Leisenring's 12 Favorites

If you are interested in tying flymphs or follow flymph fly tying then you will no doubt hear or read about Leisenring's 12 favorite flies from the book The Art of Tying the Wet Fly & Fishing the Flymph. In chapter 11 he discusses there being hundreds of patterns in other books, but he wanted to limit it to 12 of his favorites for this book, even though there are many other flies that he uses on occasion.

Listed below are those favorites and the materials for each fly pattern. I only include a photo of the first one, the Brown or Red Hackle. If you would like to see photos of each fly, head over to Carl Sanders' website to see a version of each that Carl has expertly tied.  But I mainly just wanted this to be a quick way to reference the list of Leisenring's favorites. I hope you find it useful.

Brown or Red Hackle tied by Carl Sanders

 

Brown or Red hackle
Hook: 12,13,14
Silk: Crimson or claret
Hackle: Red furnace
Rib: Narrow gold tinsel
Body: Bronze-colored peacock herl

 

Gray Hackle
Hook:  12,13,14
Silk: Primrose yellow
Hackle:  Yellow or white creamy furnace
Rib:  Narrow gold tinsel
Body:  Bronze-colored peacock herl

Old Blue Dun
Hook: 12, 13, 14
Silk:  Primrose yellow
Hackle:  Blue-dun hen hackle of good quality
Tail:  Two or three glassy fibers from a rusty-blue-dun cock's hackle
Rib:  One strand of yellow buttonhole twist
Body:  Muskrat underfur spun on primrose yellow silk, a little of the silk showing through the dubbing at the tail
Wings:  Starling optional

 

Blue Dun Hackle
Hook:  12, 13, 14
Silk: Primrose yellow
Hackle:  Light-blue-dun hen hackle of good quality
Tail:  Two or three blue-dun fibers optional
Rib:  Very narrow flat gold tinsel
Body:  Mole fur spun on primrose yellow silk, a little of the silk exposed at the tail

Coachman
Hook:  12, 13
Silk:  Orange
Hackle:  Bright red cockerel hackle
Body:  Bronze-colored peacock herl
Wings:  Landrail primary or secondary
NOTE:  Landrail is no longer available. I substituted chukar tail feather which I have found to be a very good substitute although a bit harder to work with.

Black Gnat
Hook: 14, 15
Silk:  Crimson or claret
Hackle:  Purplish black feather from the shoulder of a cock starling
Body:  Black silk or two or three fibers from a crow's secondary wing feather
Wings:  Dark starling optional

Hare's Ear
Hook:  13, 14
Silk:  Primrose yellow
Hackle: None: a few fibers of dubbing picked out for legs
Tail:  Two or three fibers of the fine mottled feather of a wood duck or mandarin duck
Rib:  Very narrow flat gold tinsel
Body:  Fur from the lobe or base of a hare's ear spun on primrose yellow silk
Wings:  English woodcock secondaries with buff tips

Iron Blue Wingless
Hook:  14,15
Silk:  Crimson or claret
Hackle:  Honey dun hen hackle with red points, or a very dark honey dun
Tail:  Two short dark honey dun cock fibers
Rib:  Fine gold wire optional
Body:  Dark mole fur spun on crimson silk; very thin at tail to expose the silk

Light Snipe and Yellow
Hook: 13,14
Silk:  Primrose yellow
Hackle:  Snipe from the undercover feathers or lesser covert feathers
Rib:  Fine gold wire
Body:  Primrose yellow buttonhole twist

Pale Watery Dun Wingless
Hook:  12, 13, 14
Silk:  Primrose yellow
Hackle:  Pale honey dun
Tail:  Two or three pale honey dun cock fibers
Body:  Natural raffia grass, lacquer optional

Tup's Nymph
Hook: 13,14
Silk:  Primrose yellow
Hackle:  Very small light blue dun hen hackle or medium-dark honey dun hen hackle
Body:  Halved: rear half of primrose yellow buttonhole twist; thorax or shoulder of yellow and claret seal fur mixed dubbing spun on primrose yellow silk
Tail: Two honey dun hackle points
NOTE:  The pattern section of the book near the pattern plate does not list a tail.  However, Leisenring uses the Tup's pattern  as an example of tying a nymph and in that pattern the tail above is included.  The Tup's nymph shown in the pattern plate in the book does show a tail of hackle fibers.  Your choice!

Iron Blue Nymph (Dun)
Hook: 14,15
Silk:  Crimson or claret
Hackle:  Two turns of a very short cock jackdaw throat hackle
Tail:  Two or three soft white fibers tied very short
Body:  Dark mole fur spun on crimson or claret tying silk with two or three turns of the silk exposed at the tail
NOTE:  The pattern in the book calls this the Iron Blue Nymph however the pattern plate lists it as the Iron Blue Dun

Grouse and Seal Blend Flymph

 There will be times on this blog where I may copy an old post from the Flymph Forum and post it here on the The Fabulous Flymph blog. There is a ton of information on the Flymph Forum, but as time goes by many posts get buried and hard to find. So I think highlighting them here from time to time may breath new life into them.

This was an old post by William David Anderson, where he posted this beautiful flymph. This is what he wrote in the post that describes his creation.

"This is a bit of seal blend, some hare's mask, and a bit of red fox, all pre-spun on white silk on a Clark's block. I pulled this from the wallet as well to get a pic before it goes in the vest box. Something I've been doing in the past year is taking the pre-spun body and wrapping it slightly open, not quite touching turns. As I'm looking through my wallet and some of my boxes it looks like I'm doing this about half the time. The underbody will certainly show through the white silk, even well waxed and the darker underbody gives it some depth. It's not exactly an imitation I'm after, but a technique.

"A side note on using the white silk on the Clark's block. When this is wet you can see not just the fibers protruding out of the body, but the fibers that are trapped in the body and those pinned on the underside of the body more so than with any other silk I've used. Just something to keep in mind. Sometimes its a new discovery as the time when I make a dubbing blend till I sit and spin bodies can be a while. (I mark the percentages and ingredients on each plastic bag). And then as I leaf through cards of bodies to tie up a set of flies, there's quite a time delay from dubbing blend to flies in the box. Now a year later taking a pic and discovering what's actually there, it might as well have been tied by someone else."

 

Welcome to The Fabulous Flymph!

Welcome, I hope you will be pleased with the content this fly tying blog will provide. On the "About" page I described how I became infatuated with flymphs. So read that when you get a chance. The other part of the About page describes why I started this blog and what I plan to post here. Since this is my first post, I'll repeat that section here.

This blog is a result of the love I have for this style of fly. I love everything about flymphs including tying them, fishing them, their history and unique look. I wanted and needed to do something more with the passion I have for this fly. This is exactly why this blog began.

Even though flymphs will be the majority of posts here, I do plan to post about other styles of North American wet flies. Besides James Leisenring and Pete Hidy, I will include styles from Sylvester Nemes, Dave Hughes, Polly Rosborough, Cal Bird, and many others.

I hope you enjoy what you find here and thank you for reading!

-Paul J. Beel