Pete Hidy flymph

[gingerdun]

Willow, thanks for the comment—supporting that idea of a middle ground between attractor and specific imitation.

I was editing the above post when it timed out. What I wanted to say was that I have become increasingly interested in the importance that both Leisenring and Pete put upon translucency, not just in the fuzzy, bubbly dubbed bodies, but also for the fibers of the feathers. This stonefly posted above is a good example. The fibers are literally clear as glass. Transparent as a window. Leisenring wrote that insect wings are so transparent you can read newsprint through them. He prized hackles that had this quality, which he termed "glassy."

Pete also loved glassy, pale hackles, especially the furnace or badger hackles whose fibers were transparent only in certain sections of the fibers—in the middle or tips. These are the devil to photograph when one is trying to keep a white background, which is why the blue background that Hans uses all the time makes a lot of sense.

These pale hackles are nearly invisible, so flies tied with them don't look as artistic or dramatic as ones with darker feathers. Personally, for this reason, I admit, I have tended to use darker, colored feathers in my fly tying.

I'll be interested to hear what more experienced flyfishers on the forum have to say about the pale, transparent hackles.

Below is an example of a Pete Hidy flymph tied with a badger-style hackle that goes transparent toward the tips.

Lance

[hankaye]

gingerdun, Howdy;

If you are right in ageing the first fly in this thread, I kinda thinkin' that maybe he did paint it,
and maybe did it with 'whiteout'. hTe original formula (came out in the late 1960's I think), was
water proof (ever get some on your cloths ???).

I clicked on it and used my tying magnifying lens to look at it and the way the white is sort of 'crackled'
reminded me of some cloth I'd seen with some old whiteout on it...... washing machines can not even remove it.

Only my thoughts on the original question.......

hank

[gingerdun]

Hank,
I think you are right.
He used a typewriter every day, and White-Out was SOP.
Good thinkin. Better than mine, that's for sure.
I looked at the hi-res photo, and it really looks painted, with small cracks-- not thread-like. A discovery.

[willowhead]

i thought of whiteout originally.....but dismissed that possibility outta hand.....but who knows. when it comes to fly tyin', nothin' is outta te relm f possibility.
anyyway.....i also love glassy feathers for certain uses.....specially winging of course........it's been a greatly admired and sought after feather trait forever.
it's also, been great havin' you here........and apparently you've droped the personal importance of sticking with "Gingerdun" as i see you've used Lance here yourself.....ok, good. now i don't have to be on Pees & Ques over it. and please excuse my lack of capitals to begin sentences.......i'm just to damn tired.

[Mataura mayfly]

Wouldn't be just good old common white head cement or nail varnish?
Easier found on most tiers benches than whiteout....... perhaps. Is a mice looking fly though and a cunning idea to add the white tip.

[gingerdun]

Pete's fly-tying bench and his home-office were next to each other in the basement of his home in Boise. He worked as a writer both in his day job at Boise, Cascade, and at home for many journals and books, along with an extensive correspondence with fishermen far and wide. The white-out was convenient to his tying bench, I can assure you—just a few steps away to his other desk, next to the Hermes typewriter. I have been looking at some other flymphs from the 1970s, and so far I have found two more with the white-out on them. Never noticed it before.

Lance Gingerdun

PS ———Willow, do you realize that you have made 4556 posts on this forum? Zowie!

[Mataura mayfly]

Well, with that enlightenment...... whiteout it probably is! ...... after all who actually uses white head cement?

On the other front I only have 4,421 post to go to catch up! (4,420 after this one).

[hankaye]

gingerdun, Howdy;

The clues were in your post and some of the background you've shared ... "early 70's" He did alot of writing,
NO ONE makes zero mistakes ... (Insert Homer Simpson sound here), add in famous 'Blonde' joke from the early computer age...
(How do you know a blonde has been typing on the computer ??? It's covered in whiteout ... ).

When we were preparing for the final Barracks inspection in Boot Camp, we needed to get rid of the rust stains in the urinals and commodes.
Yep, painted over with whiteout !!! One reason I know it's waterproff.

hank

[gingerdun]

Hank,
That's the best laugh I've had this year.
Lance

[Old Hat]

What great treasures and discoveries in this post.

On the glassy hackle thought...

The last pic here is what I have come to believe is the definition of the best flymph design.

It is my general belief that game bird hackles give you a great struggling effect. Lots of fluid motion do to their softness in texture. However, flymphs were purposefully designed to capture that moment of emergence. This moment not only requires a bit of struggle but incorporates an agenda to swim to the surface. The action of the fly should be a struggling swim to get to the surface. Hen hackle achieves this better than gamebird hackles because it has more structure and the effect is more pulsing than random movement.

I have long believed and retain the thought that the dark swollen wing cases on many nymph designs is an important strike trigger. To this day I often tie the thoraxes of my wet flies darker for this purpose. An emerging thorax has a lot of stuff going on. It is a dark, swollen, blood laden splitting carapace with legs, half emerged or emerged wings often accompanied by air pockets. The trick is how do you mimic all of this with dubbing and hackle? Answer...use a glassy tipped hen hackle with dark patterning around the rachis like a furnace, rusty dun, honey dun hen hackle and wind the hackle slightly open through the thorax. The darker interior of the feather covers the darker thorax and mimics the emerging wing all in one. The glassy hen tips mimic legs struggling to work free but at the same time, when worked correctly on the lift, pulsate with purpose to get to the surface catching light and reflecting light. The slightly open wraps work to swell the thorax area and are better suited to trapping air bubbles.

This is why the flymph in the second picture in this post is what I believe to be the best choice all around for a flymph designed to be fished in the way a flymph was intended.