?So, is any Soft Hackle/Spider/etc. considered a Flymph??
Yes!!! A Flymph is no more that a fly dressed in the same manner as a traditional North Country Trout fly! Whatever name you care to put on this style it is up to you. It is my belief that many of the noted American anglers mentioned in many posts and who have written on the subject of Flymphs, Soft Hackles or whatever is the in vogue term nowadays are merely self publicists wishing to re-invent the wheel, and because they have found this so called new nirvana of trout flies they choose to rename them to suit there own egos and commercial opportunities.
Let?s say for instance I came to the States and took some Catskill patterns and kept the style but changed body colour and substituted a hackle for something similar but not quite the same, everyone would immediately say that?s a Catskill fly but I?m not sure which particular one. Now lets us suppose I can over to the States with some Yorkshire patterns and made some subtle changes to them and started to call Flymphs or Soft Hackles how many American anglers would now any wiser? Practically none! Here in Yorkshire we know when somebody is trying to sell us something we all ready own ! The great note American angler Theodore Gordon took Halford?s English dry fly patterns and changed them so radically as to invent the classic American Catskill fly. Hiddy, Leisenring and Nemes haven?t really made any outstanding changes to the North Country Flies apart from naming them Flymphs !