Carl's correct that the rear is buttonhole twist, which is a size D silk, ... " [quote} Tups Flymph.jpg Bill, this is a quintessential tie for me. It's impeccably constructed and clearly reads more like a sulphur dun than a nymph pattern. Since I fish this pattern during a sulphur hatch I like...

P_20181231_093031.jpg Thank you every one for your critiques and observations. William your observation that the tails in Leisenrings book were Hackle tips is correct. I completely missed that when tying the fly the first time. The blend of seals fur is as it is described in the book.For the body I...

Tom, I'd fish these Tups just the way you've tied them. Carl's correct that the rear is buttonhole twist, which is a size D silk, like the Half Stone pattern, and the thorax is this orange shade, which is spot on for my preference. Kudos on this seal blend. In Leisenring the tails are two very small...

There is so much going on in this thread and almost all of it is awesome. I have a couple points of contention however. First, the obnoxious clacking of a Hardy reel is just noise pollution for everyone else on the stream, like loud motorcycles in a neighborhood, or cigarettes in a restaurant. And t...

There's a lot of good information here so I'll just add my own experience with both Leisenring and Hidy flies. Lance has be very generous sharing pics and sometimes access to hundreds of flies from each of these gents, as part of his research and efforts at confirm attributes for both. It should be ...

John, i remember starting to tie with pearsalls and feeling like I was tying with rope. Makes a good case for counting your turns and eliminating any redundancy. I recently bought a spool of the YLI #100 silk to try. It’s about twice the diameter of pearsalls and breaks if you breathe on it. It’s no...

Bill, this is so tidy and clean it makes me want to try several combinations of striping. I typically prefer to use different twisted materials to get a blended combination, but you've executed this so well, and it captures such a traditional effect. I don't think I could repeat it, so I'm just goin...

Some here have seen this before, but it fits nicely into this thread. The stream was Spring Creek in central PA and the cane was gifted by the late Mark Romero ... On Mark's Cane Spring Creek ~ May 2015.jpg Bill, this looks like a trout I saw once in the Old Farts pool. Probably the same one. :D

John, this is a great start. I started tying spiders 18 years ago now, and learned to tie them in that super sparse, short hackle, tidy way that was so popular on the internets back then. It took some time to get over that. You're fortunate to have moved right into this fuller and longer hackle more...

I just bought my first spool of YLI silk. It looks great but I haven’t tied with it yet. I’d love to see some comparison pics too.