May fly Honey Dun a V.S. Hidy pattern.

[upstatetrout]

The May Fly Honey Dun . A flymph pattern from Vernon S.Hidy

Hook. Allcocks Sproat w205 size 14.
Silk. Pearsalls Gossamer Ash #10
Body. Hare's Poll.
Rib. Gold wire.
Hackle. Honey Dun Hen.

P_20200303_160841.jpg (125.59 KiB) Viewed 3522 times

[letumgo]

I had hoped to sit down and watch you tye at the museum last weekend. Maybe next year...

Elegant fishing fly...

[gingerdun]

Beautiful flymph!
So good to see you at Fly Fest.

[NedZeppelin]

I love these Hidy patterns, but keep thinking they need to be fine tuned to the bugs I see on the stream. What bug do we think is this pattern aimed at imitating, or perhaps better said, evoking?

[dj1212]

I love these Hidy patterns, but keep thinking they need to be fine tuned to the bugs I see on the stream. What bug do we think is this pattern aimed at imitating, or perhaps better said, evoking?

I think this fly could be suggestive of some of the early season mayflies. Hendricksons, Quill Gordons and Paraleptophlebias. The overall darker kind of dun colored flies.

[Old Hat]

I love these Hidy patterns, but keep thinking they need to be fine tuned to the bugs I see on the stream. What bug do we think is this pattern aimed at imitating, or perhaps better said, evoking?

I use to have the same thoughts. For the longest time I fine tuned my patterns to every species of bug on my my local streams until my boxes were full of so many choices. Yet, every time I went out and couldn't catch the fish I wanted I would rationalize it was because I didn't have the right fly pattern. It was a stagnate circle that took my fishing nowhere. Not until I simplified my box, focused on my presentations and experimented with them as much as I was on my patterns did I notice my fishing experience elevate. It is much easier for us as people to qualify our experience with "didn't have the right fly" than to admit that maybe it's my technique and not the pattern. I like to experiment with my fly tying as much as anyone, to fine tune a pattern, but nowadays my fine tuning is more purposeful and related to presentation rather than imitational appearance. My patterns have become more suggestive, versatile in presentation, and purposeful in how they behave under different presentations than how they look. There are very few patterns in The Art of Tying the Wet Fly and Fishing the Flymph which Leisenring found useful and quite a few of them were "extras" he was asked to thrown in to make a larger set for print. I think Leisenring understood this power of suggestion and the fine tuning of presentation.

[Trevis]

That is a very nice fly, upstatetrout.

NedZeppelin, I think fine tuning is only necessary as relates to size. Something like Old Hat, I used to tie the same basic pattern in several shades and with different colored threads, even different ribbing, variations to fit most possible needs, and when fishing them if the size and shape suited the the fish I found color was generally interchangeable and the fish would still eat it.
A man once told me "All cats are gray in the dark" and I believe this sorta true of fly color underwater; with the sky as back ground a color may appear to be darker than if the mud bottom is the background. I think as long as there is enough contrast with the background for the fish to distinguish the shape and movement of the lure details aren't so important. Most flies don't actually resemble anything real, we rely on the power of suggestion.
As an example of close being close enough, I have tied and fished flies similar to flymphs and spiders for over forty years using nylon thread, never used any silk and certainly not Pearsalls- yet my wet flies caught fish. Every pattern Hidy wrote about can be tied with black nylon. They can all be tied with red nylon. (my preference)
I now know , since finding this forum, that they aren't flymps without Pearsalls. It's a funny thing that when I read that book three or four times in the weeks I had it out of the library my take away was the fishing methods and types of presentations; I never noted that the exact flies or the silk were the primary theme. I took the flies as being simply generic and somewhere between (anywhere between) a dry fly and ordinary nymph. I need to obtain a copy of that book and reread it with a new perspective of enlightenment. This late in my season though, I'll probably never tie nor fish a true flymph.