Six Pete Hidy Flymphs from 1974

[gingerdun]

Here is a little bit of history, known already to most of you. But I thought I'd post it here, for the public record, because it appeared in such an obscure journal. Pete published only 25 fly recipes in his lifetime, and of them, nine were illustrated with drawings. The artist of these six drawings was Charles DeFeo, a talented illustrator and designer who was active in the Anglers' Club of New York. Notice that five of the flies have tails, although no tails are mentioned in any of the recipes. While his drawings cannot compare with the macro photography that we have come to expect, they are quite accurate.

I am trying to find actual examples of these six flies in the collection that Pete left behind. I will post the fourth one, the Dark Hare's Ear, in a separate topic.

[redietz]

Lance -

Do you have any idea of what he meant by "Hare's Ear Body"? Or do you believe this was a typo?

[letumgo]

Lance - Would you mind if we make this an interactive post? I would love to see the members try their hand at each of these flies and then post photos of the results. This might even make for a great swap.

Do you know what hook Pete preferred for these flymphs? It would be nice to know the make, model and size he used for these patterns.

Wonderful post. I will be watching this with great interest.

[gingerdun]

Lance -

Do you have any idea of what he meant by "Hare's Ear Body"? Or do you believe this was a typo?

Bob,
That was the editorial style they used in the Bulletin. Each of the six recipes starts out that way—Mole Body, Brown Mohair Body, etc.
Confusing, I agree.

Lance

[gingerdun]

Lance - Would you mind if we make this an interactive post? I would love to see the members try their hand at each of these flies and then post photos of the results. This might even make for a great swap.

Do you know what hook Pete preferred for these flymphs? It would be nice to know the make, model and size he used for these patterns.

Wonderful post. I will be watching this with great interest.

Whatever you want to do is fine with me, Ray.

The hooks would be sized 12 to 16, just as you would expect. He was very fond of the #14 Veniard long-shank mayfly, up-eye, that you see in the Dark Hare's Ear fly photograph that I posted separately. Being a #14 long-shank makes it similar to a standard #12, but with a smaller gape, and a mean-looking barb. Like Leisenring he used a lot of light wire, round-bend, dry-fly hooks for wet flies. Being an early adopter of Lee Wulff's catch-and-release practice, I am sure that Dad would have been a big fan of mini-barbs if they had been available prior to his death in 1983. In other words, I wouldn't try to hard to find vintage hooks, unless you really want to make it look authentic.

The hardest thing to imitate, I find, is the cigar-shaped double-taper of Pete's bodies, extending into the cone-shaped head. Drives me crazy.

[fflutterffly]

I think we should have a Hidy Swap!

[Kelly L.]

Lance, you know I am LOVING THESE FLIES, WOW. Now not only are they outstanding, but the sketches were made by another of my all time favorite tyers, Charles DeFeo. I hope you know I just saved that pic to "my pictures"...

[newriverspey]

Lance,
Great post and thanks for sharing with us. Is it to be assumed that the tails are the same as the hen hackle used in each fly? Thanks in advance for your reply. Otto

[gingerdun]

Lance,
Great post and thanks for sharing with us. Is it to be assumed that the tails are the same as the hen hackle used in each fly? Thanks in advance for your reply. Otto

Otto,
If they weren't too webby he would use long fibers from the same skin that produced the hackle. But he kept a separate collection of a variety of feathers that he called tails or whisks. He often used wood duck barbs too.

[William Anderson]

There are so many exciting things going on here. The sketches and the patterns and a joy to see, as always when we get to actually see good images of flies we've always discussed. We have clearly taken for granted the opportunity to see patterns and get actual info on flies that in 2009 we could only speculate about and imagine. This is fantastic.

I find the detail of these drawings to be extremely informative in terms of construction and intention. Some of the micro photos bare out the precision of the actual flies, but more often the flies are not as tidy. More accurate than the sketches we saw of the Skues flies vs. pics of the actual flies. Those drawings were very idealized but relate a real intent, IMO. One of the things that put me on my SH/Spider/Flymph path were the illustrations by Dave Whitlock in the Masters of the Nymph book. Those drawings are done in such a way as to make the flies and the naturals they represent seem to wiggle on the page, less diagrammatic and more emphasis put on the suggestibility.

The hooks here are interesting with such a large gap. I like these flies on lots of hooks, but overtime I see something of the originals I get a weird pining. I think Stefan put us onto a resource for very similar hooks some time ago and I need to find that again.

I love this stuff. Thanks so much for sharing these.

w