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3. Hendrickson Ventral

Since there were some questions about what the underside of those Hendrickson nymphs look like here are some more photos (better too) of some other nymphs I collected. I forgot to add pink in the colors mentioned in the previous thread.

I'm also seeing some cream, amber, yellow, brick red, Dk. chocolate, black, and burnt orange. Jeez, any earth tones (both dark & pastel) missing in these guys? :)

Seems like a dubbing blend of nat, fox squirrel (back & belly) with a pinch of olive for a base would be perfect. For the lighter ones add a little amber/pink/orange blend of rabbit. And for the darker ones add a black, choc. brown/brick red one. Then add a few with a cream band in the middle... Wow, and that's just for one hatch! The good thing about such variability is I don't see how the fish could possibly become selective to color.

We're not so lucky out here. Our major ephemerellid hatches (from Green Drake to PMD) are much more uniform for a given hatch and location, hence a greater propensity for color preference expressed by the fishies. I can pretty much cover them with 4 Hare's Ear type patterns in the following colors: natural, brownish olive, olivaceous black, and cinnamon. When fishing clean granite substrate freestones in the High Sierras, I'll carry a fifth in nat. gray squirrel that has worked very well for me.

I like them kinda buggy

Gees, it's going to be hell trying to mix a dubbing for a Hendrickson nymph. In which phase do the fish see them the longest? How do you mix a dubbing to match all of those nymph phases?
Bruce

AAAAAH HAAAA, as I suspected, more complicated than simple counter-shading (dark on top, light on bottom, as in most fish species). There's quite a lot of variation there too! Now the important question: which of these colors is it important for the FISH to see to convince them to EAT these things we tie to imitate them? Seems like Crepuscular's nymph illustrated above captures some of those highlights...

Jonathon

Anyone have any urine stained fox fur? ;)

Nice fly there Eric!

Spence

I do. But it's hard to them to stand still while you do it, especially since it has to be belly fur... Maybe someone was paying attention when they designed the original Catskill pattern.

Don't worry about getting too precise Bruce, since there is so much variation, Like Kurt pointed out I doubt that the fish will focus on a single color variation. Tie up some light, medium and dark Hare's Ear nymphs with a lighter section in the abdomen and you'll be good to go. I suspect that most will be pretty dark when they are most available to the fish.

Will urine stained cotton work?

Hahahahahahahahahaha!