Tup's Indispensable

[Donald Nicolson]

Hi Mick,
I am beginning to think much of the mystery and legend about this fly is due to Skues sense of humour. He did name the fly, but Austin did not claim the atributes given to the dubbing by later commentators.
Here is what he wrote to Skues -
"The ram?s wool used in this pattern is taken from the underparts of a ram or tup, and writing of it in 1908, Austin states: ?I always wash the wool from a tup as it is almost invariably unfit unless you do. The floating power of the fly is not injured by this process if it be dressed with a good hackle and touched slightly with paraffin. I do not think that with the addition you mention? - viz. an application of goose grease - ?is desirable: indeed I fancy that it would take a vast amount of washing to get the natural grease out of the wool.?

The ram?s wool which is a feature of this pattern certainly contains much natural oil which is believed to shine in the water."

The sheep (incuding the rams) would be shorn in the spring every year,
so I suppose who ever did it, save the ram's wool for Austin.
How urine stained the wool was can only be guessed at, but note
yellow spaniel's fur was added which would rather negate any colour
from the wool. I think the yellow spaniel was added to make up for any
lack of colour in the wool. Probably any belly wool, tup or ewe, would
do. It seems to me that the lanolin in the wool was the most important
element for using it.

[mickporter]

Interesting......... I know they often used paraffin to oil their flies. I often worry about fly floatents leaving a film, but it must not have worried them or their fish!!

[wsbailey]

Here is more information about Austin's mix:

http://www.flyleaves.dk/tup%27s_indispensable.htm

Bill










Here

[Donald Nicolson]

Great info Bill, I saved it and I shall try to incorporate it,
with all due acknowledgments of course, in my article.

[TyroneFly]

Mark,

Thank you for the info and to you Donald as well. My mind picked up and recalled the subsequent letter regarding the tag, but somehow lost the reference to the first note.

[hairwing]

Take a look at the FAOL site "Old Flies and Stuff" found in "Features" and find the archived item Tups Indispensible. I found the paragraph when Skues describes how the Tups was named to be interesting.
My question would be the source of the dye the farmer used on the sponge or rag to saddle the tup so many years ago? Was it red?
I guess the fly was a favorite of Charles Ritz (" A Flyfishers Life"). I tied some years ago looking for the ultimate answer but unfortunately never put it on the water. I find the fly attractive and would certainly put it on the wall with it's history, even though I haven't caught a fish with it.

[wsbailey]

More info on the history of the tup's indispensable fly. In the article the author mentions a couple of old references to the use of ram's wool in fly tying. Bill


http://www.spooled.com.au/Article:68

[Donald Nicolson]

Very interesting Bill,
the Spirit River Golden Stone Dubbing as an alternative sounds useful.