Li'l Dorothy

[tie2fish]

Whilst rummaging thru some tying materials the other day, I ran across some #722 embroidery floss that Dougsden had distributed a while back. Since it is sulfur season in the Northeast and I only had twenty-three sulfur patterns in my boxes, I decided to try doing Mark Libertone's trademark "Li'l Dorothy".

Hook: Mustad 3906B or equal, Size #12 or #14
Thread: Cream or white
Hackle: Cream or pale ginger hen
Abdomen: #722 pale orange embroidery floss
Thorax: White or Cahill colored rabbit

[novabass]

Beautiful fly Bill! Well done.

[William Anderson]

Bill, this really is an excellent example of Mark's pattern. I've caught a lot on this pattern over the past two seasons since I've been fishing it. A couple weeks ago Eric and I were walking up a trail along Penn's Creek and spotted a little #14 sulphur on a rock, it was a glowing orange color tone, a perfect match to the 722 when wet. Most every sulphur I've seen is more yellow than this but the pattern is a killer.

[Roadkill]

[DUBBN]

Perfect, Bill!

[Ruard]

Hi Bill,

Very nice tied, well done my friend. The 722 orange will become a bit darker when wet.

I see you managed the pictures from google. Well done!!!


greeting

Ruard

[Old Hat]

Two thumbs up!

Nice job on the pattern and posting the photo.

[Mataura mayfly]

Nice work as always Bill, both in the tying and the presentation.
Good to see you have the google thing sorted.

Is that the "full" thickness of the embroidery floss, or did you separate the strands?
I had a bit of correspondence with Mark regarding this pattern a while back and he stressed the fact the thorax and abdomen were roughly the same size and the thorax cloaked the abdomen somewhat. But then he was trying to imitate one particular natural on one particular water system. Do you feel the shorter thorax of your own offering covers one area of the sulphur style that the other twenty three patterns in your fly box do not?

[tie2fish]

Thanks, Jeff (and all others who have commented). I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I cannot remember whether the body of this particular fly has one or two strands of floss. I have been tying up quite a supply of these and the ones that I have done recently have a slightly shorter abdomen consisting of a single strand tightly twisted while wrapping. Also, the newer ones have a bit longer thorax, with the material brushed back more to "veil" the abdomen. For what it's worth , the hackle has one side stripped. The overall look/color is indeed different from anything I had previously.

[Mataura mayfly]

That is interesting.
Not so much the part where you cannot remember...... , but the fact you have reverted from your original toward more of Marks preference of design.
I too started with quite a small thorax, but used the famous 1/2 kilogram spool of orange yarn for my abdomen. They worked alright, surprised me in fact as they do not really imitate a natural here, but they are a top producing soft hackle late Summer when fished as a single in the top couple of inches below the film. For me, once discussing the pattern more with Mark and finding the correct floss, correct proportions etc, I found them to be a much better fly early season through to the start of Fall and at pretty much all depths- yet they still do not really represent any natural within local waters.
Be interesting to see how your own experience goes as your season progresses. I would still be tying some of the smaller thorax models to fish in the top of the water as aborted duns or drowned spinners.