FLYMPH FORUM

I picked up a book at a clearance table at a show this spring titled Tactics on Trout by Roy Ovington, (1969). He listed this recipe in the appendix for a Pale Evening Dun or Little Marryat nymph pattern.

Hook: #14
Silk: primrose yellow
Tail: 3 mandarin flank feather fibers (tips)
Body: Cream-tan fur with a touch of yellow wool worked in (I used snowshoe hare's foot underfur with yellow mohair wool)
Hackle: cream to pale ginger. Two turns of hackle. Cut off top fibers. (I left these on and probably went a little longer than he would of on a nymph pattern)

Very nice dressing. May have to add that to my box as well.

REE

Beautiful fly, Carl!

Very nice tie, especially for down here in the Smokies where it's a law you have to use only "yaller" flies from April through the end of September. A question for you, though: what kind of technique are you using with the dubbing? That's a nice, tight (though buggy) profile, and while I love snowshoe hair, I'm afraid things get a little scragglely whenever I try to use it.

Thanks guys, I liked the pattern as well when I saw it in the book.

I using a split thread twist. Untwisting the thread, splitting it apart, putting the dubbing in then twisting it up again. What I'll do is after splitting the thread, I dub one of the strands a little tighter at the top then just a bit more loose as I work down the strand. This helps to give me the taper to the body. Snowshoe is scraggly but I'm only using the underfur from the bottom of the foot not the longer bigger diameter fur.

Nice I've not fished the snowshoe underfur yet - does it hang around in the film? Has it the waterproofing properties?

Andrew

GlassJet wrote:Nice I've not fished the snowshoe underfur yet - does it hang around in the film? Has it the waterproofing properties?
Andrew

It floats quite nicely, and also has a translucent sheen to it.

Old Hat-- thanks for elaborating...I doubt that my stupid trout will notice, but your refined technique certainly makes for a prettier fly.

Very nice. I love that hatch on our western streams. I usually use my buzz ginger cream for it, but I'm betting this pattern would do far better with fussy fish. Thanks for posting.

Aaron