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HENRYVILLE SPECIAL
The fly known as the Henryville Special was first tied by Hiram Brobst, an old-time Pocono fly tier from LeHighton Pa. The fly was developed to be use for a caddis imitation on the fast boiling pocket water of the Pocono Mountains.
Larry:
Great article, about the history of the "Henryville Special", and about the area it was fished, and the person who originated the patten.
There is another "Henryville Special" article, that is in the" Fly of the Week" archives, from Feb 26, 2001. That was written by Skip Morris, from the "Art of Tying the Dry Fly" by Skip Morris, with permission by Frank Amato Publications, Inc., for use by FAOL.
Skip Morris version of the Henryville Special
Larry. I like your dressing of the "Henryville Special" better than the version by Skip Morris. Even though his would also be effective.
Either pattern would be a good (great?) dry fly caddisfly pattern, when dress for the angler's local waters.
Again, thank you for your contribution to "Just Old Flies and stuff"!
~Parnelli (Chartered Member of "Friends of FAOL")
I have both fly pattern in PDF format (Adobe Reader required), as well as all other fly patterns on FAOL, for download to your computer. These are free, as my way of contributing to FAOL, and its members!
Thanks Steven
I'm glad you liked it. Some of the old timers might say that the wings are too dark , but on the water I fish a darker wing seems to work better. I've had good luck fishing this fly tied down to size 16 or 18 durning the little black caddis hatch. It seems to work fished as a dry or just under the surface.
I think it's great how you keep archives, it so helpful to be able to go back and get additional information when you need it.
Larry
Why does Skip Morris's version have the mallard wings tied on upside down? I've noticed this on some older British patterns. What is the reasoning? Thanks.
Ray
The wings on the Heneryville Special are tied down, tent-style to imitate the wings of the caddisfly which folds its wings back over their bodies when not in flight. J. Edson Leonard explains in his book "Flies" that the wings tied points down is one of the oldest ways to tie wings and that wings tied in this manner are less flexable. I have also seen in many fly tying instruction books that it really doesn't make any real difference which way the wings point.
It really is the option of the tier. Tiers today seem to perfer the look of the fly with the wings points up but years ago tiers perfered points down.
Larry
Here's a link to a picture of an original tied by Hiram Brobst if anyone here hasn't seen it. One of my favorite dry fly patterns.
http://www.sportingspirit.com/pages/...ies&startat=17
Regards,
Mark
Mark
Thanks for posting the pic. I had never seen the oringnal fly before only copies tied in modern books. It was really interesting. Several things about the original jumped out at me. First, I had to go back and check in three different sources if I had the body color correct. I found all three sources had the body listed as olive and the original shows red. Also, I was surprised to see how sparse the hackle was. It looks like it was meant to be a low rider. I'm not sure if it was just a mistake by the auction house or what but I noticed they listed the fly as "Henryville" and not "Henryville Special". I wonder if there is a difference?
May be this would account for the difference in the body color of the original and the copies listed in books today. What is the body color of the flies that you fish with? Thanks again.
Larry
Hi Larry,
I stumbled upon that picture just about five years ago now and made a print-out so I would always have it since I never saw an original tie of it either. If you notice, he mis-spelled it by a letter in the title so Google doesn't find it easy either.
In Earnest Schweibert's book Trout, he has it included in his Catalog of Fly Patterns and it's listed as the Henryville. I don't want to copy it all word for word, but here's a snippet. "It was originally called the No-name on the Brodheads. The Brobst pattern used scarlet silk floss for it's body, which turned a deep ruddy brown on its first baptism. Silk should still be used in place of synthetic flosses, since they remain scarlet when wet, making the Henryville merely a lure instead of a fine sedge imitation." Right after the original pattern and dressing list, he has the Henryville Olive, which he credits himself as coming up with. Whether that's true or not, I have no idea. He writes this after the dressing list. "This olive-bodied Henryville is a personal variation on the original Brobst dressing, in response to the olivaceous caddis hatches on many rivers."
Like I stated in my post before, I'm also a big fan of this pattern. I use Pearsall's Gossamer silk in Cardinal for the body since I think it looks a lot closer to that picture's body color than scarlet does. The first trout that I caught on a dry fly was on this pattern on West Canada Creek when I was just learning to cast. It was the olive bodied version though. I tie a variation of it too and replace the grizzly hackle with cdc for slower type water.
Regards,
Mark