Pheasant Tail Nymph – One of fly fishing’s most versatile and all-around productive subsurface attractor patterns, the Pheasant Tail Nymph is great for searching out brook, brown, and rainbow trout alike. A refreshingly simple fly to tie, and one that can be easily adapted at the vise to whatever size or color a tying angler chooses, the extraordinarily deadly Pheasant Tail loosely impersonates the many various swimmer, crawler, and clinger-type mayfly nymphs upon which trout in most any healthy river, stream, pond or lake, ALL reliably feed. A tried-and-true favorite you won’t want to be without, let’s give tying the Pheasant Tail Nymph a try.

1. Pinch barb on hook, then mount the hook firmly in your vice.

2. Start your thread at the 2/3 point on the hook to set proportions for abdomen and thorax, then make thread wraps to the point that the hook starts to bend down.

3. Using a pinch wrap, mount a 3-4 inch section of wire on the far side of the hook…then using a pinch wrap, mount 6 to 8 pheasant tail fibers with the tips extending about 2/3 the length of the hook. Bring your thread back to the 2/3 point on the hook shank…the length of the abdomen.

4. Wrap the pheasant tail fibers to the 2/3 point and make onetwo thread wraps to secure. Clip the excess. Take the copper wire and starting under the tail, make counter wraps in open turns to rib and reinforce the delicate pheasant tail fibers.

5. Take another bunch of pheasant tail fibers. You have the option here of creating both the wing case and legs with the pheasant tail fibers or you can omit the legs..particularly on tiny flies. Note the picture on the bottom right…this fly does not include legs…perfect for tiny but very effective fly.

After tying in the pheasant tail fibers, tie in one or two peacock herls after clipping the weak tips. Wrap the peacock to form the thorax, tie off, then pull the pheasant tail over to form the wing case. If you are forming legs, equally divide the fibers, pull back and secure to form a neat head. Whip finish to complete the fly. Two 3 or 4 turn whip finishes is sufficient but if you wish a tiny drop of head cement (Sally Hansen’s Hard as Nails) applied with the tip of needle or a bodkin will make sure the fly is durable. If cement gets in the eye of the hook, clean the eye now so you do not have to waste time on the stream later. A tiny feather or a small needle is sufficient to clean out the excess cement.

Note: A great variation is to add a bead. Follow the same steps…just add a bead to start.