Tup's Indispensible
Note: A famous fly surrounded by mystery. The original hackle used by R. S. Austin was supposedly "yellow-spangled lightish blue cock." Honey dun seems to be the most widely accepted hackle to match that description. I have seen patterns for this fly that recommend using light ginger, light blue dun, and a combination of both those colors.
The exact blend of furs for the dubbing is one of the great mysteries in fly tying. The use of ram's scrotum hair for fly tying goes back at least as far as 1806, when Alexander Mackintosh recommended it for the body of the Greendrake pattern in "The Driffield Angler." R. S. Austin used it as one of the furs in his dubbing blend ca. 1900. The fly I have tied uses Jeff Serena's Tup's Indispensible dubbing blend.
Jeff is avidly interested in the history of fly tying and fishing. He did a great deal of research about the collaboration between R. S. Austin and G. E. M. Skues in creating the original Tup's Indispensible and each of the materials used in the dubbing. Jeff's research was so meticulous that he includes scrotum hair from, specifically, the Cotswold ram...the breed of sheep most likely used in the original dubbing, and now rarely raised because modern farming has replaced it with other breeds having darker wool. Although legend has it that the color of the hair comes from urine stains, Jeff thinks that's unlikely. It more likely comes from the sheep picking up grass stains and manure stains by lying around in pastures and barnyards.
Jeff located a breeder of rare sheep and collected his own hair from the scrotum and lower belly of several Cotswold rams. According to him the hair is very dirty, but once cleaned shows the faintly yellowish cream color and is quite soft and fine textured.
Jeff has given me his permission to list his reconstructed Tup's dubbing blend here. I do it with my thanks to Jeff for his hard work.
3 parts wool from the scrotum and lower belly of a Cotswold ram
2 parts natural creamy colored seal fur
1 part scarlet seal fur
2 parts lemon colored fur from an English cocker spaniel
I have seen the Tup's Indispensible tied many ways. The fly I have tied is after the fashion of Elsie Darbee, using the exposed tying silk to make a tag under the tail.