Walt's Worm

A nymph, tied #12–18, carried year round. It is tied against 5 named insects in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — all year. Walt Young, central Pennsylvania.

Dubbing on a hook and very little else — two materials, no wingcase — from Walt Young of central Pennsylvania. It is tied on a 2X heavy nymph hook in sizes 12 through 18 with brown 8/0 thread: hare's ear dubbing spun in a loop and ribbed with fine wire, and a tungsten bead at the head. The shagginess is the whole point, since it suggests anything pale and wriggling rather than one insect exactly. It is tied against the cranefly larva, Tipula spp., through April to June and again September to October in water from 40 to 65 degrees, and against the sowbug, Asellus spp., and scud, Gammarus spp., both available all year from 33 to 70 degrees. It reads as a generic caddis larva or crane larva, it also serves when nothing is hatching at all, and it is among the most productive Euro-nymphing flies there is. Carried all year for trout.

#12–18Hook size
nymphType
AllSeason
5Hatches 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 5 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.

Hare's ear dubbing, wire, and a bead. It is a sowbug, a caddis larva or a small stonefly depending on the water, and the point of it is that it is none of them in particular. Drawn at #16 — 7.0 mm of shank and 3.5 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 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; Walt Young, central Pennsylvania. — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.

Hook	2X heavy nymph hook, sizes 12–18
Thread	Brown 8/0
Body	Hare's ear dubbing, spun in a loop, ribbed fine wire
Head	Tungsten bead

When to fish it

Two materials and no wingcase. A generic caddis larva or crane larva, and one of the most productive Euro-nymphing flies there is.

Carried all year. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 33°F to 70°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.