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Brassie
A nymph, tied #16–22, a winter pattern. It is tied against 2 named insects in this book — all year.
Two materials and nothing else: copper wire wound the full length of the shank, and a thorax of peacock herl or black dubbing. It is tied on a 2X heavy nymph hook in sizes 16 through 22 with black 14/0 thread, and the wire body is both the shape and the ballast, so the fly sinks fast for its size — which is the point of it, on a hook this small. The wound wire also gives a segmented, slightly translucent body that the herl breaks up at the front. It imitates the midge, Chironomidae, present all year and active from 33 to 75 degrees. It is carried in winter and fished for trout, getting down through cold water quickly enough to be in front of fish holding deep, in conditions where lighter dressings never reach them. The dressing is simple enough that a box of them costs little more than the wire.
- #16–22Hook size
- nymphType
- WinterSeason
- 2Hatches matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 4 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.
What it imitates
Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.
- Blackfly Simulium spp. · April–June · 40–65°F · #18–22
- Midge Chironomidae · all year · 33–75°F · #18–24
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | 2X heavy nymph hook, sizes 16–22 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 14/0 |
| Body | Copper wire, wound the full shank |
| Thorax | Peacock herl or black dubbing |
When to fish it
Wire and herl. It sinks fast for its size and takes fish in winter where nothing else will.
A winter pattern. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 33°F to 75°F.
Target species
- Trout
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Black Beauty nymph · #18–24 — Midge pupa, fished under an indicator in slow winter water.
- Blackfly Larva nymph · #18–22 — A tiny black tapered body on a curved hook. Dropped off something bigger in a spring riffle.
- Zebra Midge nymph · #18–24 — Two materials and a bead. The winter fly, and the fly for the last two feet of a tailout.
- Higa's SOS nymph · #16–20 — Small, slim, and deadly in clear low water.
- Black Stonefly Nymph nymph · #12–18 — Dead-drifted along the bottom. Stonefly nymphs are always present in rocky water.