A fly from 7 decades ago

Hello guy's and gal's. Here's a classic fly that I tied and hope you like it. This is Polly Rosborough Casual Dress Nymph.

OldBear

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...DressNymph.jpghttp://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...essNymph-1.jpg

I got to fish with Polly several times, a long time ago. He was an interesting old guy and I was just a college kid with a fly rod. Watching Polly tie was an amazing thing to me at the time. The things he did with thin dubbing still amaze me.

Can you fix your photo link? It doesn't show up

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Originally Posted by Byron haugh

Can you fix your photo link? It doesn't show up

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Ditto, would love to see it!

Skip

I think this is it.

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...essNymph-1.jpg

Now, how about a recipe?

That is a very interesting tie,would love to see after it is wet..
A real fish catcher for sure..

Can you describe the materials...

I will be curious to see the recipe, not because it is a test, but because I know exactly how Polly tied them in quantity and there are a number of variations out there.

Polly used felted muskrat back fur for the dubbing. It is darker and has lots of "character" guard hairs in it.
art

The tail is muskrat, The abdomen is the fine dubbing from the muskrat, the thorax is the same and I used black ostrich herl for the head. Its a muskrat that was trapped a few years ago. I only try and use natural things to tie my flies Hope I have not upset anyone. Tight lines.

OldBear

Love that fly; thanks for trotting it out again. Here's a decent tutorial:
http://www.flyfishohio.com/Casual_Dress_Nymph.htm

Regards,
Scott

Old Bear,

Love the fly. Well done. I prefer using natural materials myself, which is why most of the patterns I fish are a couple hundred years old. Thanks for sharing that one.

REE

great fly I really enjoyed it

Hi OldBear,

Thanks for sharing. Do you have any other vintage treasures like that one? 8T :)

Hi Eight Thumbs. Your very welcome friend. I have done more of the old ones. Will get some more pictures and post some if you like ok. Tight Lines and hope to see you on the water.

OldBear

Thanks for posting this. I was fortunate enough to learn to tie some of Polly's patterns from the man himself. He was an original.

Here is some more infromation on Polly and his flies:
http://web.mac.com/robertdotson/iWeb...osborough.html
http://www.flytyinggroup.org/Buszeks...Rosborough.htm

the use of Hydrophobic fur for nymphs always intrigued me

Polly (Ernest) Rosborough Casual Dressed Nymp

Many of you have asked for a tutorial on this nymph. It’s the first I’ve ever had a go at doing, so apologies if it’s not much good. Any questions or suggestions would be welcome, just send me a message. Uni 8 O thread, size 10 streamer or nymph hook, muskrat hide and black ostrich herl is used for this fly,

Step 1
Start the thread at the eye of the hook and wrap evenly, touch and turn, right back to the barb.

Attachment 8368


Step 2
Take between thumb and index finger a large clump of muskrat, together with guard hairs and clip it off the skin. Leave the guard hairs in, but just clear out the really fine dubbing. Take the clump and hold it at about 45 degrees to the hook. Use 2 loose wraps of your thread to pull the guard hair down onto the top of the hook, and cinch down using one or two tight wraps of thread and leave the thread hanging.

Attachment 8369
Step 3
Where you tied off the tail clump and left the thread hanging, pull your thread down 2 to 3 inches and touch it lightly with your dubbing wax to just make the dubbing sticky. Between the thumb and index finger take another clump of fine muskrat dubbing, remove all guard hairs after the clump has been clipped off the skin. Twist the dubbing around the thread and start touch and turn to ? of the way up the shaft, leaving about 8 or 9mm from the eye of the hook and leave the thread hanging.


Attachment 8370


Step 4
Pull your thread down 4 to 5 inches long. Take dubbing loop tool and creat the loop. Then take the thread back up to wrap around the hook. Wrap the rest of the way up to the eye and rest your thread on the cradle. Then back to your musk rat and betwen your thumb and index finger take a large clump of fur and guard hairs. Put this down whilst you take your finger, insert it into the dubbing loop and open it up. On one side of the loop put dubbing wax and whilst the finger is still in the loop, pick up the muskrat with guard hairs, insert it into the loop, remove finger and pull dubbing twister down tightly to close the loop. Take and gently spread the hair out through the loop and twist the dubbing tool and let it spin until the hair is completely twisted and the dubbing tool stops spinning. Get hold of dubbing tool and lift up. Any loose hair needs to be pulled out, then take the dubbing tool and twist the first wrap around in front of the abdomen and pull back to pull the hairs back. Touch and turn and continue wrapping until you get 3 to 4 mm before the eye. Tie off the dubbing loop and clip the wastage thread leaving your tying thread hanging. Take 2 to 3 black ostrich herls and wrap 2 to 3 turns towards the eye of the hook to make the black head.

Attachment 8371



Step 5
Tie off, clip the wastage, whip finish, varnish the head and you’re done.

I have done a picture of a wet look version having soaked one of the nymphs so you can see the effect achieved and a picture of the muskrat hide I used.

Attachment 8372

Cool fly, I have never tried any muskrat, but think I have a little coming on an order I have not received yet. I like the colors on the fly as well.

Thanks,

Skip

Thanks for sharing the step by step. Looks like a fun and durable fly.

Thanks for the tutorial. :-)