Old Blue Dun XL

[Old Hat]

This past winter I tied the #26 Flymph. So I had to go the other way this time. All in the name of fun. I have had this hook laying around for a long time (10+ years). I have no idea what hook it is. It was a straight eye that I bent up slightly. I never could figure out what to tie on it. Big enough hackle was the biggest stumbling block. Today, I decided on the Old Blue Dun. It took a long while to tie. Lots of wraps. For the thread I used some primrose vintage silk rod wrapping thread and waxed it up good with Keene Wax. For the button hole twist, I twisted 8 strands of the rod wrapping silk together. I built up the body taper with some wool yarn that was the closest to primrose that I had. It took (4) 12" dubbing ropes with a lot of dubbing. This thing is about 5" in total length. It is harder than I thought to make a dainty looking 5" fly. I now need to replenish my muskrat dubbing.

Hook: XXL
Thread: Primrose Gudebrod rod wrapping silk.
Tail: Blue eared pheasant subst.
Rib: 8 twisted strands of Primrose rod wrapping silk
Body: Muskrat underfur
Hackle: Blue eared pheasant subst.

Old Blue Dun XL.jpg (151.44 KiB) Viewed 5990 times

[letumgo]

Carl - You should mount the two flies together in a frame. Your ability to maintain perfect proportions, over such a large scale of hook sizes, is astounding. Bravo!

[Old Hat]

I was thinking the same thing about putting the two together when I was entering the post.

[hankaye]

Old hat, Howdy;

WOW !!! I had to look several times to be sure that was a quarter there and not
some foreign coin. Without the quarter you could have passed it off as a 12 or 14.

Beautiful work sir.

hank

[tjd]

Carl,

That's just amazing-well proportioned and neatly tied!

Ray and I could have fished with that on the Beaverkill last Friday night...

Best,

Tim

[Mataura mayfly]

I am going to have to go search out a quarter, just so I can get a grasp on the size of that beast.
I am guessing that hook is one of those measures where the first number is followed by a /0, bigger the first number- bigger the hook, opposite to the ones we normally use.

Very well proportioned material chewing up monster softy .

[tie2fish]

Superbly done!

[hankaye]

Mataura mayfly, Howdy;

A U S quarter measures 15/16ths of an inch diameter.

hank

[gingerdun]

Carl,
This is magical. I agree that mounting it next to the 26 would be outstanding. Framed they would make an entertaining curiosity at a museum, or at a fund-raising auction.

I have heavy gold and silver wire from Jeff that would probably be the right scale for ribbing if you ever score another of those hooks.

[Old Hat]

Thanks everyone. It was fun to work out and will be a neat piece that I think I will display at the shows alongside the #26. Always good to have an attention grabber.

I don't know if this will help Jeff. This is alongside the largest hook I had. A #5/0

Old Blue Dun comp.jpg (153.46 KiB) Viewed 5894 times