BARE HOOK NYMPH
Hook: Wet fly, sizes 14–16.
Thread: Red copper wire.
Body: A ball of wound copper wire behind the hook eye to simulate a thorax.
There is no simpler fly! Invented by Oliver Kite in the early 1960s, this is surprisingly effective. In one TV programme, Kite was seen to catch grayling with this fly while wearing a brown paper bag over his head! The problem is that the vast majority of fly-fishers either have no faith in such a simple tying, or they want more complex flies in their boxes.
PHEASANT TAIL-LESS PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH
Hook: Wet fly, sizes 14–16.
Thread: Red copper wire.
Body: Two layers of wire between eye and end of hook shank, with a built-up thorax just behind the eye.
Produced by Field & Stream’s Ed Zern, who noticed that a PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH (below) that had had all the pheasant tail dressing removed by the teeth of several trout still caught fish.
The following tyings will catch trout that are feeding on many small nymphs and also on midge pupae (or ‘buzzers’, see here) in lakes. A fly devised by Malcolm Greenhalgh in Britain; the same idea was independently developed in the United States (see TWO-WIRE BRASSIE, below).
TWO-WIRE NYMPH
Hook: Wet fly, sizes 14–16.
Thread: Fine red copper wire.
Abdomen: Tying thread.
Rib: Dark brown copper wire.
Thorax: Built-up tying thread under thorax, with dubbed hare’s ear over.
BRASSIE
Hook: Wet fly, 12–18.
Thread: Black.
Abdomen: Red copper wire.
Thorax: Black dubbing (use a fine fur).
Devised by Ken Chandler and Tug Davenport on Colorado’s South Platte River in the 1960s, the original Brassie had a short piece of black heat-shrink plastic tube for the thorax and the copper wire was also tying ‘thread’. Rick Murphy, also of the South Platte River, also came up with the idea of using two colours of wire to give a segmented body in his Two-WIRE BRASSIE.
TWO-WIRE BRASSIE
Hook: Wet fly, sizes 14–24.
Thread: Black.
Abdomen: Two wire colours to give segmentation.
Wing: Sparse, white synthetic (e.g. Saap, Z-lon, Antron).
Thorax: Peacock herl.
Head: Goldhead or silverhead (optional; not in original).
Ed Engle, who described the Two-Wire Brassie in his book Tying Small Flies (2004), also described John Barr’s COPPER JOHN, a fly that leads on to the most famous of all nymphs. This has caught many trout, thousands of miles from its Colorado home.
COPPER JOHN
Hook: Wet fly, sizes 14–20.
Thread: Black.
Tail: 3–4 cock pheasant tail fibres.
Abdomen: Copper wire.
Wing case: Pearl Mylar or Flashabou or Crystal Hair.
Thorax: Peacock herl.
Legs: Brown speckled partridge, drake mallard breast dyed light brown, wood-duck (optional).
Head: Goldhead or silverhead.
The PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH is probably the most famous of all the world’s artificial nymphs. The original tying is by Frank Sawyer (1906–80), river keeper and author of Nymphs and the Trout (1958). Though originally an imitation of swimming Baetis nymphs in rivers, it will deceive trout that are eating any small nymph.
PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH
Hook: Wet fly, sizes 12–18.
Thread: Copper wire (red or orange are most effective).
Underbody: Two layers of tying wire then a small ball built up under the thorax.
Tails: Tips of cock pheasant centre tail feathers.
Abdomen: Herls used to form tails, wound with the wire thread about 60 per cent up hook shank.
Thorax: As abdomen.
Wing cases: Dark parts of herls used to form tail and body, taken back and forth (two layers) over back of thorax and held in place with the trying wire.
GREY GOOSE NYMPH
This is as Sawyer’s PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH except that grey goose herls are used. Sawyer devised this on a visit to Lapland, where he found trout feeding on summer mayfly (Siphlonurus) nymphs.
There are several other versions of the PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH; the best are given below.
PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH (AL TROTH)
Hook: Wet fly, sizes 10–18.
Thread: Tan.
Tails: Tips of 3–5 cock pheasant tail fibres.
Abdomen: Wound fibres used for tails.
Rib: Fine copper wire.
Thorax: Under a ball of copper wire, with peacock herl over.
Wing cases: Dark parts of cock pheasant tail fibres.
Legs: Tips of cock pheasant tail fibres used to create wing cases.