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Hex Nymph
A nymph, tied #6–10, carried year round. It is tied against 4 named insects in this book — June–August.
A large burrowing mayfly nymph tied on a 3X long nymph hook in sizes 6–10, weighted with lead wire under the thorax and dressed on tan 6/0 thread. Tan marabou makes the tail, the body is pale yellow-tan dubbing, ribbed, with grey ostrich herl laid along the abdomen for gills, and partridge and mottled turkey supply the legs and wingcase. It stands in for two mayflies: the Brown Drake, Ephemera simulans, which comes in June in water from 55 to 65 degrees, and the Hex, Hexagenia limbata, June into July, from 60 to 72 degrees. Trout are the quarry. The working hour is the one before dark, before a single dun has shown, and the presentation is a cast across current with the fly allowed to swing up at the end of it. The take comes as the nymph is swimming, and it arrives heavy. It is carried the whole season, worth dredging along silt banks months either side of the hatch.
- #6–10Hook size
- nymphType
- AllSeason
- 4Hatches 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 6 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.
- Brown Drake Ephemera simulans · June · 55–65°F · #10–12
- Golden Drake Anthopotamus distinctus · July–August · 60–72°F · #10–12
- Hex Hexagenia limbata · June–July · 60–72°F · #6–8
- Yellow Drake Ephemera varia · June–August · 58–70°F · #10–12
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 | 3X long nymph hook, sizes 6–10 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Tan 6/0 |
| Tail | Tan marabou |
| Body | Pale yellow-tan dubbing, ribbed |
| Gills | Grey ostrich herl along the abdomen |
| Legs / wingcase | Partridge and mottled turkey |
| Weight | Lead wire under the thorax |
When to fish it
The hour before dark, before any dun shows. Cast across and let it swing up — the take is the nymph swimming, and it is heavy.
Carried all year. The insects it matches are active june–august, in water from 55°F to 72°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.
- Wiggle Hex Nymph nymph · #6–8 — Articulated burrowing-nymph imitation. Fished in the hour before the duns come off.
- Hare's Ear Nymph nymph · #10–18 — Looks like everything and nothing. The other half of a two-nymph rig.
- Cranefly Larva nymph · #6–10 — A fat pale grub. Best in the day or two after high water.
- Damsel Nymph nymph · #10–14 — Slim olive body, marabou tail, small bead eyes. Retrieved in short pulls — the natural swims in a side-to-side wriggle.
- Dragonfly Nymph nymph · #4–10 — Broad, heavy, olive-brown, fished on the bottom with long slow strips. Weight is the whole pattern.