Flies

PHEASANT  TAIL  NYMPH

Origin

By Frank Sawyer an English river keeper about 1900 for fishing the English chalk streams.

Pattern

  • Hook  --  standard or 1X long , 
    sizes 12 to 20
  • Thread  --  fine copper  wire
  • Tail, body, thorax and legs  --  three or four
  • pheasant center tail fiber tips
  • Head  --  black 8/0 thread

The entire fly is made with pheasant tail fibers by twisting the wire and pheasant tail around one another and wrap them foreword together.  Many variations can be used such as peacock herl for the thorax.  It needs to be tied sparsely with a slender silhouette.

Tying Instructions

  • Tie on the fine copper wire and then three or four long pheasant tail fibers for the tail,
  • twist the wire and the fibers together and wrap foreword to make the body. 
  • Make the legs that hang down from the head using four small ends of pheasant tail fibers or the option is to use the butt ends of the fibers used to make the body. 
  • Make a small head to tie off the wire and legs using black thread.

Flies Imitated

Used to imitate a number of small mayflies in sizes 18 and 20 such as the popular blue-wing olive.  In smaller sizes it can be used to imitate midges and in larger sizes a little brown stonefly.

How to fish:  

Fish subsurface with a small weight and a strike indicator, upstream and across.  At the end of the swing, raise the rod tip and that will bring the fly to the surface imitating the fly coming to the surface of the water getting ready to hatch.

Gary Kutz, Golden State Flycasters, January 200