Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear Nymph
Translated by CARL WUEBBEN
A few fur nymphs form the core of any successful sunk-fly collection. I would be hard to imagine venturing out to any trout water without gold ribbed hare’s ear nymphs lined up in rows in your fly box. Like any of the best searching flies, they work so well because they are roughly the shape and colors of a wide variety of natural food forms. This is one of the greatest searching flies of all. Try tying it in olive also and with a bead head.
PATTERN
HOOK – Standard nymph sizes 10 – 16.
WEIGHT – 10 to 15 turns of lead wire (can use non lead instead) or a beadhead instead.
THREAD – Black 6/0 (140 denier) or 8/0 (70 denier).
TAIL – Hare’s mask guard hair –can use pheasant tail fibers.
RIB – Oval gold tinsel
ABDOMEN – Tan hare’s mask fur (can use light prepackaged rabbit dubbing).
WING CASE /SHELLBACK – Treated (see note below) mottled turkey feather section – omit on sizes 16 and smaller.
THORAX – Dark hare’s mask fur, with guard hair (can use prepackaged dark rabbit dubbing).
NOTES
HOW TO TIE
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING*** But remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH – PICTURE – RELEASE)
Peacock Doctor
Originator is unknown but first tied around the 1920’s
Edited by CARL WUEBBEN
The origin of this streamer is vague, but it appears to have been created in the early 1920’s or late 1910’s. Pat Barnes relates on a plate of his favorite flies, now owned by his son Charles that he “fished this fly extensively in prohibition days.” One of his favorite places to use it was Ennis Lake, known in those days as Meadow Lake. In prohibition days, Barnes, who began fly fishing at the age of twelve and as a teen-ager like Most Montana fly fishers favored presenting wet flies in the 1920’s. Pat was no exception.
PATTERN
HOOK – Mustad 79580, or equivalent, size #4 - #8
THREAD – Black 6/0
BODY – Flat silver tinsel
UNDERWING – Red bucktail under medium blue bucktail or calf tail
OVERWING – Six or eight peacock sword herl (Don’t use regular peacock herl
HOW TO TIE
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING*** But remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH – PICTURE – RELEASE)
The Royal Flush
Skip Morris
Edited by CARL WUEBBEN
The royal coachman dry fly stands as the flagship for all “attractor” fly patterns, flies designed not so much to imitate fish food as to satisfy flights of the imagination and the Royal Coachman is well known to any serious fly fisher and it has a record of over a hundred years of catching trout. So it was a great model for the Royal Flush nymph. Fanciful as it clearly is, the Royal Flush is arguably not entirely unnatural. The mayfly ameletus’s three nymphal tails are tipped with contrasting color along the lines of the Royal Flush’s golden pheasant tippets and the white wing case could remind trout of a whitish nymph having just shed an exoskeleton, as mayflies do numerous times throughout their underwater lives. The dark and shining herl body is a long proven approach to artificial nymph design, as is the brown hackle half-collar. Still, nothing is going to explain away that golden bead. Perhaps attractor flies work precisely because they look unlike anything a fish ever ate. No one knows for sure. But attractors do work, sometimes far better than solid imitations.
PATTERN
HOOK – Heavy wire, 1x long (standard nymph hook), humped shank is optional, sizes #16-#10
BEAD – Gold metal, 3/32 – inch for size 16 hooks 7/64 – inch for size 14, and 1/8 – inch for size 12 and 10
WEIGHT – Lead or lead – substitute wire, 0.015-inch (could go larger on bigger hooks)
THREAD – Black or red 6/0 (140 denier) or 8/0 (70 denier). Try the red sometime it kicks up the brightness factor a solid notch.
TAIL – Golden pheasant tippets.
RIB – Fine red copper wire over red flashabou.
ABDOMEN – Two or three peacock herls
WING CASE – Clear stretch flex, scud back, or medallion sheeting, 1/8 –inch wide (this clear strip is optional), over white duck primary, goose shoulder, or any white feather section.
THORAX – Same peacock herl used for the abdomen.
HACKLE – Brown hen neck, as a half-collar
HOW TO TIE
Carrot Nymph
Rube Cross
Translated by CARL WUEBBEN
Rube Cross remains a legendary fly tier among catskill anglers. Living from 1896 to 1958, his flies and tying methods are still discussed and emulated. Although he was better known for his sparsely tied dry flies, like all master anglers, cross also tied and fished nymphs. The original name for the fly was the Carrot Ant Black Nymph, which was more commonly called the Carrot Nymph. Orange bodied wet flies have always been favorite patterns and the Carrot Nymph is an easy-to-tie pattern that is a good choice if you want to experiment with an orange nymph or wet fly. Leave the full hackle collar if you’d like to tie it a dry fly, or trim the hackle on the top and bottom to create a pattern with the profile of a nymph.
PATTERN
HOOK – Mustad 9671 or equivalent, size #14 to #12
THREAD – Black 6/0
TAIL – Brown hackle fibers
ABDOMEN– Carrot floss (orange) or dubbing
THORAX – Black chenille (Standard)
HACKLE – Dun hen soft hackle, clipped on the top and bottom
HOW TO TIE
Try it in different color bodies also
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING*** But remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH – PICTURE – RELEASE).
Royal Coachman Bucktail
Dave Hughes
Edited by Carl Wuebben
The golden age of streamers lasted two or three decades, ending in the 1960s. But these beautiful flies represent things that trout still eat, and they still catch trout. If you’d like to be armed to fish the full array of trout tactics, in order to take fish in all sorts of conditions, a few of these traditional dressings should be kept ready in your basic fly boxes. When you find big trout pursuing baitfish, you can coax them to these minnow like imitations and to little else. Traditional streamers also make excellent searching patterns. In early spring when the water is still high, unclear and cold, then again in fall, when the water is low and clear but cooling, trout are interested in feeding but don’t find much available in the way of natural insects. A streamer fished slow and near the bottom will entice them into a take if you place it where they can see it. Streamers are usually thought of as big flies, sizes 4 and 6; but I recommend that you tie them in sizes 8 and 10. You might be surprised at the results these smaller streamers bring.
PATTERN
HOOK – 6X long, TMC 300 sizes 6-8-10-12
THREAD – Black 3/0 (210 denier) or 6/0 (140 denier)
TAIL – Golden pheasant tippets
BODY – Peacock herl, red floss, peacock herl
HACKLE – Brown
WING – White bucktail
HOW TO TIE
Flashback Pheasant Tail Nymph
Frank Sawyer, MBE
Translated by Carl Wuebben
This is a version of the original conceived and tied by FRANK SAWYER, MBE, an English river keeper. The pheasant tail nymph is one of the oldest of modern nymphs. Frank devised the pattern for use on the chalk streams of southern England. He designed this nymph to imitate several species of the BAETIS family, generally referred to as the “olives”; it quickly became world famous. Franks pheasant tail suggests many of the skinny nymphs that flourish in various habitats, exciting riffles to alluring deep holes in rivers bed of chalk streams or spring creeks; and in Stillwater’s of all sizes
HOOK – Standard nymph, sizes #14 - #16 - #18 - #20 -#22. Try a scud hook also
THREAD – Brown- 6/0 or 8/0.
TAILS – Ring neck pheasant tail fibers.
ABDOMEN – Butts of ring neck pheasant tail fibers.
RIB – Fine copper wire.
SHELLBACK – Pearl flashabou.
LEGS – Pheasant tail fibers.
THORAX – Peacock herl.
HOW TO TIE
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING ***but remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH-PICTURE-RELEASE).