Here is a copy of the "Doctor Lyte Palmer", which I hope is closer to the recipe listed in James Leisenring's book. In this version, I have matched the tying instructions called out in his book (see details below).
DOCTOR LYTE PALMER
Hook 13, 14 (in this case I used a Mustad Model R50U)
Silk - Orange (Pearsall's Gossomer Silk / No. 19)
Front Hackle - Pure honey dun of rich color and medium stiffness - two turns
Rib #1 - Fine peacock herl of the sword feather - one of the long thin fibers
Rib #2 - Very narrow gold tinsel wound right alongside of the peacock herl rib and in front of it
Ribbing Hackle - Pure honey dun hackle slightly smaller than the front hackle (palmered up the body)
Body - Dingy orange worsted wool
Mr. Leisenring wrote the following comments about the origin and fly:
"Here is a very good little fly I have found at times very deadly. The dressing was given to me by one of my fishing companions, and expert flytyer, Dr. H.W. Lyte, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, with whom I have spent many most pleasant days studying the natural fly and its immitation on many streams."
Notes about tying this pattern:
The hackle feathers are both taken from a honey dun hen's neck. The body hackle is one of the small feathers from up near the neck of the bird. The feather are less than two inches long. I tyed the body hackle in by the tip, just over the barb of the hook. Once I formed the dubbed body, I wrapped the tinsel rib forward, followed by the peacock sword (along the rear edge of the tinsel), followed by palmering hackle over the body. Normally I would fold the hackle before wrapping it forward, however in this case I simply wrapped it forward, letting the fibers go where they wanted to. I kinda like the random "scatter" of the palmered body hackle. I like the way the body fibers and the collar fibers interact. It makes the pattern look very "buggy".
The collar hackle was taken from the middle of the hen neck. I picked a feather with fibers that are almost the length of the hook. I tyed the collar hackle in at the beginning, right after mounting the tying tread. Once the body is formed and everything is tyed off at the front, I then wound the collar hackle back to the body (two wraps only). The tying thread is then wiggled forward thru the hackle collar and whip finished.
All of the ribbing materials (oval tinsel, peacock sword fiber & palmer hackle) are tyed in at the back of the hook. The body of the fly is formed by dubbing the thread and wrapping it forward to create a smooth body. Then I wrapped each of the ribs forward, one by one (tinsel first, peacock sword fiber second, then palmered the hackle third). Each of these materials is secured with one or two (max) wraps of thread to secure it in place. The collar hackle is then wrapped from the hook eye, back to the shoulder of the body (front edge).
I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit on how you lay down the double rib--I'm thinking a very gentle pas de deux rather than my usual cack-handed "twist""?
