FLYMPH FORUM

Iron Blue Dun - for Nemes swap.

Daiichi 1550
Claret silk
natural mole
starling.

Here's another, without using the silk and mole rib. Still similar.
w

Both of them are very nice

William, that'll KILL 'em before AND durin' an Isonycia (Slate Drake) hatch.....

Wow, you even captured the iridescence of the starling hackle in the second photo. Wonderful stuff.

Really beautiful dressings, Ray, and your pictures are great as well. Obviously their stay in the garage didn't hurt your photo equipment any nor did time dull your skills using them.

Great flies!!

Ah, another one goes in the bookmarks.

A couple of questions for you, though: 1.) what are you using for tailing material, and 2.) are you palmering the starling in a typical soft-hackle method, or are you wrapping it around the thread the "Stewart" way?

tie2fish wrote:Really beautiful dressings, Ray, and your pictures are great as well. Obviously their stay in the garage didn't hurt your photo equipment any nor did time dull your skills using them.

Thanks, Bob, I appreciate the kind words.

CB, I actually explained in some detail the tying method used for the first fly for Hank in the Nemes Swap 15a section in the Cabin, where I posted this as my swap fly. With Starling, I usually end up doing a fudged thorax tie, which actually comes out looking mostly like a standard collar hackle. I do lay out a pinch of thorax and add a touch of dubbing to the silk before winding the hackle back to the thorax, wishing for a more flymph like thorax tie, with some space between the hackles, but in actuality I really only get a decent looking "thickened" effect, rather than a real flymphy effect. No, I haven't used the Stewart method in a while. It's interesting, but not my preference. oh yeah, the tailing is a light dun hen fiber. I know some recipes call for a white tailing, but it just seems too garish, so I dulled it down a bit. Hope no one minds.

w

They're both exquisite examples. I love the effect in the first one.