One For Mark.

[Mataura mayfly]

My take on the Lil' Dorothy, shown recently in a video by Hans and the avatar used by Mark Libertone.



Hackle may be a little stiff, but close as I had to colour- creamy/ginger. Body is that now well known Milton Woolen Mills orange yarn, natural and unwaxed.

[Roadkill]

Great looking fly!

[letumgo]

Very cool rendition, Jeff. I hope you take this for a swim, and bring a camera along.

[Mataura mayfly]

Thanks guys, I should have also stated the thorax is not underfur, but the creamey/white belly fur from a European Brown Hare- touch dubbed.

Ray. I did tie a more yellow version and take it for a swim here, my idea was soon after Hans posted the video tie one up on a very nice vintage Mustad hook William kindly sent over and go catch a big ole NZ brown to show Mark.
It didn't work out , trout would not look at it..... indeed shyed away from it and I left it in a Willow tree along side the river. You know the trees that sneak up behind you...... I am sure I have seen a photo somewhere of you catching one of those trees.

[letumgo]

Jeff - I love the fact you fished Mark's pattern, and a copy is left overlooking a fine trout stream in your neck of the woods. My friend Karsten (fly_fisha) left one of my flies hanging along a stream in England. I've done the same thing (unintentionally) with some of his flies in my local waters.

[Soft-hackle]

Nicely tied. Here's a bit of background on the fly:

This fly was originated years ago when I found a good hatch of Ephemerella dorothea coming off the water in my home river the Genesee. It was late May. There was nothing I had that came close to the color combination, and the trout were feeding on them regularly.

Since I was a wingless wet fly fisherman, I decided to try to create a pattern for myself. I tried, but nothing really did the trick for me. Finally while browsing through the sewing and crafts section at Wal-Mart, I noticed the embroidery floss. It came in tons of colors, and one caught my eye-a very pale creamy orange. I bought it.

At the vise I fashioned a soft-hackle style fly using one strand of the embroidery floss for the abdomen, and a piece of cream colored hare's ear for the thorax with cream ginger hackle, the Lil'Dorothy was born.

Over the years I've swapped out the cotton embroidery floss for the abdomen and have found a silk sewing thread of the correct color for the pattern. The abdomen is tied with NO tying thread beneath it. As Leisenring suggested for his Tup's Nymph, the two layers of silk become more translucent on the bare hook. The Thorax and abdomen share about half the body length each. The thorax is rough and when wet, should slightly veil the abdomen giving the impression of a cream colored fly with an orange cast to the abdomen.

The embroidery floss version still works well, and if you can not find the silk thread in the correct color, you can use the floss Color#722. The original tie can be seen here:http://www.danica.com/flytier/mliberton ... orothy.htm.



Thanks for tying it, Jeff.

Mark

[Mataura mayfly]

Mark, thanks for the background and explanation behind the colours and length of thorax. Little adjustments like that may make all the difference.
I have slight cloaking of the abdomen, plus the nature of wool means a slightly fuzzy abdomen and translucent fibres, but I may head to the vice again and tie some more variations to see if I can hit upon a combination the locals like.

[Kelly L.]

Jeff, I really like your take on this wonderful fly. Fantastic job.

[William Anderson]

Such a great post. Jeff, these are both great looking flies and I've only seen a sulphur hatch of that color once, but it was dynamic and these would work very well. Mark thanks for the background as well. It's a great pattern.

[Mataura mayfly]

Right, there are just 14 days left of the regular river season around these parts and come hell or high water it is my intention to catch a NZ Brown trout on this (or a variation of ) pattern!

I am sticking with the orange wool yarn (after all I have a kilo of the stuff to use up!) and with the ginger hens so very nicely dropped off the other day here I now have a lot of hen hackle, lower leg and wing covert feathers that should be just the bee's knee's.
There is no reason they should not work here, a lot of the mayfly nymphs are variations of brown/yellow and the spinners a mahogany red, so if I can bet the size and presentation half pie right- we should be in business!