I first met Warren a number of years ago when he came to me for a guided fly fishing/casting lesson. His previous experience was very much coarse fishing, some of which at competitive level. Since then we've had numerous outings and as such have become firm friends and 'fishing buddies' so to speak. His style of fly tying is very much self taught... however, self taught he may be but where we fish, his flies are definitely firm favourites and worth a go, perhaps with your own twist that make it work for you locally.
So here's introducing Warren, he'll be a regular contributor to Eat, Sleep, Fish ~ Jim Williams
TUNGSTEN PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH
A pheasant tail nymph, nothing new there I hear you cry.
Well, no, I agree but make no apologies for showing my way of tying this tried and tested pattern. The fact is if I had to carry only one nymph for all my river trout and grayling fishing, then this would be it. Its amazing versatility is the key to this simple little fly, it’s at home being fished deep or shallow, on its own or on the point or as a dropper for all the European methods, and in the smaller sizes it’s the only fly to have under the klinkhammer when fishing the duo.
What is important to me is that the hook and materials I tie with are of the highest quality. As with any fly I have to be 100% confident with the way it looks in the vice before it makes it into the fly box.
Materials
Hooks – I tie with three patterns. Tiemco 2499 SP-BL, Tiemco 100 SP –BL and Varivas 2120 WB. For me though the star of the show is the 2499 with a short shank and wide gape, this hook very rarely lets go of the fish. However, on occasions I need either a smaller hook, enter the 100 SP-Bl (the 2499 only goes down to an 18) or a slightly finer wire which the Varivas offers. I tie in sizes 16, 18, and 20.
Bead – 2.4 2.0mm/ tungsten copper bead
Thread – Uni 8/0 tan
Tail – Red game or brown /cock hackle
Body – Pheasant tail/ natural
Rib – UTC copper ultra wire/ small
Thorax – Squirrel dub/ natural
1. Vice up a TMC 2499 SP-BL size 16 with a 2.4mm bead
2. Catch in thread then remove waste. First add the wire rib and work down until you reach the start of the bend. I have the wire on the side of the hook facing me.
3. Tie in a good pinch of the hackle fibres for the tail and sit nicely on top of the hook. For this fly my preference is to make the tail roughly the same length as the overall hook. I take one loop of thread underneath the fibres which slightly lifts and spreads out the tail.
4. Leave the thread at the tail and secure in three to four pheasant tail fibres, then work the thread up the hook to the bead catching in excess materials. Trim waste materials.
5. Build up a nice tapered body by winding the thread up the shank, taking care not to build up just above the tail and immediately next to the bead. Leave the thread just short of the bead.
6. Wind the pheasant tail anti-clockwise up the shank at a 45° angle in touching turns. Tie in just short of the bead.
7. Now carefully wind the wire rib clockwise up the hook at the opposite angle to the pheasant tail fibres to give an attractive contrast. Again, tie off just short of bead and snap off excess wire.
8. I like to wax the thread a little and lightly dab on the squirrel dubbing taking care not to over work the dubbing so you get a nice spiky thorax. Wind on three or four turns coaxing the fibres away from the body.
9. Add a tiny amount of varnish along the thread and whip finish tight to bead, taking care not to get any varnish on the dubbing. Trim thread.
Look out for these…
1. Make sure you keep the turns of thread when catching the tail and body fibres to a minimum. Too much thread at the tail end makes this fly messy and bulky, spoiling the profile.
2. Spend time making sure the tail sits on top of the hook and is nice and neat. Again too bulky and the look of the fly is spoilt.
3. Keep dubbing light and spiky to give the nymph life in the water.
The finished fly
Summary
Tie up this fly in plenty of different sizes, remembering to change the bead size to suit the hook. As a rough guide #20 1.5mm bead, #18 2mm bead, #16 2.4mm bead. I tie half a dozen in each size (a couple for the fish and couple for the trees!). I find small is best and will use split shot above the hook for extra weight instead of a bigger bead/fly in deeper or faster flows. Ring the changes when fishing this nymph, changing sizes and weight really does make a difference to your catch rates.
Finally
Playing around with different dubbing colours and materials, as well as changing the colour of the beads, can produce some great results with this fly. I carry loads of different variants, but as I said before the basic pattern I have shown is my go to nymph.
You can contact Warren via email or call him on 07771-558-028.
