St. Vrain Angler Presents:

Tying The

Pheasant Tail Nymph

The Pheasant Tail, or PT, is a useful, easy-to-tie fly. The fly works very well to imitate mayfly nymphs; smaller sizes are particularly popular as an imitation of Beatis mayflies.

The pattern was first developed in England and called Sawyer's Pheasant Tail. The original pattern was tied using pheasant tail fibers and copper wire; no thread was used at all.

PT's can be tied in sizes #10-24. Use a standard nymph hook, or a curved, scud-style hook to tie this pattern. Add a bead and/or weight as required by your fishing style. Unwieghted, the fly works well when fished in the surface film; when weighted the fly stays on the bottom of a streambed, where wary trout feed on free drifting mayfly nymphs.

There are anglers who tie this fly with a red head - as shown - to indicate the fly is weighted.

Here are the materials required to tie the PT.

1. Hook: standard nymph or scud hook in size of choice. Hint: observe the mayflies you plan to imitate and select the hook that best matches the size or sizes you plan to fish.

2. Thread: use flat thread such as Danville 6/0 or UTC 70. Match the thread color to the body, unless you choose to use red to indicate a weighted fly.

3. Abdomen: pheasant tail rooster feathers are the norm; other feather strands can also be used.

4. Rib: copper, gold, silver or other color of wire. Use the diameter that best matches the size of the fly. Narrow on small flies; thicker on larger flies.

5. Wing case: pheasant tail fibers; goose quill; turkey quill; flash material - including krystal flash, flashabou, or flat mylar; thin skin, or another material that will best imitate the fly in your mind.

6. Thorax: peacock herl; dubbing of choice; ostrich on larger patterns.

Tying Instructions

1. Remove the barb; mount hook in the vise; start the thread at the 1/2 point on the hook shank; wind thread back so thread hangs over the shank of the hook immediately over where the barb was; this is the back of the shank, just in front of the bend. When using a scud hook, wind the thread down the bend as far as you want it, to make the fly as large - or small - as you'd like it to be when complete.

2. Select rooster pheasant tail. Isolate the number of fibers you want to build the fly's abdomen - usually equal to the diameter of the hook wire. Even the tips and remove the fibers from the feather's quill.

3. Tie in the tail with one wrap of thread. Make it the length that best imitates the pattern you see in the water you fish. The rule of thumb is to make the tail even in length to about 1/2 the length of the hook shank.

4. Select a length of wire. Tie it in with two wraps of thread. Each wrap of thread should be adjacent and in front of the wrap that tied in the tail. (This means the tail is now tied in with three wraps of thread; when the PT is wound, it will cover the thread.) Leave a length of thread behind the hook shank to make the rib.

5. Gently pull the pheasant tail fibers back and wind the thread over the butt end of the wire to just in front of the 1/2 point of the hook shank.

6. Give the pheasant tail fibers a slight twist and wrap them forward. Each wrap should be adjacent to the one that was just completed. To make the body taper, allow a few fibers of pheasant to overlap the ones that preceded it. When the PT fibers are to where the thread is hanging, hold the PT fibers on top of the hook shank and tie off with several wraps of thread. At this juncture, determine what you will use for the wing case. If a quill or flash will be used, clip off excess PT fibers now.

7. Reverse wrap the wire through the abdomen. Be sure to keep the spacing even. When the wire is through the abdomen, make two or three adjacent wraps of wire in front of the abdomen to hold the wire in place, then clip excess. When cutting wire, use the back end of the scissor blades so the tips do not get dull, or use an old fingernail clipper. Keep the tip of your tying scissors sharp for close cutting.

8. Select six to ten fibers of pheasant tail material, depending on the fullness and number of legs desired for the fly. Move the tread forward to the back of the eye of the hook. Point the evened tips over the eye of the hook; they should be about the same length of the tail, as shown here. Wrap the thread back toward the completed abdomen, keeping the PT fibers on the top of the hook shank so the butts are over the back of the fly. Make about two or three adjacent wraps of thread over the complete abdomen so the transition from abdomen to thorax is smooth and even.

9. Select three or four strands of peacock herl. Even the tips, then clip a small amount away and tie in by the tips where the PT wing case - or other material - is tied in over the abdomen. Move thread forward to the back of the head. Hint: when tying, always plan on the amount of space the head will take up on the fly. The head is important, and must be behind the eye of the hook! We suggest the head be equal in length to the length of the eye, behind the eye. See complete pattern above for proper head proportion.

10. Wind peacock forward to the back of the head and tie off with three wraps of thread, then trim away excess peacock. Make the abdomen as full or as thin as required. Move the thread back to the back of the head, once again.

11. Split the legs so an even number of fibers are on either side of the fly, parallel to the hook shank. Tie them in place with one wrap of thread.

12. Pull the wing case forward and between the legs. Tie off with several wraps of thread toward the eye, then back to the back of the head. Clip away excess wing case fibers/material and whip finish from the back of the eye to the back of the head. Now, tie more!

Hint: when tying several sizes of flies, always begin with the smallest sizes and progress to the larger sizes. The proportions of all the flies will be better than doing the opposite.

If you have any questions, please drop me a line at angler@peakpeak.com, give us a call at 303-651-6061, or stop by the shop at 418 Main Street in Longmont, Colorado. We love teaching fly tying and will do our best to answer any fly tying question you might have.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy fly tying.

contact us: angler@peakpeak.com

or call 303-651-6061

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