English Rabbit Skin

[daringduffer]

What's the difference between an English rabbit and a Hare?

They are different animals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_rabbit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_hare

dd

[daringduffer]

Thank you for your interesting links, Bill.

Narco, I was told that if I want my flies to float, use hare, if I want them to sink, use rabbit. Skues writes that the belly fur from a black rabbit makes a beautiful blue dun ("Silk, Fur and Feather").

dd

[daringduffer]

In "A Dictionary of Trout Flies", A Courtney Williams writes about rabbit skin and the Baby Sun Fly:

If one analyses any of Mr Powell's patterns, the pains he has taken to obtain some particular colour or tint becomes evident, a fact which may well account for the success many of them enjoy. Fly The "make-up" of the Baby Sun-Fly is no exception since the body is of a special colour and of the right consistency to make the fly float well. A rabbit's coat is brown on top and bluish next to the skin except in that small triangle between the eyes and the nose and it is from there we must obtain the dubbing for the body of this pattern because only at this spot is the colour sequence brown, black, blue.

Mr Powell advises fly-dressers to sink their scissors into it to the proper depth to obtain an equal quantity of brown and black and then to rub it together. The result is a dark-brown felt-like substance full of short stiff fibres just right to stand up on the surface film but also having enough body to hold oil. This is the mixture required for the body of the Baby Sun-Fly and also the for that of the Paragon - and none other will do.

When I have written that much, I can as well give you the 'recipe' for the fly, although it's meant to be fished dry. (You could use a heavy hook and avoid oil).

Tying silk: Black
Body: Rabbit's face, ribbed with silk
Hackle: Very small coch-y-bondhu cock
Whisks: Three strands coch-y-bondhu or black
Hook: 14 or 16

Here is one example, borrowed from http://wildfly123.blogspot.com/:




Now you know something about the properties of European rabbit (and I am hoping for mr Shuck to convert BSF into a flymph).

dd

[tie2fish]

Stefan ~

I am working on just such an apparition at this time and hope to make a presentable post to that effect soon. As regards the example you have posted above of the dry fly version of the Baby Sunfly, what I have found in my research suggests that it is entirely too light and too yellow. All indications are that fly was intended to be a dark brown and black one, even to the extent of trimming away the light colored hair on the face of the rabbit to get at the desired dark underfur.

[daringduffer]

Bill, I haven't found that many photos of a Baby Sun Fly and a couple of them are tied with the blue underfur making them something else. If you visit Hans Weilenmann's site you can find another of Reverend Powell's patterns, the Paragon, which is tied with the more expected darker body http://www.flytierspage.com/painsworth/paragon.htm

On the colour plate in A Courtney Williams Dictionary the body seems even lighter/yellower than the one I posted. Unfortunately the photos in 'Orange Otter', Christopher Knowles' book about Edward Powell are B/W. I am eagerly looking forward to your interpretation.

Courtney Williams wrote about his use of the Paragon fishing it in the film and under, made easier by its use of hen hackle.

dd