Buff Tipped Gnat

[UC Steve]

P1040674 (640x480).jpg (102.87 KiB) Viewed 4773 times

Hook: #14 Daiichi 1150
Thread: Gray
Body: Turkey tail feather tip
Hackle: Starling

[FliTrap]

UC Steve!
May I say, that's a most impressive tie with great taper in the body! Did you build up thread as an under-body or simply build up with the body materials?
Thanks!
FliTrap

[UC Steve]

No,not built up. The natural taper of the tail fibers produces a tapered rope when twisted, giving the body its shape.

[letumgo]

Steve - Beautiful fly. I am reminded of a European pattern which has a similar body (gradated coloration). I think it was a pattern posted by Stefaan (daringduffer), but tyed by Gunnar Johnson.

http://www.flymphforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 400#p52575

[UC Steve]

O wow. Nothing new under this sun. I found it accidently when I left some of the cream portion on the rope in an effort to stretch it longer. Leisenring tied his Black Gnat with the black/bronze band from a turkey feather tip. He & others must have noticed that if you include a bit of the cream portion you get the buff tip. The mottled brown & black fibers from the tail make a good body as well.

[hankaye]

UC Steve, Howdy;

O wow. Nothing new under this sun. I found it accidently when I left some of the cream portion on the rope in an effort to stretch it longer. Leisenring tied his Black Gnat with the black/bronze band from a turkey feather tip. He & others must have noticed that if you include a bit of the cream portion you get the buff tip. The mottled brown & black fibers from the tail make a good body as well.

If you follow Ray's link and go to page 2 you'll see where I'd contacted the Publisher
of the article and he was kind enough to send me a translated page.

hank

[UC Steve]

Hank, thanks for the interesting & entertaining trip back through the discussion leading to the English version of the article. The tight little article with beautiful drawings is a piece of craft in itself. Mine came about as the result of a botched Leisenring Black Gnat, which calls for only the bronze/black portion of the feather. Apparently, the Norsk version is tied from a feather lacking the black band, resulting in the buff tipped brown. I'm going to look through my feathers & see if I have any suitable for the brown version, which I really like the looks of. As for how well the pattern performs, the article bears witness. Very worthwhile AP pattern. I use it specifically to fish for a big midge that hatches from my homewater. Like the Norsk, I prefer to lay down a bed of thick cement (Loon Hard Head) just before winding the body, eliminating the need to cinch it with ribbing.

[William Anderson]

Steve - Beautiful fly. I am reminded of a European pattern which has a similar body (gradated coloration). I think it was a pattern posted by Stefaan (daringduffer), but tyed by Gunnar Johnson.

http://www.flymphforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 400#p52575

Ray, what a memory. This was a very interesting thread thanks to daringduffer and the follow-up by Hank was exceptional. Thanks for bringing this back to the surface.

Steve, you're fly strikes me as something I would carry anytime. I love the herl bodies, especially when they are twisted with the silk to exaggerate the texture and expose an underbody. The variety of pheasant and turkey tails make for wonderful bodies.

I'll take exception with the Leisenring recipe you've described. I'm not sure if there is a disconnect, I could have easily missed something, but the ATWF version reads as:

Black Gnat:
Hook: 14,15
Silk: Crimson or Claret
Hackle: Purplish black feather from the shoulder of a cock starling.
Body: Black silk or two or three fibers from a crow's secondary wind feather.



I don't usually pretend my flies are accurate reproductions, but I was very interested in the lineage of NCS flies which include Black Gnats, Spring Blacks and other patterns matching recipes and called by a variety of names. Some of my favorites in the smaller sizes use a magpie herl with the silk for the body. My version follows the recipe from Leisenring using crow as the body fibers. The fly above was tied probably closer to an NCS model than a JL model as I've seen several of the JL Black Gnats in person and they tend to be hackled a little denser and on a lighter gauge hook. This one was tied for my box, not necessarily for reproducing a historic fly. But I find these especially effective and wouldn't be without them.

Great post, and a heck of a find with that Gunnar sketch. Thanks.

w

[UC Steve]

Beautiful take on the LBG, William. Yes, I'm aware of the crow wing version described by JL. For the sake of precision, I should have at least qualified that with a "but also", as the writer who passed that info on did. Got the idea from an article about the pattern, back in the 80's. Can't remember if the source was somebody who knew Leisenring or not, but as a young fisher happy to read anything involving JL, I took the writer at his word, & started tying the BG that way, turkey being easier for me to obtain than crow wing, & producing nice bronze highlights. I'll try to dig the source of that article out of me memory banks, that'll be an exercise.