow and from 1960 it was taken over by the local resident Michel Fontannaz. In the 1990s, operations had to be discontinued for cost reasons. On 24th of march 2013, Rolf Frischknecht/ Swissflies bought "Mouches de Vallorbe" , including the whole collection with hundreds of patterns (description and example flies) and all rights from the last owner. Preserving the Swiss fly tying traditionWe will present here for the interested fly tier all these swiss historic flies, page by page, images and detailed descriptions of the fly patterns developed 1918- 1945 by Charles Bickel - as soon as we have electronically scanned them.
To keep the tradition going, we'll be remaking the best flies just like the original- but on barbless hooks. Please find at Swissflies:
We also invite fly tyers of today, who would like to participate in maintaining this tradition by making these flies and present them on this site, to contact us (send an email with your suggestions to sales@swissflies.ch) On the other hand, any commercial remake is forbidden without the written permission of Swissflies, the holder of all rights of "Mouches de Vallorbe". The pattern descriptions in the collection are in french- find here our Translation help for french fly tying terms and list of avialable historic fly tying materials |
The flies of the Vallorbe collection |
"Mouches de Vallorbe" - collection 1918-1945The Mouches de Vallorbe collection consists of one pattern book containing the early flies, one federal folder filled with later patterns and special flies. There's also a collection of fly plates, which were used for presenting the flies to the shop owners, and as reference in the flyshops. Thousands of fly patterns were developed from 1918 onwards with a variety of materials, carefully tied and individually sewn piece by piece on the pages of the book and the a federal folder. Most flies are described in detail, thereby naming the threads and feathers to be used. |
The following patterns are already published: Bickel CDC 1924 - - Mayflies 1925 -Winged flies 1923 No. 151-198 - Mouches anglaises 1924 No. 301-324 - Echantillons de Genève - Musterfliegen aus Genf 1924 Mouches de Genève 1927 - Mouches de Lucerne 1929 - Mouches de Berne 1928 - Mouches plumes perdrix 1928 Please note that all pattern descriptions in the collection are in french- please use our Translation help of french fly tying terms Coming soon: more fly patterns from Mouches de Vallorbe (we have more than 3000 further unpublished historic fly patterns- a lot of work to do).
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Fish a classic fly with a classic line Phoenix silk fly line |
Swiss Flies is a non- profit company. All profits will be used for the benefit of our fly fishing. by financing projects and political work to save our beautiful rivers and creeks. We further invest in the purchase and preservation of historic Swiss flies. Only in this way, and if talented fly tiers of today tie and fish the successful patterns of yesterday, this unique cultural heritage can be preserved from destruction and oblivion.
If you could profit from the images and descriptions of the historic flies, and if you would like to support this idea, any donation is welcome and we will thank you for that.
Copyright Swissflies - Swiss historical flies. All rights of "Mouche De Vallorbe" are in the possession of Swissflies.
Any commercial remake, the use of names and pictures is forbidden without the written permission of Swissflies.
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