Leisenring Dark Olive

[Old Hat]

Leisenring Dark Olive.jpg (110.25 KiB) Viewed 3529 times

I have recently been going through a book and marking wingless wet fly patterns that show up. It is interesting to see some patterns by some fairly well known tiers that you would not associate with the wingless wet fly. The book is written by Terry Hellekson entitled Fish Flies, the Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art. Anyhow, of course the Leisenring patterns grabbed my attention. This one being listed as Leisenring Dark Olive.

I tied it as listed in the book. I do not know if this is the original way Leisenring tied this fly. I spent a little time looking online and this seems to be correct by some pictures I saw in a 1985 Fly Tyers Magazine and another photo. Neither photo I saw had a recipe listed. The photos seemed to coordinate with the recipe in this book. This book was first published in 1995 and revised in 2005. My hope is you enjoy the fly but also that maybe someone can shine some light on this pattern.

I did notice that Donald lists a very different recipe for this fly on his site.

Hook: #14 3906B
Thread: Pearsall's silk olive
Body: 50/50 blend of dark olive and dark brown lamb's wool
Hackle: Grey chuck partridge body feather tied on as a collar.

NOTE: The hackle was a bit confusing. I assumed that the recipe was calling for Chuckar as these have a nice grey tone with a slight mahogany cast.

[Mataura mayfly]

Nice fly! Has kind of a Coch-y-bondu thing going on...... but it doesn't. I can see why it should fish well though.

I must admit, on these styles and of the tier reference you give, my light is a little dull. So I cannot help with any more information, but I would agree with you on the hackle choice.

[gingerdun]

Carl,
You are inspiring me to try to do the same. Your fly looks great.

Leisenring gave his recipe in ATWF, and Jim Slattery took a shot at tying it for me.
We found green seal and fuzzy brown bear in my Dad's dubbing assortment, so that's what we used. Chopping up wool gives a different effect, but it is a good one.

A DARK OLIVE NYMPH (Leisenring's recipe from ATWF)
HOOK 14, 15.
SILK Primrose yellow.
HACKLE One or not more than two turns of the
tiniest blue dun hen’s hackle.
TAIL Two or three very short, soft blue dun cock
fibers.
RIB Fine gold wire.
BODY Dark green-olive seal’s fur mixed with a little
dark-brown bear’s fur (found next to skin)
spun lightly at the tail and quite heavily at the
shoulder or thorax.

[Old Hat]

You know I browsed through my ATWF and couldn't find the recipe. Must have just missed it. I am looking now and have found it. I find it interesting that this pattern is so much different. There is no doubt that these are two different patterns to me. Not close. I would say not even in the same family. When I did the search, I came across this picture (towards bottom left of cover) which clearly shows a version of Leisenring Dark Olive very similar to the pattern that is described in Fish Flies.

http://forums.flytyer.com/forum/35-fly- ... pring-1985

This just shows some of the importance of the work you are doing Lance. The information and the patterns you have should be more accessible.

[gig]

Those are some great looking flies fellas, thanks for sharing them

[Donald Nicolson]

An excellent string, you have reminded me of an unfinished job, Leisenring's Nymphs, which I copied from his book. I shall have to see what I can do. I have not dressed a fly for a few weeks. I'll see how it goes.

[Old Hat]

Donald,

Just make sure you use Lance's picture and not mine.

[Roadkill]

Nice flies guys!!

[William Anderson]

What a cool thread. Thanks everyone for all the information.

Carl, it's a nice fly, however you define it. Nicely done. And Slattery really captured the overall impression of the Leisenring look based on all the other flies I've seen.

w