FLYMPH FORUM

Jeff - I like that fly a LOT! It aint pretty, but boy is that thing buggy looking. I definitely need some of these in my fly box next spring.

Jeff, your pics are a very nice addition. I'm with Ray on the fly. That thing really looks like it could crawl around.

Mataura mayfly, Howdy;

Likeing what you've done there... Have you had that fly in the water before this ?

hank

Thanks guys, yep.... it's been in the water and three or four fish old.

After sitting on the counter undisturbed for 4+ hours........







Might be a hemisphere thing, I get micro bubbles after, William gets them first!
My guess is the pressure system we have on the line here adds suspended diluted air in the water. When the fly was added to the water the water had been rested from the tap for all of 10 seconds. So the gas content of our water might be different, temperature different (out of the ground here is pretty near refrigerator temperature) the low on mineral content water here mat suspend the gasses longer. Not sure on all that....... but interesting results.

So I think this post ran it's course, and I didn't mean to "spook the pool with my remarks", but I have some new images that hopefully will serve as a starting point for any future posts where this photographic option might be useful. As Lance pointed out, maybe the greatest benefit of the tank is being able to demonstrate the inherent qualities of different furs, or similar furs conditioned in different ways. All yet to be seen I guess. I'm still hoping to tease out images that illustrate the underbodies.

I actually inserted new images on the initial post showing the use of room temp distilled water as the medium as opposed to the tap water. Lesson learned. Also the images of the Sulky Metallic Flymph in this thread have an updated pic.

Here are a couple of others just for grins.

Light Cahill (Central PA) Flymph The dry shot was taken some years ago, the fly shown submerged is a more recnet fly taken from one of my boxes. Sorry to miss out on a "wet" shot.

Dry


Submerged



Partridge and Golden Pheasant Tail Twisted with Orange silk 1250 Not a significant difference with the herl bodies. The silk is darker, but the body didn't change much.

Dry: Different fly from my box.


Submerged: Different session tie of this fly


Wet:



Dun Hen and Tank Mole 1530 This is of some interest as the fly is tied with a bleached mole, touch dubbed to the 14/0 brown tying thread. I have several dyed mole skins, and this one is coarse compared to the others. Over treated apparently, and I was not able to get any of the hydrofuge that was very prominent on all the other flies. Still a very productive fly. It's in my to ten and I have several stashed in several boxes. Another interesting thing that I noticed was that the wire rib is heavy on the wet fly images, overly so. I've used the same "x-small" sized wire for this fly a lot, but it seems when I used the "small" sized wire it seems unsightly on the wet fly. Hasn't effected it's effectiveness, but it is something to consider on a new batch.

Dry: Older dry shot of this pattern.


Submerged: More recent tying session (last year?) of the same pattern (different wire)


Wet:



The alligator clip superglued to a choped hat pin with a magnet superglued to the round plate on the hat pin. Also the small metal plate superglued inside to the bottom of the tank. and the magnets superglued to the side of the tank for mounting.





Thanks for looking at these. Like I said, I hope this tank will help to provide images for illustrating the importance of the underbodies of these flies when they are fished. It will just take some practice to be able to provide something useful.

w

Run its course? William, I think your only a step past the starters blocks.
Is there room in the tank for two clips to be mounted so you could compare differing underbodies side by side? Just a thought.

Great shots of the DH/TM and how the wire assumes such a dominating force in the wet fly. Very interesting and has me thinking about a lot of the wire I use for ribbing, looks ok on a dry fly at the vice, never really noted what it may be like submerged! I might be thinking more that way now.

Three very well tied and presented flies my friend. Continue the quest and bring forth the underbody!

William - This thread has hardly run its course. I still need to see photos showing flies with tinsel under bodies, CDC hackle, peacock herl, flies that have been treated with float and on the hackle (hewing style emerged fishing), flies dusted with Frogs Fanny (helps maintain hydrofuge), flies with rayon floss versus silk floss, etc., etc., etc...

I find this stuff fascinating, so you know I will be watching for updates. Keep experimenting and please share your observations.

William,

What Jeff and Ray said. Please don't stop now.

REE

Thanks so much for all the comments. I don't intend to stop the experiment, I just plan to work it into future posts, and maybe create a more cohesive post, clear of tap water and providing some more meaningful comparisons. I really appreciate all the feedback. Now to see Hans' pics using the tub. That should be something to see. Anyone else who wants to pile pics of their own methods (thanks to those who got this started and to Jeff for jumping in here) would be a big boon to my own appreciation for what is possible.

w

Wow. I missed a few days, and have been, slowly, working my way back up to the present. I have found this topic very interesting!
I have a few comments to share. (Groans in the background )

You mentioned early that you, like others, keep a drying patch (amadou) and use it on stream. How does doing so really affect the hydrofuge of an already wetted fly?

On the appearance of the flies submerged versus wet in-hand, water diffuses light very well, and may account for the brighter appearance shown in the photographs. Another contributing factor may be that you are getting equal illumination from all sides in the tank that a wet fly in air is unable to receive? It might be illuminating to see how a Partridge & Whatever silk-bodied fly changes with your setup. Those are the flies we most often comment on as changing color.

Thank you, both for taking the time to do this, and for posting your results here for all to see.

Regards,

Kirk