My Pheasant Tail Nymph Variation.

Pheasant tail mayfly nymph.

   This is my version of the famous fly pattern call the Pheasant Tail nymph. It looks kind of different from the original version tied by Frank Sawyer MBE back in the 1950's. His way of tying the pheasant tail nymph was to use only the centre cock pheasant tail fibres and dark copper wires. My version of the pheasant tail mayfly nymph is a bit more complicated to tie because of the extra materials added to the head area of the nymph, like eyes, legs, antennae and a transparent air bubble on top of the thorax. All the extra details made this nymph more realistic and should be enough to fool any wild trout into taking the fly. Although some may argue that my version is not a true pheasant tail nymph because of the extra materials, But I think that a true fly tier should be able to create new fly patterns from the old versions. This is just my interpretation of the pheasant tail nymph pattern and there is lots of variations to the pheasant tail nymph tied by many different fly tiers & fly anglers around the world. I will list the materials for my version below for any one who would like to try it out and tight lines.!

Pheasant tail mayfly nymph

• Hook- nymph or wet size 10 to 18
• Body + Tail + Legs- pheasant tail fibres
• Rib- fine gold wire
• Thorax- brown dubbing & chocolate ice dub 
• Eyes- black chain bead or mottle 
• Antennae- micro fibbets
• Thorax cover- pheasant tail fibres & UV resin
• Thread- uni 8/0 brown or black
• Head cement- thorax cover & whip finished area.