A few from the Greenwells Family

**anmaidreuisce** · 01-17-2011, 07:21 AM

II have to admit been fascinated by this family of flies, What really fascinates me is the many styles in which it has been tied to be fished in different ways.

These are only a small number of them.

Simple spider - reasonably sparse - Dark Furnace or greenwells hackle depending on what you are imitating.

Simple spider - slighty heavier dressed hackle

Stewart Style

Mike Connors - softwing

Wing: A few Fibres from Waterhen wing under or over covert
Thorax: A small ball of hares ear & body guards , stroked downwards with velcro
Fishing: Upstream when fish are active on top

Mike Connors - softwing, larger throax to sit a wee bit longer in the meniscus

Wing: A few Fibres from Waterhen wing under or over covert
Thorax: A large ball of hares ear & body guards, stroked downwards with velcro
Fishing: Upstream when fish are active on top

Softwing , with split wing on websters style, though using soft coverts from waterhen.

Wing: A few Fibres from Waterhen wing under or over covert
Thorax: A decent ball of hares ear & body guards, stroked downwards with velcro. This I hope will present a very tasty and vulnerable emerger
Fishing: Upstream when fish are active on top

looks a bit of a dogs dooda in the picture, not quite so bad in reality. Whether the loose wing of soft coverts performs better or worse or just differently than the more solid wing styles using the primaries or secondaries remains to be tested. I have tied up a small number of these ranging from 3 fibres each side of the split up to 6 or so on each side of the split and look forward to testing them in a few months time.

**Davyfly** · 01-17-2011, 04:08 PM

It is a great fly of orgination by one Cannon Greenwell. 1850s
Its origination to represent the Olive Duns which are a speices we do not see here in the US. They frequent the UK freestone streams and Chalkstreams.
There is some controvery so far as the correct shade of Pearsalls thread used for the body, some say yellow, ( and there were a numebr of different shades at that time ) waxed, others olive. Cobblers wax in those days was black.

Hackle shade also, which can be of choice between a light shade of furnace to very dark which would be more a Cock-Y Bonddu, either way it should be a hackle with a black base, color and black tips.
One of my all time favorite flies more so as a winged wet fly and then a soft hackle.
It produced for me many years ago when fishing my the local river the famous Welsh Usk one of the best day ever fishing for wild Browns on that particular river where fish are difficult to catch and not many fish per mile of water.

It is one of the best known UK flies and called there the Greenwells Glory.

Nice ties you have there also.

Davy

**H Dot Verseman** · 01-17-2011, 04:20 PM

not sure if we can open link other websites on this forum, but...

for those interested, i was flipping though fly fishing and fly tying online, and Davie Mcphail has a video tying the fly.

http://www.flyfishing-and-flytying.c...glory_wet_fly/

PS, great ties they look awesome.

**SherpaB** · 01-18-2011, 12:07 AM

Really like the simplicity and sparseness of these. Thank you..well done.

**anmaidreuisce** · 01-18-2011, 06:28 AM

It would seem that in all its guises. whether as a dry or winged wet or wingless wet it will take more than its fair share of fish.

Very few flys have spawned a series ot wets that have a tying style that will suit whatever your method of fishing.

Mike connor's softwings are particularily interesting. The first time I tied one, working blind simply from a few lines of instruction from mike I went WOW as it took shape on the vice. It excudes all the qualities that makes it immediately stand out as a potential top notch pattern. It performs at its best fished upstream dead drift when fish are active on top with upwings on the menu. The best bit about this style is that it is easy to tie easily in the smaller sizes. There is no reason that this style cannot be utilised in using other game bird coverts such as snipe, plover, partridge, etc...

March Brown Softwing using well marked brown partridge hackle