Lisenring's March brown

[Terrestrial12]

I honestly never really liked the idea of the way Lisenring went about dressing the abdomen of his march brown. Either wrap the PT fibers then rib it with orange silk, or fine wire, but why both? Twisting the fibers up in the working silk also seemed kind of "klunky" also. I figured he is the master and gave him the benefit of the doubt and finally tied it. THIS. IS. THE. SUPERIOR. DRESSING!!! It's not really a pretty, photo worthy type of dressing but MAN does it look awesome! And bomb proof. The silk twisted up and showing at random trough the PT gives an amazing natural looking segmentation and a beautiful fiery brown type color. I still don't really get the short tail but this is most definitely my favorite Marc brown now. Crazy hard to photograph tho. My camera just wouldn't focus and if it did it wouldn't capture the true nature of the colors showing.
Hook: 1xl size 12
Tail: 3 Pheasant tail fibers (tied very short)
Abdomen: 3 Pheasant tail fibers tied in and twisted in working silk
Thorax: hares ear dressed heavy
Hackle: light brown, short fiber partridge
Rib: fine gold wire
Silk: Pearsal's hot orange

[Terrestrial12]

Correction...tied on a 3366

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Yeah, sometimes old guys who've put in a lot of time studying things can come up with a good idea once in a while. Nicely dressed fly. Should catch really well.

[Terrestrial12]

If I somehow gave the impression I don't think lisenring's knew what he was doing that is not at all the case. His patterns are fantastic proven fish catchers and he was the master of profile. Just never really thought this was the best way to achieve the same look.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

If I somehow gave the impression I don't think lisenring's knew what he was doing that is not at all the case. His patterns are fantastic proven fish catchers and he was the master of profile. Just never really thought this was the best way to achieve the same look.

T12, my comment was tongue in cheek. That doesn't always transmit well on the interwebs. I saw somethhing on FB the other day that sorta went If an old guy peeling an apple with a pocket knife and eating the slices right off the blade offers you some advice, you should probably take it. Your fly still looks good.

[Roadkill]

Great looking fly!

[letumgo]

Fin-tastic!

I enjoyed reading your post, and seeing your finished flies. I’m sure Big Jim would have approved of the profile and construction. Natural imitation and, as you say, durability were hallmarks of his patterns. Nice to see discussion of the Leisenring’s construction methods. The benefits are not always obvious (spun bodies for example), and other techniques can be used to create similar flies. I try to tye them as he or Hidy would have done, especially for the learning and connection to history.

Well done Sir.

[FlyFisherMann1955]

I'm certain your fly will be successful. I recently tried it too. Twisting the pheasant tail and the thread plus the wire rib sure provides durability. It worked for me in late Apr, even though the March Brown hatch was over.

DSC02063 (2).JPG (141.8 KiB) Viewed 2274 times

Tight Lines- Ken

[DUBBN]

Hare , Partridge or Brown hen. Tail or no tail. Pheasant or no Pheasant. Gold or Copper wire. Brown, Black, or Orange thread

All these combinations work well for me, from Early Spring to Fall.

Size 16 and 14's

I seriously can not say one works better or worse than the other.

[DarrellP]

Interesting technique. Great flies. Thanks for posting!