Pete Hidy & The Flymph Presentation

This special program will be presented by Lance Hidy, son of Pete, at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum, Saturday, May 18th, 2024. Read on for more details. Lance posted this on Facebook.

"It starts in the morning, around 10:30, and we plan to end at 2:30 so there is time to go fishing.

"There will be a lot about the connection between Pete Hidy, Reuben Cross, and Jim Leisenring.

"It is little-known that Rube Cross, legendary dry-fly master, liked the wet fly work that Hidy and Leisenring were doing enough to introduce Pete to his editor at Dodd, Mead, and set the wheels in motion for the publication of THE ART OF TYING THE WET FLY. He even wrote the introduction to it. Were it not for Cross, the Leisenring book would never have been published.
 

"Reuben Cross was a revered figure in my house while I was growing up. Cross's books were lined up on the shelf over Pete Hidy's tying bench.

"My talk will also cover Pete Hidy's fishing career, and the story of how he coined the word flymph, and worked hard to promote the idea through journal articles and books.

"I hear that Creekside Cabins may have one unit still available, and there are motel rooms and Airbnbs available in Roscoe and Livingston Manor.
 

"Here's the program schedule."
 

Pete Hidy and the Flymph
Saturday, May 18,
Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum
Livingston Manor, NY

If you plan to attend please RSVP on the Catskill Fly Fishing Museum website.

• 10:30 AM–12:00 PM—Flymph Tying Roundtable
• 11:30 AM—John Shaner: “Vince Marinaro Spider Flies”
• 1:00–1:15 PM—Author Richard Lodge, about his soon-to-be-published Reuben Cross biography
• 1:15–2:00 PM—Lance Hidy: ”Pete Hidy’s Friendships with Jim Leisenring and Reuben Cross.”
• 2:00–2:30 PM—Panel Discussion

Mark Libertone and a couple Flymphs

Mark Libertone was a well known figure in the world of soft hackles and flymphs. I will be posting some of Mark's fly patterns occasionally. With this first post, I want to give a little bit of history about Mark and post a couple of olive colored flymphs that I've always found very attractive.

Mark Liberton was born and raised in New York State. His interest in trout fishing led naturally to an interest in fly fishing and fly tying. He began part of his fishing education at age 14. He worked as a freelance graphic artist and illustrator with some of his artwork appearing in Fly Fisherman Magazine and other publications.

He mentioned that even though he tied dry flies and fished them, he was very partial to the soft-hackle wet flies and flymphs. He said he found their versatility and simple construction very appealing.

He lived near the Genesee River and fished it every chance he got. He held the secretary position for his local Trout Unlimited chapter. He taught fly fishing and fly tying and wrote articles about his beloved hobby as well. Mark was a proud member of The International Brotherhood of the Flymph.

He is of course well known to all of us who have been interested in soft hackles and flymphs. He was one of the founding members of the Flymph Forum where many of us have posted about our passion for wet flies.

Olive Ascension Caddis

Hook: Mustad-Limerick 31217 T.U.E #15
Thread: 8/0 Olive Uni-thread
Hackle: Silver Speckled Coq de leon hen
Ribbing: Fine Pearlescent mylar tinsel
Body: Olive Hare's mask, dubbed Leisenring fashion on 8/0 olive Uni-thread-roughed with dubbing needle after wrapping rib.

 

Double Olive Flymph

Hook: Mustad 3399A
Thread: Pale olive Gossamer
Hackle: Medium creamy dun hen
Body: Dark Olive Hare's Mask dubbed Leisenring style on the pale olive Gossamer. Leave a little thread showing at the tail end.

McClain's Flymph

I tied this flymph with an old Michigan dry fly in mind, called McClain’s Drake. Way back in the 1940s Jerry McClain had accidentally left an old WW2 Army sweater on the clothesline and it became sun bleached. This discolored the original material. Jerry used this as the body of his fly. I had the chance to talk to him years ago and he said it didn’t matter if the fly sank or not, it would continue to catch fish. He would fish it until it was falling apart. So I figured this would make a great flymph, since it can be fished right beneath the surface. So here is my take on a McClain’s Drake version of a flymph.  --Paul

Materials:
Gaelic Supreme Jack Mickievicz Letort Dry Fly Hook size 12
Body is a mixed of wool yarn of olive, burgundy, and brown to mimic the sweater. Spun on a Clark Block in Danville 3/0 Monocord brown.
Tail is Pheasant
Hackle is Hen Pheasant

Kimono Silk at Magpie Materials

Stephen Hankins of Magpie Materials is now carrying Kimono Silk on regular size spools. This is fantastic, especially since we can no longer buy Pearsall's Gossamer silk. Kimono is the closest in color I know of to Pearsall's as well. In the past it was available, but only came on very large spools. So this is a game changer!

Here is what Stephen posted when the announcement was made.

"For everyone who expressed interest, Kimono Silk Thread is now LIVE and ready to roll on MagpieMaterials.com. Check it out and start tying with what many fly tyers find to be the finest silk gossamer thread available. Magpie has improved the product for fly tyers by offering on a fly tying specific spool. No need to waste your time and energy spooling it yourself, buying a special bobbin, or tying without a bobbin; Magpie has done the work for you! 130 yards of premium gossamer Silk for $4.75 per spool. Currently spooling 20 colors, many of which match Pearsall’s. We’ll be adding many more colors soon."

 

Green Drake Flymph

 Steven Bird, wrote in the Soft~Hackle Journal about one of the largest mayflies in his part of the country and that is the Green Drake. Steven ties a wonderful Green Drake Flymph that I wanted to make sure to highlight here. You can find it below along with the materials list. Since I live in the Midwest, I never get to experience this mayfly, so I grabbed an excerpt from Steven writing about it in the Journal.

"Green Drake is the first big mayfly of the year to show. They are sporadic, initially. Maybe we’ll spot one drifting like a battle cruiser among the bum-boats of small Grannom riding the flow. Or perhaps we catch sight of one paddling through the air like a B-52 among the kamikaze sedges.

"The first Green Drake of the season we see is always an exciting event because we know when there’s one, there’s more to follow. Once the tap is open, trout know it. The fish were probably onto them even before we saw that one.  We think: Oh Boy. It’s on!"

Materials list:
Hook: size 8
Thread: olive UNI 8/0
Hackle: golden olive grizzly
Tail: gadwall whisks dyed with yellow marker
Rib: yellow floss, doubled & twisted
Body: dark olive hares mask with a bit of Hareline Shrimp Pink Dub mixed in, thorax is dubbed on the floss rib, a bit of light olive dubbing behind the hackle collar

What is a Flymph?

What makes a flymph can be confusing. The best explanation I have read was from an interview I did with Carl Sanders. I will be posting this interview in the near future. But I thought it was important to go ahead and post what characteristics make a Flymph. Here is what Carl wrote in his answer.

"Hidy gives the reader his definition of a flymph in The Art of Tying the Wet Fly and Fishing the Flymph. It is pretty straight forward and clear. Staunch traditionalists will stick tight to this description, however, I’m not entirely sure this is what Hidy intended. I say this because the definition he wrote in the book also includes how a flymph is to be fished, but I know there were many different presentations employed by Hidy himself which he mentions later on in the following chapters and other published material. With that being said, there are certainly characteristics of a flymph pattern that set it apart from other wet flies. It is a wingless wet fly meant to mimic an actively emerging insect struggling to reach the surface or drifting in or just under the surface in the active emerging dun stage. A properly constructed flymph has no equal for this purpose. The flymph body is constructed of dubbing twisted between two strands of thread. This is purposeful and a signature of the flymph. The dubbing and the thread work in harmony, blending together colors to match natural insects. This also provides an extremely durable body with a depth and translucence in which the fibers will dance in active movement in conjunction with the soft hackle under the water’s surface. This is often misunderstood when it comes to dubbing soft hackled flies. Twisting the thread and dubbing together blends the colors, touch dubbing covers the thread, and no matter how sparse, the effect is quite different. The bodies of flymphs are comparatively quite robust, more so than lightly dubbed spider patterns or some other soft hackled patterns where the the dubbing is sparsely applied to the thread. An overall cigar-shaped taper is most desirable. One other characteristic the flymph tyer should consider is what the design mimics. As I said, it represents any number of actively emerging insects making their way to the surface. Any additions to the pattern that lead the fly fisher away from this type of presentation naturally removes the pattern from the definition of a flymph.

For example, adding a bead to the pattern would negate it from being a flymph because a bead’s purpose is the the exact opposite of what the flymph fisher is trying to accomplish when fishing a flymph."

 

 

Foxy Lady Flymph

This is a flymph that was created and tied by Ray Tucker back in 2014. Ray is a common figure on the Flymph Forum and has posted many unique flies through the years. This one came with a cool story from Ray.

"I took the day off work 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 Anderson'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 the winter conditions.The tweezers in the photo 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 from Ray:

"The hen hackle was stripped on one side, to create a more open hackle profile.

"The dubbing brush was tied 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 sparsely 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."

Materials:

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 Wisps - 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