Conover Flymph Tutorial by Bill Shuck (tie2fish) / Photos by Ray Tucker (letumgo)

[letumgo]

Recipe:


Materials (Hackle / Dubbing / Prespun Bodies:


Detailed Tying Sequence in Photos:

Step 1 - Hackle Preparation


Step 2 - Tying in the hackle


Step 3 - Selecting hen hackle fibers for the tail



Step 4 - Tying in the tail



Step 5 - Tying in the prespun bodies





Step 6 - Tightening up the prespun bodies during tying process:


Step 7 - Wrapping the body





The master at work...


Step 8 - Wrapping the hackle



Step 9 - Tying off and forming a nicely tapered head



Step 10 - Apply head cement and shape/train the hackle collar with half-hitch tool




Finished Result - Bill Shuck's Conover Flymph

[Stendalen]

Bill and Ray! This is just brilliant...gives me so much inspiration!

Thanks for sharing

[hankaye]

tie2fish, Howdy;

Mr. Bill, so nice to watch you tye such a wonderful looking Flymph,
even if it is in stop-action.

Thank you Ray for sharing this with us all.

hank

[letumgo]

The room was too loud to do a video, so Bill kindly explained the tying process, pausing at each critical step to let me take a picture.

Bill - Feel free to add a detailed description of key steps in the process.

Thank you for the demonstration and tutorial.

[swellcat]

An aside, but I've never seen sexier handwriting on this forum.

[Old Hat]

I've tied these. It is a great pattern. Thanks guys for putting this up.

[DOUGSDEN]

Bill & Ray,
What a great combination of tying skills by Bill and photography and tutorial set up by Ray! It is clear, easy to follow, and a sheer joy to watch and learn! Bill, you need to start working on your video series of all the wonderful patterns you have gifted to us and the entire tying world!

Ray, your photographic style is distinctive and good and so well synced to the task at hand! You really did a good job in capturing the essence of the incredible talent that Bill posesses!

What can we expect to see in the future? Can't wait to see!!

Dougsden

[Theroe]

So:
This is the first "new" flymph, which is a take on one of my all time favorite flies, the Conover. Every spring I would order a dozen #14 and a dozen #16 Conover's from Winnie Dette......true to form they would arrive about a month later from the Cottage street address, each size tucked into a very small white carton. Mary took over the duties, and I kept ordering....now its Joes turn, and just about the right time of year to order. Note: this is a very killing pattern for those of you who haven't tried it.
For the fore-mentioned reasons, seeing Bill produce this pattern holds a very special place for me, and I cannot wait to fish the Conover Flymph this year..........

Dana

[NedZeppelin]

Just looking at this: “tightening up the prespun bodies” looks like he is suspending the spun silk just above the hook with a bodkin and presumably giving the hackle pliers a spin? Not sure about the reason for the bodkin. Any enlightenment?

[letumgo]

Yes. Bill used to use the tip of a bodkin needle to hold the spun body away from the hook (90 degree angle), and then spin the hackle plier to tighten it up a bit, before wrapping the body forward. Easy peasy.

Here is an older photo of Bill, demonstrating the bodkin spinning technique during a prior event. In this case, Bill was showing Lance Hidy how he tightened the spun bodies before wrapping forward.