Original 12 Favorites tied by James Leisenring

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the 12 Favorites of James Leisenring is often discussed in flymph and wet fly circles. Lance Hidy, son of Pete Hidy, sent me the below image of Leisenring's 12 favorites. But what is really special is that Leisenring tied these himself. At one time, they were loaned to Lance and he created this image. 

Here is the brief story from Lance.

"This is the 1941 set that Leisenring gave to Charley Rethoret, owner of Hotel Rapids on Brodhead’s Creek, Analomink, Pennsylvania, where Leisenring and Hidy first met in 1935. I photographed the set when its owner, the late Bernie Pociask, loaned it to me. After his death, the collection was sold, and its current location is unknown to me."

You will notice that Lance drew circles around five of the flies. Interestingly these five are the only ones that qualify as flymphs. When emailing me, Lance alluded to the fact that the Tups was a little bit of a stretch since the abdomen is thread and only the thorax has fur. I thought this would be a good time to share a jpeg image that Lance created of the Leisenring Tups. This shows a super close up of the Tups with each detail of the fly pointed out by Lance.

Even today fly tyers still have trouble sometimes deciding if a fly they tied is a flymph or not. I encourage you to read the post I made about it here: https://thefabulousflymph.blogspot.com/2024/05/what-is-flymph.html. It should help clarify details that classify a flymph.

Hidy and Flymph Presentation Recap

This past weekend Lance Hidy held an event at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum. This new presentation included information about the relationship between Pete Hidy, James Leisenring and Rube Cross. Rube Cross was a well known fly tyer that conversed with Leisenring and Hidy quite often.

I want to thank William David Anderson, Ray Tucker, and Adam Rieger for getting some photos at the presentation for me. I greatly appreciate it. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the event myself.

I do know that Lance Hidy is working on a new book about Flymphs as well. So I can't wait for that!

The first eight photos were taken by Ray Tucker. The photos following that were taken by Adam Rieger. Enjoy the photos!

View of presentation from tier's row.

Lance mentioning today's Flymph resources.

Leisenring's Iron Blue Wingless

John Shaner giving a lecture about Vince Marinaro wet flies.

The Marinaro wet flies from John Shaner's collection.

Ray Tucker, Carl Sanders, and William Anderson in tier's row.

(left: William Anderson) Lance Hidy was selling his large format Pete Hidy fly photos, so friends were helping him display them at the museum.

Carl Sanders and William Anderson relaxing at the cabin nearby.

Lance Hidy giving his lecture.

Lance showing a photo of The Creel which was the journal of the Fly Fisher's Club of Oregon. The Creel was founded by Pete Hidy and lasted from 1961 to 1982.

Lance discussing the publication of the book, The Art of Tying the Wet Fly.

Carl Sanders' tying station.

Richard Lodge is writing a new book about Rube Cross titled The Rise of the Neversinker Fly Tier Rube Cross. Richard said it will be available this summer.

Richard Lodge

Old Blue Dun - fly tying video

 

I thought this would be a good follow-up post to the previous post. This is Adam Rieger demonstrating how to tie Leisenring's Old Blue Dun.

Old Blue Dun Variant

 

This is a flymph tied by Carl Sanders. It is a variant of the Old Blue Dun, one of Jim Leisenring's flymph patterns. Here is what Carl wrote when he posted this.

"Old Blue Dun. With a little embellishment of Fl. Orange wire rib instead of yellow button hole. Blue dun hen hackle and tail. Muskrat spun on primrose silk with cobbler's wax. Playing on some Syl Nemes Up Eyed Soft Hackle hooks by Gaelic."

The Old Blue Dun was a flymph pattern that was included as one of Leisenring's favorites in the book The Art of Tying the Wet Fly & Fishing the Flymph.

Materials:
Hook: Gaelic Syl Nemes Up Eye
Thread: Primrose Silk
Body: Muskrat
Rib: Fl. Orange Wire
Tail: Blue Dun Hen Hackle fibers
Hackle: Blue Dun Hen

Clark Dubbing Block Demonstration

 

William Anderson demonstrates how to use a Clark Spinning Block. The video shows how to prepare the silk thread with wax, use tweezers for sparse placement of dubbing and the twisting process. You can also just place the dubbing with your fingers.

James Leisenring spun dubbing loops on his trouser leg. After The Art of Tying the Wet Fly was published in 1941, a pupil of Leisenring, Richard G. Clark, decided the technique that Leisenring used was important enough to design a tool to help make it easier and neat. This is when the Clark Spinning Block was created.

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