Mr. Shibata?s ?Umbrella Flies? do look more natural with the upturned bodies and the way they float more on the surface than in the surface. However, Alexander Wanless, Scottish angler and writer in the early 1900?s, was doing this with his detached hook flies tied on standard shank hooks. He developed this style of fly due to his concern for the hook protruding from the end of the body. He determined that??The hook should be suspended from the ?waist? of the fly-that is, at the junction of the thorax and abdomen.? These flies were available and on the market in the 1930?s in Scotland under the name ?Milward-Wanless? flies, the name Milward representing the makers who supplied the retail trade. He made these ?detached-hook? flies for loch and sea trout with treble and single hooks, salmon flies with treble, double and single hooks, and for trout with single hooks. The trout flies were hackled dries, spent flies, sedges, loch and river wet flies, spider flies and hackle-point winged dry flies. Wanless made these flies by tying the bodies on gut, complete with tails, then attaching them to the hook. Realistic looking mayfly bodies are commercially available through Spirit River, called ?Lipstick Mayfly Bodies?. The catalog number for some that I have in ?Rust? color is LSBS-086. These bodies come segmented and with tails, and look very real. Surely, some of the retail sponsors of this site have access to these.
Bob