Lee Clark’s Big Yellow Mayfly

This week’s Throw Back Thursday fly is Lee Clark’s Big Yellow Mayfly.

Last week, I posted the Twisted Body Stone as a different technique of using 100% polypropylene to create a body to imitate larger flies.

While the fly above was tied by Lee, I decided to tie up a Green Drake version and try it on my local water.

Turns out, it’s a great fly!

Lee is better known for his original Clark’s Golden Stone shown below using the same material to imitate a body with it combed out.

I wrote about the history of his original fly pattern in a previous Throw Back Thursday Fly post – Clark’s Stonefly. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to do so.

Lee Clark developed this wing-style body dressing, which “refers to flies in which the yarn is combed and tied atop the hook shank in a downwing fashion but actually serves as the body.” Fly tying with Poly Yarn – (2000)

Lee was a high school art class instructor in St. Helens, OR and you can see how the “art” influenced this fly. He tells his story of the fly development in Chapter 6 of his book – The Adventures of the Clark’s Stonefly.

For more information about tying flies with poly yarn, pick up a copy of Lee’s book.

Enjoy…go fish!

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