Grouse & Orange

[Soft-hackle]

Grouse & Orange

Hook: Daiichi 1550 #12
Thread: Brown Pearsall's Gossamer
Hackle: English Grouse
Abdomen: one strand of orange silk buttonhole twist. Twisted while wrapping. There is no tying thread beneath the twist.
Thorax: Tannist Hare's Mask dubbed to the tying thread.

[willowhead]

Wow, that is terriffic. Do you leave no tying thread under the abdomen so the shank can shine thru or what's the reason for that? Tkx.

[michaelgmcgraw]

That is a very nice pattern . No doubt it is a very productive fly!

[Soft-hackle]

Hi,
Mark,
There's been a lot of discussion on the site regarding the propensity for silk getting translucent when wet. Leisenring, in tying the Tup's Indispensible, suggested leaving the tying thread from under the abdomen for that reason. I have since adopted this technique on many soft-hackled flies of this type. Of course, you could also adopt Ray's technique of wrapping tinsel beneath the body, ala Dunn's white hook shank on "Sunshine Flies". That works very nicely to help the sun shine back through the silk-again making it look translucent. I've done the tinsel thing on dry flies wrapping over with dubbing. I believe it helps.

Michael,
This is a very similar to the famed Partridge and Orange.

Mark

[willowhead]

Thankx Mark, so i figured right.....i've got the Liesenring-Hidy book and read about that.....seems you've got the right idea, as adding tinsel underneath would just make a bulkier body.....which when trying to imitate these insects is really not cool, as they are so miniescule in real life. Heck, the dang hook itself, by itself, is larger than the bug.....itself. .........WOW!.....