Spruce Nymph SBS

[ScottP]

A fly of unknown origin (found a pic in one of Kaufmann's books); seems to be from the Tellico family.


hook - Mustad 9671 #8
thread - Danville 6/0 dark brown
underbody - non-tox wire .025
tail - peacock herl
rib - Flat-wax black
body - rabbit dubbing yellow
shellback - goose quill segment
hackle - brown hen


Part 1


mash barb, wrap shank with non-tox




start thread, wrap underbody, taper front and back; tie in ribbing (couldn't find any thick black thread so I doubled up a piece of Flat-wax), wrap back to bend




measure a clump of peacock herl (hook gap past bend) and tie in






separate a section of goose quill (approx 1/2 hook gap width), tie in tip and wrap back to bend






dub thread, dub tapered body (take 1 wrap behind ribbing); leave 1 hook eye width at the front






pull shellback forward; tie off and trim

[ScottP]

Part 2


wrap or counterwrap ribbing (doesn't matter - possession arrow pointed towards counter this time); tie off and trim






prep hen hackle and tie in by tip (ran scissor blade along both sides of quill to create folded hackle)






sweep fibers back while wrapping forward; tie off, then stroke hackle back and down while wrapping thread back to create head








whip, SHHAN








Regards,
Scott

[Lotech]

Good looking bug Scott.

[Alberto]

Nice job on the fly! I specially like how the rib spacing increases from tail to head, like in a natural.

Alberto

[ScottP]

I especially like how the rib spacing increases from tail to head, like in a natural.

Alberto,

Purely accidental on my part, but thank you.

Here's another that seems to share some genetic code, the Thistlebug



Same dubbing, peacock shellback, gold tinsel rib, and grizzly collar; kinda like a softhackle Crackleback.


Regards,
Scott

[Uncle Jesse]

Scott,

You did your usual beautiful job with the fly and photo. The fly is very similar to the Tellico Nymph, I had to go look to see if it was the same pattern, there are difference. I have read that yellow flies do well in the streams of the Smoky Mountains. When I finish tying up some flies for my first swap, I think two or three of those go in the box for a shot on the Hooch.