I am trying to find the original Mormon Girl dry fly pattern for the Little Yellow stonefly, Isoperla mormona. I can find plenty of wet fly patterns and can see how they can be adapted to a dry pattern, but I am trying to determine what the original looked like. If you have historical information, I would appreciate if you could share that knowledge.
My research turns up a recipe with divided wings, on a short shank hook, but no drawing or picture; a picture of a fly for sale with a down wing of (?) mallard, on a long shank hook and finally another fly for sale with a flared elk hair wing (I can’t tell how long that hook may be.) If you have a Mormon Girl dry, perhaps you could find time to photograph it and post the picture as well.
Oddly enough, I learned the Mormon Girl as Yellow Sally pattern but in a much different form. Research will show it not to be the original or a definitive pattern. But it’s amazing how patterns morph over the years. Here is the MG that I was shown probably 20yrs ago. It’s been a good 10yrs since I’ve tied it.
Byron,
In Bruce’s book the Blonde was tyed with ginger hackle instead of brown and no tinsel. Is that how you recall the pattern, or do you know of another variation? The mallard does appear to be wood duck dyed in the picture.
Nice photo! I am finding the MG to be in many styles and forms with the components of the red butt, yellow body being consistent. In the same way of wanting to know what the original Adams looked like, I wish to know what the original Mormon Girl looked like. Then being the collector I am, I want to see the variants of the pattern. Right now I am interested in the dry fly patterns even though I like fishing the soft hackle variants. Thank you for sharing.
In his last book, Mr. Hellickson only lists the Mormon Girl wet fly. At least that’s the only one I found. His recipe in this book is significantly different then the previous book.
Also, the text under the first photo of this thread identifies that the hackle is brown and yet in the photo it is grizzly. I’ve other books that have several different recipes for this pattern. Obviously there is a lack of agreement or confusion somewhere along the line.
I believe I mentioned that a subsequent, and much larger volume by Heleckson, includes the Mormon Girl dry fly version. A book can contain only so many fly selections.
The wet fly version from Heleckson’s book I showed above calls for grizzly hackle.
