Baby Sunfly Softy

[daringduffer]

Bob, I am envious of your copy of Orange Otter since I haven't read it. So many books and so little money and time. I'm also envious of your consistency in fly tying. I'm impressed.

dd

[Mike62]

These ties are gorgeous. I really like the Baby Sunfly softy. I wish I had the chops to tie that one down even smaller; I'd like to throw it as an alternative to the minuscule Griffith's Gnats that I'm forced to buy because my fingers can't make the music.

I'd like to hear the thinking that led up to the good Reverend's "Squashed Beetle' epiphany. Was he sitting on the bank squishing beetles between his fingers and throwing them in to see the result? Chumming the drift...

[tie2fish]

Bill, I have to comment further on your creation. As a generic dark fly it is more than nice, typical qualitye. If you want it to represent a bibio it could benefit from a couple of intermixed turns of hackle from the poultry bred in the village of Furness, Lancashire.

The barbs on my "furniss" hen saddle are light gold on the back, so a little of that leaked through ...

Furniss Hen Neck Saddle.JPG (85.8 KiB) Viewed 3659 times

Baby Sunfly with Furniss.JPG (35.1 KiB) Viewed 3659 times

[daringduffer]

Oh yes! Forget about the Rev Powell. Now go out and catch some fish!!

dd

[joaniebo]

These ties are gorgeous. I really like the Baby Sunfly softy. I wish I had the chops to tie that one down even smaller; I'd like to throw it as an alternative to the minuscule Griffith's Gnats that I'm forced to buy because my fingers can't make the music.

I'd like to hear the thinking that led up to the good Reverend's "Squashed Beetle' epiphany. Was he sitting on the bank squishing beetles between his fingers and throwing them in to see the result? Chumming the drift...

Mike

Hope you can read these.

Bob

Squashed Beetle info - 01.jpg (247.13 KiB) Viewed 3645 times

Squashed Beetle info - 02.jpg (305.64 KiB) Viewed 3645 times

[daringduffer]

Bob,

When reading the text from your book, I remembered an old post about the effectiveness of the colour orange, not least to beetle patterns:

FLY COLOURS

Over the years, I have thought a very great deal about this, and also read as much about it as I possibly could. In many cases the so called "trigger" effect of a certain fly was known, but why it worked was not. There are a number of flies, like the Orange Quill for instance, which I already mentioned, where the reason for the special effectivity under certain circumstances only became known by accident.

It may work under other circumstances, but under the specific conditions where the spinners are lying in the film and glowing orange against the slanting evening sunlight it is deadly effective. These are cases where the reason is apparent even to human eyes and perception, once it is known. Until it is known, it may simply not be apparent. These "accidents" are of enormous potential, as the reason for one certain thing may well also be the reason for other things. Since I started using orange hackle, overdyed black, for many terrestrials, I have been very considerably more successful when using them. Adding some orange in some way to many flies, including various wet flies, has also proved successful. In this case, the reason for the effectiveness is only visible when one is actually looking for it.

If one holds such a hackle up to the light, then the orange "glow" shines through the hackle. The effect is more or less identical to the effect one sees when looking through the chitinous apparently solid dark exoskeleton of many terrestrials, and other insects, including many aquatics. The colour orange is indeed practically a universal constant of chitinous insect bodies, under certain specific conditions. Although in the vast majority of cases, it is by no means apparent.

I believe this information to be more than adequate to this discussion. Thank you for your interesting post.

dd

[tie2fish]

Interesting theory.

[joaniebo]

A guy in my TU Chapter says he ONLY fishes orange colored dry flies....I owe him a few Orange Otters!

[hankaye]

tie2fish, Howdy;

Sure sounds like someone that did their research.

hank

PS, When I was at JS's Lodge I had a conversation with Eric P, and Ray (letumgo),
and Eric mentioned that he favors a certain other color and uses it in most of the
flies he tyes. I'd have to ask before I mention it.

h

[Mike62]

A guy in my TU Chapter says he ONLY fishes orange colored dry flies....I owe him a few Orange Otters!

That was a wonderful read, thanks for putting that up. I could spend every dime I make buying up the literature that speaks to our sport; I never get tired of it. Orange seems to be a staple, I use it quite a bit. Our best spring trolling streamers carry a liberal amount of it.