The funny stories behind ‘Purple Showgirl’ and ‘Naked Lady’

“How did you come up with all the names of the flies that you developed,” a fly-fishing friend asked me last week as we discussed the upcoming fly-fishing expo at the Mountain America Center.

“Most were named by clients or friends as I tried to imitate the different underwater bugs that I collected,” I replied. “Many of them have a funny story that goes along with the name.”

I guided fishermen for 35 years on Henrys Lake and one of the favorite foods for those trout are leeches, so leech patterns are very effective. Leeches come in many color combinations and one day a client caught a fish that spit up about thirty black leeches when we landed the fish.

I noticed that the leeches had an iridescent purple shine on their inch-long body and that evening I tied a half dozen flies that I hoped would be effective the next day. They were very effective and have continued to be so much that I still produce 30 to 50 dozen of them for Drift Lodge in Island Park to sell.

“What is the name of this hot fly,” asked one of my two clients from Las Vegas.

“It doesn’t have one as I just worked it up last night,” I replied.

“Well, it is really flashy, kind of like the showgirls in Vegas, how about calling it the Purple Showgirl,” and the name not only stuck, but two other flies were born from it.

Back then a local television station gave a fishing report each Friday night during the summer and one of the anchors, Laurel, was giving the report that week. When she got to Henrys Lake she paused and with a smile and a chuckle said, “Sounds like the fish at Henrys Lake are having a lot of fun with the Purple Showgirl.”

A fly designed after the success of the Purple Showgirl and named after a former local news anchor after giving a fishing report on the air. | Bill Schiess, EastIdahoNews.com

Bryce, the sports guy and a friend of mine called and we discussed the fly and as we were visiting, I told him that I was making a woolly bugger of the same color patterns because some fishermen wanted a fly to sink faster.

During the week I tied several dozen and decided to name it, “Laurel’s Desire.” I called Bryce back and requested that Laurel present the fishing report again. When she read it, she started laughing so hard she could hardly finish the report about the hot fly being Laurels Desire. That fly still catches a lot of fish on Henrys.

It was later that year that I was guiding a father and a 16-year-old son. They were catching fish regularly with the Purple Showgirl at the mouth of Duck Creek when a boat with two fishermen from Tremonton, Utah pulled up close to us.

“What are you catching all those fish on?” shouted one of them.

I did not answer him as it was my policy not to give out information while guiding others. He yelled again, “What are you using!”

A Red Naked Lady fly developed to imitate hatching midges on Henrys Lake. | Bill Schiess, EastIdahoNews.com

Brandon, the 16-year-old, having forgot the name of the Purple Showgirl, yelled back, “It’s the Naked Lady fly.”

A moment later, “What does it have on it?”

“Not much,” I quickly answered.

After about two minutes, a statement came back to us, “We’d sure like to see it.”

“Most men would!” I answered.

They left and went over to my shop and asked my daughter who tending the shop about the Naked Lady fly. She said she had never heard of it and explained that I had been experimenting with different flies for the midges and it may be one of them.

A couple of weeks later, I was fishing at Staley Spring with a small #14 fly consisting of a gold bead for a head with a body of red tinsel when I noticed the two fishermen from Utah on the bank watching me. When I finished fishing and was parking my boat one grabbed the nose of my boat while the other picked up the rod that I had been catching a few fish with.

“Is this fly the Naked Lady?” he asked”

“Yupp,” I answered.

“You’re right, it doesn’t have much on it.”

The new fly had been named. There are now nine different color combinations of the Naked Lady and four more patterns of the Showgirl that are successful on area lakes. At almost 80 years of age, I am still trying to tie about 1,000 dozen flies each year for the Drift Lodge Fly Shop in Island Park.

RELATED | East Idaho Fly Tying & Fly Fishing Expo returns to Mountain America Center

If you attend the 29th Annual East Idaho Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Expo in Idaho Falls on Feb. 14 and 15, you will have the opportunity to watch over 100 fly tiers in action.

While watching them, ask them about the names of the flies and if there are stories about the flies. You may learn more than you bargained for.