Monthly Archives: May 2014

Bill Shuck sent me a couple more patterns, so I thought it would make a good follow-up post to yesterday’s. I’ll let Bill take it from here.

Hidy Style Tups Indispensable VII

The first is another Hidy-style flymph, this one a soft-hackle take on an old English dry fly pattern known as the “Tups Indispensable”. There are references in the literature to a truly offbeat combination of materials used for the original dubbing, but according to the recipe published by Overfield, those used by Pete Hidy were quite mundane: pink and yellow wool mixed with a small pinch of hare’s cheek fur. These components were arranged in the spun body (with Pearsall’s Gossamer #3 primrose silk thread) so that the amount of pink increased along with the taper, culminating in a nearly red thorax. This configuration is supported by examination of actual flies tied by Pete Hidy contained in the collection inherited by his son Lance.

(per T. Donald Overfield’s “Famous Flies and their Originators”)
Hook: Long shank mayfly, Sizes #13, #14, or #15 (Pete Hidy’s favorite was an up-eye version made by Veniard; I think this one is a Size #14 Mustad 94842)
Thread: Pearsalls’ Gossamer silk #3, primrose
Hackle: Medium honey dun hen
Tail: Honey dun hen whisks
Rib: Fine gold wire
Body: Blend of pink and yellow wool with pinch of hare’s cheek fur, spun in primrose silk on a Clark block

Jungle Cock Test Pattern

The second fly was a byproduct of a project I worked on a while back with Don Bastian on the fanciful wet flies of Mary Orvis Marbury. This made-up pattern combines two types of feathers from a Jungle Cock fowl serving as a wing on top of a silk floss body, a barred wood duck tail, a Greenwell-type hackle collar and a red Berlin wool head covering the snelled connection to a real silk gut leader. This type of connection was pretty much standard operating procedure in the days before eyed hooks were widely available. Although they may look unrealistic to today’s anglers, such gaudy wet flies were widely used by American anglers in the 19th Century for pursuing both trout and bass.

Hook: Mustad 3399, Size #4 with eye cut off
Thread: Uni-Thread 6/0, white
Snelled leader: #4 Silk Fishing Gut (4 lb test), approximately 6” long with Perfection loop on end
Tail: Barred wood duck flank slips
Rib: Braided silver tinsel, medium
Body: Alec Jackson premium silk floss, red
Wing: Jungle Cock flank feathers with J.C. nails overlaid
Hackle collar: Greenwell (light furnace) hen hackle
Head: Red Berlin wool

Isoynchia Flymph tied by Bill Shuck

I’ve been following Bill Shuck’s fly tying ever since I saw an Isonychia Flymph he tied in Hidy style. Hans Weilenmann actually followed that up with a fly tying video showing how to tie the Isonychia Flymph that Bill had tied. Below, Bill gives us a brief introduction to his tying, which is followed by two more Hidy style flymphs. There will be more to come from Bill here on FrankenFly in the future.

I’ve been tying seriously for about 15 years, starting out with dry flies and streamers strictly for my own use on the Gunpowder River in Maryland where I live. A fishing buddy convinced me to investigate the world of nymphs, but eventually I discovered the simple beauty of classic soft hackle flies and have been more or less fixated on them ever since. Much of my interest along these lines has been sparked through active participation in a website called “Flymphforum”, a group of like-minded folks from around the world who willingly share their considerable skill and knowledge of both traditional North Country soft hackled patterns and more recent styles such as those introduced into the U.S. by Jim Leisenring and Pete Hidy.

Here are photos and recipes for a couple of flies I’ve tied in the last few months, during which time I undertook to learn how to replicate the patterns tied by V.S. “Pete” Hidy, a friend of James E. “Big Jim” Leisenring of Pennsylvania. These two gentlemen developed a fly type that was designed to imitate the transitional stage in the life of an aquatic insect where it is no longer really a nymph, but not yet a fully developed adult fly either; hence the hybrid name “flymph”. As you might suspect, these patterns have characteristics of both nymphs and adults, using blends of natural furs spun on colored silk threads and mobile feather hackles to give an impression of real life insects in a semi-helpless condition. As evolved by Hidy after Leisenring had died, Pete’s flymphs exhibit common physical characteristics, including wispy tail whisks, tapered bodies, flowing, full soft hackle, and conical heads. I would like to acknowledge that my efforts to master this style were aided immeasurably by input from Lance Hidy, Pete’s son and valued member of the aforementioned internet group.

Hidy Style March Brown III

The first is a pattern called “March Brown” as tied by Pete Hidy according to Donald T. Overfield’s book “Famous Flies and their Originators” (Adam & Charles Black, London, 1972)

Hook: Long shank mayfly, Size #10 or #12
Thread: Pearsall’s Gossamer silk #19, hot orange
Hackle: Brown Hungarian partridge
Tail whisks: Brown partridge
Rib: Gudebrod “D” rod winding thread as sub for primrose silk or gold wire
Body: Blend of hare’s poll fur and orange-brown wool spun in hot orange silk on a Clark block

Sulphur-PMD Flymph II

The second is a pattern of my design called “Sulphur-PMD Flymph” tied in the style of Pete Hidy.

Hook: Standard dry fly, Size #14 or #16
Thread: Pearsall’s Gossamer silk #3, primrose
Hackle: Medium blue dun hen
Tail: Blue dun hen whisks
Rob: Fine gold wire
Body: Blend of creamy fox fur and light yellow wool spun on a Clark block with a touch of orange in the thorax area

This very calming fly tying video by SMHAEN Fly Fishing shows how to tie a CDC Emerger. I especially like the way he ties the wing on this one. The fly is beautifully tied.

For those of you having visions of Hennies dancing in your head this time of year, this one’s for you!