Hot-wire Tarcher Pheasant Tail SBS

All about flies Fly Tying
1

Found an old box of Swimming Nymph hooks and was trying to come up with something to do with them. After a failed attempt at a Flick Stonefly Creeper, gave this a shot. No better, no worse than the standard (although it is somewhat weedless), just playing around.

hook - Orvis 1512-00 #12
thread - MFC 8/0 brown
tail/shellback - pheasant tail fibers
abdomen - UTC wire brassie/brown x-fine/copper
thorax -peacock herl
wingcase/legs -pheasant tail fibers

Part 1

mash barb and attach thread at 60% mark and wrap back to bend

tie in a clump of pheasant tail fibers; fold butt ends back and wrap to the rear

take 2 strands of wire, flip hook (rotary makes it a lot easier) and tie in on underside of hook

wrap wire back to the bend

take a few wraps of wire (try to keep the 2 strands tight together), pull the pheasant tail butts over the back and secure with the copper wire

2

Part 2

repeat this every 3-4 wraps up the hook to the thorax; helicopter wire ends, trim pt butts and smooth with thread wraps back to 60% mark

tie in another clump of pheasant tail, tips extending over hook eye; wrap back to end of abdomen

tie in peacock herl (slightly twist with tying thread) and wrap thorax

pull pheasant tail butts forward to create shellback over thorax; trim

separate legs, fold half back on each side; half hitch x 2, SHHAN

dorsal

ventral

Regards,
Scott

3

Lovely pattern! I specially like the way you did the legs. I normally tied my PT’s without legs…not anymore.

Alberto

4

Very nice pattern! I’ve never thought about using that type of hook, that way, for a PT.

Joe

5

Funny, when I sit down and play around my results pale in comparison. That’s a pretty neat tie and I especially like the hooks.

Thanks for all the SBS’s you provide.

Greg

6

Nice one Scott. Lot of similarities with this, at least in the finished appearance. Different rout there though.
Cheers,
A.

7

Alan,

Very nice fly, thanks for the link (really like the bleached/dyed pt thorax). A skinned cat by any other name…

Regards,
Scott

8

If you don’t have any swimming nymph hooks, but you do have some of those “natural bend” irons like a Dai Riki 270, Tiemco 200, Orvis 1512-00, etc, you can roll your own. Takes about 10 seconds (including time to mash the barb):

before

hold hook against a metal rod of some sort (my vise stem works great)

clamp eye securely against the stem with a pair of pliers; push away against the bottom of the bend until you get the curve you’re looking for (only 2 hands so I can’t show the process in action)

ready for action

Regards,
Scott

9

Does the bend of the hook make it ride point up or do you need to add some weight to achieve it?

Joe

10

That’s one great looking fly.

11

Joe,

By itself, probably not (I’ll do some tank testing) but with the wire added to the abdomen it should.

Regards,
Scott

12

Now I know what to do with the 5 or 6 pheasant clumps my student gave me today

13

Scott, that is a fun looking fly! Thanks for posting.

14

Would appreciate the tank testing, Scott.

15

Now I know what to do with my Tiemco 200’s that I hate.

16

Exactly my thoughts!

17

Does the bent hook add any action to the nymph, aside from making it ride point-up?

18

Allen,

Unknown; hopefully, the tank test will tell.

Regards,
Scott