flymph n. a fishing lure resembling an insect between the nymph and fly stages of development. Etymological Note: Perhaps coined by and probably popularized by Vernon S. Hidy. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Mark in Bismarck, North Dakota, spent years as a sailor, and wonders about the term sea painter, meaning “a rope attached to a lifeboat.” Why painter? The word may derive from Middle French pendeur meaning “a kind of rope that...
A resident of Michigan’s scenic Beaver Island shares the term, boodling, which the locals use to denote the social activity of leisurely wandering the island, often with cold fermented beverages. There have been various proposed etymologies...
My father, Vernon S. Hidy, coined the word “flymph” in 1962. He told the story in an essay, “The Origin of Flymph Fishing,” published in THE ANGLERS’ CLUB BULLETIN, Vol 53, No 3, Autumn, 1974.
His book, “The Art of Tying the Wet Fly and Fishing the Flymph” (Crown) appeared in 1971 (originally coauthored with Leisenring in 1941). Dad’s Swedish friend Gunnar Johnson translated the word for the title of his 1989 book, “Flymfer & andra mjukhacklade flugor.”