Pale Dun Flymph

[William Anderson]

Something vintage and not so much. I spun a series of bodies using pine squirrel on white silk. Until I tied the Pale Watery Nymphs for the orphan nymph swap, it hadn't occurred to me to use cobbler's wax on white silk. The PWN called for clear wax, but in the spirit of "what else will work" I put together a pale dun body. I quite like the effect. It's a small pale dunish fly that might be a number of things, and nothing in particular.

Pale Dun Flymph (if there is a fly already named this...consider this a variant.)
Hook: Vintage Mustad 3331 Sneck #15 (thank you Ruard)
Thread: 14/0 brown
Hackle: Medium dun, fairly short
Tail: Medium dun
Body: Pine Squirrel, mostly underfur, pre-spun with the Clark block on white silk.



It's a subtle shift between the translucence of white silk and the hook when wet, with the darker cobbler's wax on the silk and the dubbing color.



and here's a fuller version on a with bodies spun with longer fibers and more guard hairs included.






w

[DUBBN]

Really cool pattern all the way around William. I like the hook style, it really caught my eye. Being a tad dense, I dont really know how large a 15 is, so I do not have a reference to go by. In a small enough size your Pale Dun, would do a good job during some of the Early Summer Baetis hatches on some of my local waters. I always enjoy seeing your patterns.

Wayne

[letumgo]

What a gem! Great combination of materials and construction. Looks like an excellent mimic to the translucent qualities of insects. Thanks for sharing.

LOVE the hook! Super cool...

[Kelly L.]

Really nice stuff. I like the look when it is wet too.
Wayne, if I am not mistaken, a size 15 is just a little bigger than a 16. (but not quite a 14)

[tie2fish]

I always enjoy seeing your well reasoned experiments, William, and this one is no exception. This particular creation of yours looks to me like something that might be very effective during the later sulphur hatches when the insects are less yellow. For what it's worth, the subtle changes in colors and translucence achieved by using different waxes is a subject that could easily be expanded upon, but given the nearly infinite variations in waxes, I doubt that any hard and fast rules would apply.

[Ruard]

Hi William

Nice flies, perhaps I will try these in wales next juin.

There is some confusion about the hooks. I send you the sneck # 12 and here are some pictures of these hooks:







This last one is a limmerick # 15

Greeting

[William Anderson]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I have a few cards of bodies on this waxed white silk and some of the resulting flies are actually pretty cool. I'll post them at some point.

Ruard, I do have a bag marked with the hooks you've shown, and another with a slip of paper marked 3331-15. Most likely I marked them incorrectly. Thanks for the great pics of these hooks. They make such a difference in the attitude. And thanks for using US currency for our reference sake. I smile sometimes when I see pics of flies on foreign (to me) currency for scale.

w