Pheasant Tail Nymph

A nymph, tied #12–22, carried year round. It is tied against 14 named insects in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — all year. Frank Sawyer, River Avon, 1950s.

A slim, dark mayfly nymph from Frank Sawyer, tied on the River Avon in the 1950s and carried all season in sizes 12–22 on a 2X heavy nymph hook with brown 8/0 thread. Cock pheasant tail fibre tips form the tail, the body is pheasant tail wound and ribbed with fine copper wire, the wingcase is pheasant tail pulled over, and the thorax is peacock herl or a copper bead. It covers effectively any small dark mayfly nymph: in the smaller sizes it reads as a Baetis, in the larger as a Hendrickson, and it is also tied against Blue Quill, Mahogany Dun, Pale Morning Dun, Sulphur, Little Yellow Sally and Sowbug, plus mayflies generally and water with no hatch on it at all. Fished dead drift. Trout are the target species.

#12–22Hook size
nymphType
AllSeason
14Hatches matched

What it looks like

A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 4 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.

A slim, segmented, dark abdomen with a bulge at the front — the shape of a swimming mayfly nymph, and the reason it works from a size 12 Hendrickson down to a 22 Baetis. Drawn at #18 — 6.0 mm of shank and 3.0 mm of gape on a Tiemco 100.

The bare hook at every size this pattern is tied in, all to the same scale. There is no industry standard behind a hook number, so these are Tiemco 100 measurements and another maker's 12 will differ a little.

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.

It is also tagged for mayflies generally, no hatch at all — a searching pattern.

Tying recipe

In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades; Frank Sawyer, River Avon, 1950s. — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.

Hook	2X heavy nymph hook, sizes 12–22
Thread	Brown 8/0
Tail	Cock pheasant tail fibre tips
Body	Pheasant tail fibres wound, ribbed fine copper wire
Wingcase	Pheasant tail, pulled over
Thorax	Peacock herl, or a copper bead

When to fish it

Any small dark mayfly nymph in existence. In the smaller sizes it is a Baetis; in the larger, a Hendrickson. Dead drift.

Carried all year. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 33°F to 78°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.

Related patterns

Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.

Open the trout map →Every trout stream near you, coloured by today's water temperature.