Sentimental Fly

Do you have a sentimental fly?  I do.  For many a year I had a great fishing partner named Hannah.  She was a golden retriever who would sit behind me on the river quietly trying to eat baitfish in the shallow back eddies.  She would duck her head under for a few seconds and try to snap at the much faster baitfish.  Bless her soul I don't think she ever caught one in all
those years but she never gave up.  She loved being out on the water regardless of the catching, just like we do. She was just about the best fishing dog you could ask for.  She passed on in 2007 and just before we buried her I took some clips of hair to make a fly to remember her by.
Given her golden color I knew there was 1 fly that was perfect, the gotcha.  The prince nymph of bone fishing.  I have never fished that fly and never will. It sits at eye level embedded in a hemlock timber near my woodstove mantel. I walk by it daily and when that pearl body braid and golden hair catches my eye I remember her like it was yesterday. 

How bout it?  Anyone out there have a sentimental fly?  Maybe the 1st 1 you tied?  Your child tied?  Maybe the one that caught your white whale. Or, the one you found in a tree and you caught a trophy with it? --- Mike