Foxy Lady Flymph
Hook - Mustad R50 TDE Wet Fly Hook (Size 12)
Thread - Pearsall's Gossamer Silk (Salmonberry)
Hackle - Collins Hen Saddle Feather (Honey Dun) - Stripped on one side
Rib - Fine Stainless Steel wire (Silver)
Tail Whisps - Fibers from Collins Hen Saddle Feather (Honey Dun)
Body - Leisenring/Hidy style Silk Dubbing Brush (Fox Squirrel Body Fur on Salmonberry Pearsall's Gossamer Silk)
Head - Tying silk wrapped in a cone shape
I took the day off work today to go fishing. Unfortunately a storm system moved thru, bringing in high winds, making fly fishing difficult. I decided to relax and spend the day playing around fly tying. I got an idea for a flymph pattern, and set out to create the fly. I spent a couple hours making dubbing brushes with one of William's nifty dubbing blocks. If you look closely at the small rectangle at the top of the photo, you will see that I used up all the fur on the fox squirrel patch.
I played around with waxes from Bill Shuck and Christopher Lee. They both worked nicely. Bill's wax was a little softer in these winter conditions. Rodger, the tweezers you sent are perfect for manipulating the dubbing into position.
The idea for this fly started with the name (Foxy Lady). I was recently studying the Pink Lady soft hackle pattern, from Mark Libertone, and wanted to turn it into a buggy looking flymph. I decided to use fox squirrel underfur on a pink silk core. The "foxy" comes from the fox squirrel, and the "lady" comes from use of pink silk from the classic "pink lady" pattern. As I was making the dubbing brushes, I noticed that the squirrel underfur had a beautiful color shift (dun colored at the base and golden towards the tips). The colors reminded me of the colors of a honey dun hen saddle. I figured honey dun would harmonize nicely with the colors in the underfur dubbing brush.
Anyway, I hope you like this fly. It was fun playing around, creating a fly from a name.
Special Notes On Tying:
The hen hackle was stripped on one side, to create a more open hackle profile.
The dubbing brush was tyed in at the back, wound all the way to the front and then backwards to the midpoint of the shank. This resulted in a single layer at the back half and two layers in the front half of the fly. I did this to help taper the shape of the body. In order to do this, the dubbing brush needs to be sparcely dubbed. If the dubbing brush is too bulky, the body is likely to be lumpy.
The stainless steel rib was wrapped once around the bare hook shank, underneath the tail. This helps raise the tail fibers. The rib is then wound all the way forward, over the body and thru the hackle. The hackle is reinforced with tying silk and the metal rib, so the fly should be very durable.
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