FLYMPH FORUM

The discussions and dressings lately about spiders by Boris, Stefan, William, Wayne, and I'm losing track, but lots of people here, made me want to head in that direction. Maybe it is just a penance for those enormous stonefly nymphs I did over spring break.

Also, my father tied some spider-style flies that had only gold tinsel for bodies instead of thread, but the tinsel has darkened, with no gleam at all now. I was curious to see what they might have looked like. There must be a name for a fly with a metallic gold abdomen, and dark soft hackle. Anybody know?

Obviously I'm new to this kind of fly, and have vision problems with these tiny sizes, but I enjoyed it.
That last beetle fly doesn't really belong here with its black herl and crimson silk, but the starling and size 16 hook match the others.

Hooks: 16 Mustad R50U, 94842
Silk: ash, except crimson on the last one
Hackles: mostly starling, or dun or grizzly hen
Abdomens and ribs: silk, mylar tinsel, and in the last one, 2 strands peacock herl dyed black

gingerdun, Howdy;

very nice set of flys. I enjoy the subtile
diffrences from one to the next. Great period
at the end of the set (The one with the hurl).

hank

Wow, they look like a plate right out of one of the classic books.

I wonder what ash or gold tinsel body would best represent, or perhaps they would be used as an attractor pattern?

Wayneb

Lance - I need to dig thru a few books, to see if I can identify this pattern. There is a similar British pattern, which is tyed with a horsehair tayer over the top of the tinsel. If I remember correctly, the horsehair serves to tone down the flash of the tinsel.

Handsome set of flies. I'd gladly give them a swing.

Lance, this is a great group. I thought I posted about these yesterday...guess not. I believe, and I need to look, there are some very old spider patterns with tinsel bodies. Again, I'm away from my books but I believe Charles Jardine advocates a fly very similar to this. It must have been claimed by someone, giving it an official name, but either way, I hear they are very productive. Maybe someone posted one here recently and commented that the body represents the hydrofuge of an ascending caddis. Could be. I know the softhackles I fish with gleaming wire bodies are deadly at times. I'll have to look into these further.

That is a nice collection...you know, one of the things that stands out to me on these and other Hidy flymphs is that the hackle seems to have been placed in an anatomically correct manner, "amidships" where the natural's thorax would be. Makes you wonder if the "tiny head" aesthetic we bring over from the North Country side of things hasn't led us astray in terms of creating a true "fishing" fly.

Otherwise, Dennis Collier has a lot of shiny flymphs on Hans' site--definitely fish catchers.

Everyone, thanks for the encouragement.
Below left is the fly of Pete Hidy's that inspired me. Mine is exactly the same #16 hook (except down-eye).
The old one has metallic tinsel, but my new fly uses mylar.
The corrosion has taken the gleam out of the old tinsel, but it must have been bright originally.

Now I regret using brown thread. I should have used a lighter color like primrose or ash. I like the stripes that resulted from the contrast of the light thread and dark hackle. My dark brown dun hen hackle is more webby at the base. I wonder what feather is on the older fly? Any guesses?

By the way, this is one of many examples of thorax hackles in Pete's collection.

CB, I'm glad you commented on the spacing between the hackle and the eye in the other group above. That is a feature on a number of the vintage patterns that were tied by both Leisenring and Pete. I have no idea whether this affects the trout's interest. At the bottom is a Stewart-style spider by Leisenring, also with a thorax hackle, and a longer head. That was common in the older flies, just as you say, CB.

There is a similar British pattern, which is tyed with a horsehair tayer over the top of the tinsel. If I remember correctly, the horsehair serves to tone down the flash of the tinsel.

One that Ray mentioned a while back was the "Connemara Gold" that had horsehair over the tinsel--I tied this varient using some materials Narco and REE gave me...

Still a bit of flash, but it also floats...

Nice CB, but with a name like that we had better stop referring to it (to save international incident) as British.

Lance, very nice examples from both the classic and modern side of the family. Hard to say what hackle the older version used, could be Cock bird hackle or better grade of hen, or from more the tip of the feather than the base.

gingerdun wrote:

Lance,

Just an observation, the original flies look like a portion of the thread has been wound through the hackle after the hackle was attached and wound in place.