Turton Whirling Dun

[Donald Nicolson]

Here is a simple spider from Turton I tied yesterday
I've put it into my site
http://donaldnicolson.webplus.net/page617.html
And here is picture

Done on Scanner at 1200 dpi with a green card backing and no props, flat scan.

[CreationBear]

You know, that fly is a really strong argument for Turton's "short" hackle style, especially on that hook. I'm curious now, though, where the "whirling" nomenclature comes in--was there a specific insect behavior that he was referring to?

[Donald Nicolson]

It is quite an old name, I have seen a Whirling **** in a pre-WW1 American list.
I have no idea why they called it 'whirling'.

[hankaye]

Donald, Howdy;

Wonderful way to enjoy my morning coffee. Turton's name rang a bell and off to your site I went.
That's when I remembered your project and it gave me a chance to have a wander through and a
peek at the flies that have been tyed and posted by various members of the forum.
Time to pour another mug full.

hank

PS. looks like you are having some fun with your scanner ... .

[tie2fish]

http://www.troutnut.com/common-name/204/Whirling-Duns

[CreationBear]

Ha, thanks for the link (though Jason's photographs of actual insects usually triggers a crisis of faith in me, flymph-wise. ) In all honesty, Leptophlebia/Black Quills have never been on my radar--I don't even recall them on our local hatch charts.

[Donald Nicolson]

An interesting site, but still no explanation of 'whirling'.
It may be of rural dialect origins.

[CreationBear]

My initial guess was that "whirling" referred to the cloud of mayflies during a spinner fall, but that kind of makes the "dun" part confusing unless there is some sort of "back formation" at work, where it was recognized that the duns of this particular type would become those spinners, bye-and-bye. Ah well, I hardly ever know what my flymphs are really doing--I just know I like this 'un.

[Donald Nicolson]

After a bit of research, it appears that a dark brown dubbing would be a better match for fox cub fur. Considering the numbers of red foxes in the wild and their extensive use in the fur trade, very little appears for sale in the UK.

[Mataura mayfly]

Very well tied and represented pattern Donald. Just looks so right on that choice of hook.

If looking for Red Fox, you might want to put the hard word on some of the Australian members to see if they can get some for you. They are a major introduced pest there and since the arse fell out of the fur market back in the 80's and it became very un-PC to wear dead animal parts the Fox in Australia is left unchecked (much like their possum here!). Hunting laws and open spaces are a bit easier in Australia and lots of foxes are shot and left per-annum. Maybe one of our members over there could do some asking around, get a pelt or two and have us all with ample fox supplies?