A Carmichael Pattern

[Byron haugh]

Carmichael's name came up in another thread. I believe this to be one of his patterns. It has been "westernized" in the tail though.
Seems there are even disagreements about the spelling: Indispensible or indispensable.....

Anyway, ran across his famous pattern in an old book I am reading.

[AlanB]

It looks like an Americanised Tup's Indispensable. Similar body colour scheme but with tail and wings added. The hackle was originally, if memory serves, Honey Dun. The fame of the Tup's came from the material used in its dubbing, which was, for many years, a closely guarded secret. Somewhere I may still have one tied to the original dressing by Dr Malcolm Greenhalgh.

If you want to know more take a look in the "Just Old Flies and Stuff" section for an article by Alan Shepherd, called Tup's Indispensable. Though the fly shown there falls into the usual trap of modern imitations. The yellow silk section of the body is far too large.

The similarity in colours and name would lead me to believe that the Tup's is at least the inspiration for this pattern.

Should you tie the original (and we demand you do) we require photographs of the entire process. A tip, Unless the tup is securely restrained do not use tweezers to gather the dubbing!

Cheers,
A.

[Byron haugh]

Alan,
It is well known to be something of a takeoff of on the Tups Indispensable. Are you not familiar with Bob Carmichael and his patterns?

Bob Carmichael didnt use the fur from a ram's testicles.

Sorry, I didn't quite do justice to Bob Carmichael's pattern as the abdomen is not silk, but a dubbing material.



Below is AlanSheperd's version of a Tups Indispensable from FAOL's Old Flies section.

[Allan]

Some history about the Tups fly and the dubbing can be found here:

http://www.flyleaves.dk/tup's_indispensable.htm

[NJTroutbum]

A fine history!

[Byron haugh]

AlanB
Went back and found some silk (rather than yellow dubbing previously used). Also tied with brown hackle tail which I believe was Carmichael's original version.

WHERE IS MY WETERNGREEN DRAKE photo you promised?



This dubbing is easier to collect than the fur from a ram's testicles - IMHO, that is.

[Mark Vendon]

Here's what the pattern looks like according to what R. S. Austin described it way back that you can find in A. Courtney Williams 1949 book. The hook is a size 16 sneck bend and the dubbing is genuine, but a bear to work with. The scrotum hair came from a 12 year old Cotswold ram. Lemon colored spaniel hair is the color buff in that breed. I made this dubbing up back in 2007, after getting a big bunch of baby seal fur in different colors. It calls for a full yellow silk, so I used a YLI shade that's deeper than Pearsall's lemon yellow #5. It has a honey dun tail and honey dun mixed with natural light blue dun for the hackle.

Regards,
Mark

[Byron haugh]

Mark,
You are referring to Tups Indispensable. I am referring to Bob Carmichael's Irristable. Two different flies.

Thanks for posting your picture of your Tups.

[Allan]

Mark,
You are referring to Tups Indispensable. I am referring to Bob Carmichael's Irristable. Two different flies.

Thanks for posting your picture of your Tups.

Byron,

If, like you wrote in the above post, you are refering to an 'Irresistible' type pattern, you should check your own posts. In them you use the word 'Indispensible' and go as far as to write that there, "Seems there are even disagreements about the spelling: Indispensible or indispensable.....".

Mark - Back around 2007 didn't you participate in a forum on another site forum and the 'Tups' dubbing was discussed? I thought it was someone other then you(?) who did the research and learned the formula for the original R.S. Austin 'Tups' dubbing. I just looked through my 'contact book' and I believe the person was Jeff Serena(?) Does that name ring a bell? Anyway, I was sent some of the dubbing and I soon learned that it's excellent and I use it for several patterns. I've also replicated everything except the specific species of ram. Oh, and Theodore Gordon loved the stuff!

Allan

[Mark Vendon]

Hi Byron,

I didn't see any reference to an irresistible, or see any patterns that you posted that had a spun hair body, in this thread anyway. They are all variations of a Tup's with the yellow body or rear section, that has a pinkish dubbed section towards the front near the hackle.

Hi Allan,

It was probably mid to late 2007, or after that, if I posted about making it. Jeff Serena did some research and made some of the dubbing maybe around 1999, or 2000, when the old VFS site was alive and going strong. I wasn't even interested in any of it then. I got a small sample of his from another guy that used to frequent that forum so I could get a good idea of the end color mix that he came up with. The farm that I got the rams hair from is very close to you (Nistock farms). They throw all of the rams hair away since it's too coarse to sell for yarn making. I did my research from the supply end back mostly.

Regards,
Mark