It’s been over a month since my vise saw a hook, things have been packed tightly away and stuck in the corner. Over the past few days I’ve spent a bit of time here and there putting everything back in its place. To make sure I can still tie up a few I passed on the dry flies for the time being and started simple with a traditional Pheasant Tail Nymph, something easy to get the vise warmed up and the thread spinning. I used a light olive wood duck feather to form the tail/body/wing case and a new dubbing blend I picked up a while back to form the thorax. I moved to a larger #12 Golden Stonefly Nymph pattern that I’ve been meaning to get into my box for larger trout water. A half dozen of each was just enough time at the vise to get things loosened up, I’ll be spending quite a bit of time hanging out behind the vise over the next couple of months.

I like tying flies mainly due to the large amount of creative freedom and connection with the process of fly fishing it provides. As a result of this interest I am almost always spying craft stores, garage sales, even the local salvation army for any items that would make good tying materials. This past weekend Liz and I stopped in to drop off literally a truck load of stuff from our basement, mainly clothes/electronics and stuff others will get more use from. After completing our drop off we scoured the store for the occasional odd item, we do this often as it’s ever changing in the salvation army, it’s a fun afternoon activity and a five dollar bill can go a long ways. Towards the end of our adventure I turned the corner and saw…tinsel. No? Crystal Icicles? No… Pearl Tinsel!! I scooped the package up, examined it, new instantly what I had in my hands and began to clutch tight the now very important item. The asking price… fifty cents!! At home I quickly pulled out my roll of pearl tinsel and compared it, exactly the same only the “icicles” were just ever so slightly wider, not by much at all so in my opinion this is the same product. It pays to keep your eyes peeled and your bench in the front of your mind. Now it’s time  for a bit of math… Read the rest of this entry »

After working with the Mustad 37160 Hook that I liked so much I decided to keep going tearing through quite a few dozen of those hooks. Looks like I will have to take Jean-Paul’s advice and stock up when I can get them. 

This is your standard pheasant tail, mine was brought to me by a German short hair. This is a much shorter feather from the butt section of the bird and I chose it because of the difference between the fibers on either side of the center. On the right the fibers are stiffer and are the traditional fibers I’ve seen used for tail’s, legs and bodies. These fibers are not as stiff as hackle fibers obviously but are stiffer than the counterparts on the other side. I used the left side for a soft-hackle leg effect by using a large amount of fibers to create my wingcase and legs. I felt this would make the legs move a bit more, and I would get to use the side that I think most tiers don’t utilize. 

I use 5-10 Fibers from the stiffer side to make the tail and to form the main body of a Pheasant tail nymph. This is a natural tail feather and hasn’t been dyed, I do have some darker feathers that help make different shades possible. 

The softer fibers are more difficult to prepare for the legs/wingcase due to the nature of the softness and the fact that to get the effect I wanted and to have a substantial wingcase I needed almost 3/4in section from the left side. To get the feather fibers to line up grasp them half way to the quill and stand them all at 90 degrees to the quill, this should even the fiber tips.

This produced several of the following looking PT’s. 

After watching both video’s and live nymphs that I’ve picked from the streams I’ve fished I noticed the motions made while free nymphs attempt swimming, it looks like a full body heave for the clingers, the crawlers and the burrowers. The swimmers are the only nymphal type that this pattern might not imitate well due to the difference in motion expressed while swimming free. For a reference check out the video posted here. 

I saw this hook shape and immediately thought of that shape with the curved body and the tail flailing high. This is a Mustad 37160 #20 and I really like the shape, it’s a heavier hook and well suited for nymphs. The only issue I can see with the hook itself is that the shape may hamper hooking a fishes lip which is why I used a hemostat to bend the shank 10 degrees to offset the point from the shank to increase the odds of hooking a fish.  I should also note that even though this is a size 20 is makes a size 18 or 16. 

I’m experimenting with different materials. The one above is a more “natural” looking Pheasant Tail while the one below is more of a flash pattern using a bit of Peacock Ice Dub.  I like the look of this pattern, I also experimented with how to best keep the tail pointing the direction I wanted. I think the best method was wrapping thread behind the tail until it could not lay down anymore. I’m hoping that with a bit of a twitch especially during a hatch and in slower water that the different form on this fly will set it apart from other PT’s.