William,
Even more beautiful examples of your fine work and interpretations! You keep lovingly raising the bar. We catch up, exhausted and road weary, and you are waiting for us around the next bend with even brighter and better stuff! I love it and I dearly love this fine example of Waterhen and Red Fox Flymph. There is simply none finer! Excellent, excellent work my friend and we expect a full photo essay of this and the many other creations you have made. You know, the pictures with your patterns anchored in the scissors of giant trout!
Always impressed,
Doug
Waterhen and Red Fox Flymph
Moderators: William Anderson, letumgo
Re: Waterhen and Red Fox Flymph
Fish when you can, not when you should! Anything short of this is just a disaster.
-
William Anderson
- Site Admin
- Posts: 4569
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:14 pm
- Location: Ashburn, VA 20148
- Contact:
Re: Waterhen and Red Fox Flymph
Carl, when I first started tying I was taken by his tying skill and use of materials. The plastic wings never resonated with me but his constructions were awesome. I believe one of my very first books was Ted Leeson and Jim Scholmeyer's Emergers book which was full of Antron shucks among other materials but I have no idea when and with whom the shuck idea originated. It certainly doesn't hurt, unless as you point out it might cause a fly to behave oddly. Not so with this fly but it's something to think about.Old Hat wrote:I was just curious because of the floating properties of snowshoe hare feet. But going back and reading your post you said underfur, I just glazed over that and stuck snowshoe hare foot in my mind. I wouldn't expect the underfur to effect it much either.
There are a lot of patterns that are very effective with the shucks. Shane Stalcup used a lot of shucks in his pattern designs. He had all kinds of different shucks that he used.
"A man should not try to eliminate his complexes, but rather come into accord with them. They are ultimately what directs his conduct in the world." Sigmund Freud.
www.WilliamsFavorite.com
www.WilliamsFavorite.com
-
William Anderson
- Site Admin
- Posts: 4569
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:14 pm
- Location: Ashburn, VA 20148
- Contact:
Re: Waterhen and Red Fox Flymph
Doug, thank you for the kind words and constant encouragement. I'm glad you like this one. You're very good for my self esteem.DOUGSDEN wrote:William,
Even more beautiful examples of your fine work and interpretations! You keep lovingly raising the bar. We catch up, exhausted and road weary, and you are waiting for us around the next bend with even brighter and better stuff! I love it and I dearly love this fine example of Waterhen and Red Fox Flymph. There is simply none finer! Excellent, excellent work my friend and we expect a full photo essay of this and the many other creations you have made. You know, the pictures with your patterns anchored in the scissors of giant trout!
Always impressed,
Doug
"A man should not try to eliminate his complexes, but rather come into accord with them. They are ultimately what directs his conduct in the world." Sigmund Freud.
www.WilliamsFavorite.com
www.WilliamsFavorite.com
Re: Waterhen and Red Fox Flymph
Yea, I like this one, thanks for sharing I have never used snowshoe hare for shuck before but I will be trying it out after seeing this. Great looking pattern and I'm sure the trout will agree.
Re: Waterhen and Red Fox Flymph
[quote= ... I wonder when the first shucks were added?[/quote]
William, beautiful design. Only in my dreams can I get them that neat. My eyes aren't good enough & my hands need to evolve. I too wonder about the buoying affect of the snowshoe shuck, though, to my eye, you could probably get the desired shuck with half as much of the material, perhaps.
Thots regarding your question on the origin of the trailing shuck: I don't know. But I suspect this feature of an emerging nymph, purposely or not, was simulated with the addition of a 'tail'. The shuck originated with the tail. And I've seen several old sedge patterns that call for a tail of mallard flank. And I'm reminded of the old paired-wing March Brown & Hare's Ear wetflies, often tied with a tailing clump of wood duck or mallard flank too inordinately thick to be considered good imitation of a natural's 2 or 3 thin tails, yet a pretty good imitation of a trailing shuck. Bergman, Leisenring, Hidy, my grandfather, tied & fished that version. It was very popular when I was a kid, everybody carried some kind of drab winged wetfly with flank tailing. And that is a killing emerger pattern -- the winged adult sprouting from those beautiful flank fibers. I still prefer mallard & wood duck for trailing shucks. The soft, pale mallard flank underfeather with faint barring is perfect. And it might be noted that shucks retain color while the insect is in the act of exiting.
William, beautiful design. Only in my dreams can I get them that neat. My eyes aren't good enough & my hands need to evolve. I too wonder about the buoying affect of the snowshoe shuck, though, to my eye, you could probably get the desired shuck with half as much of the material, perhaps.
Thots regarding your question on the origin of the trailing shuck: I don't know. But I suspect this feature of an emerging nymph, purposely or not, was simulated with the addition of a 'tail'. The shuck originated with the tail. And I've seen several old sedge patterns that call for a tail of mallard flank. And I'm reminded of the old paired-wing March Brown & Hare's Ear wetflies, often tied with a tailing clump of wood duck or mallard flank too inordinately thick to be considered good imitation of a natural's 2 or 3 thin tails, yet a pretty good imitation of a trailing shuck. Bergman, Leisenring, Hidy, my grandfather, tied & fished that version. It was very popular when I was a kid, everybody carried some kind of drab winged wetfly with flank tailing. And that is a killing emerger pattern -- the winged adult sprouting from those beautiful flank fibers. I still prefer mallard & wood duck for trailing shucks. The soft, pale mallard flank underfeather with faint barring is perfect. And it might be noted that shucks retain color while the insect is in the act of exiting.