Hello All,
So as per everyone’s wonderful (as always) advice I began my fly tying odyssey using Al Campbell’s wonderful lessons. So far so good. I am up to the E-Z Nymphs and I found myself having trouble. Probably because I have a really cruddy pheasent tail I found myself with a problem. I couldn’t tie a normal fly becuase it seemed like the feather strands were just too short and also really thing and hard to work with (which would come with practice I know).
Anyway, in desperation I took some strands (hurls?!?) of peacock feathers and followed the same steps listed in the lesson. I ended up (after lots of practice) with a fly that looked very similar to Al’s nymph except with peacock instead of pheasent feathers…
My question I guess is…what did I create…how (besides the obvious look) do peacock feathers function differently than pheasent tails…will these (fairly decent looking) flies serve any purpose except as my first practice in tying materials to a hook (which they deffinitely did help me) after that I was able to get the hang of the pheasent tail tying 
Sorry for the long post.
Rawfish,
I’m not sure what you’ve created, but it sounds to me like you could palmer a grizzly hackle over the top and probably have a Griffith’s gnat.
Use the flies the way you’ve tied them and see what comes from it. I experiment with different materials a lot, too. I’ve been tying for nearly 2 years and I’ve prbably only tied only 3-6 of any pattern at one sitting. I enjoy it immensely, but I like to fish even more.
Keep tying and trying, that’s how everyone does it in the beginning.
What you have created is a fly you should tie on and try next time you go fishing. If the fish like it, tie some more.
Color, fuzziness, and taper of fiber are a few of the differences between pheasant and peacock feathers.
Hi Rawfish,
There are nymphs tied with peacock hurl, such as a zugbug or a prince nymph. A Dial Bach (sp?) is not much more than just a peacock hurl body as well (just add some brown hackle fibers for a tail and same at the throat). These are all “fish catches”, so I see no reason why your nymph should not be effective. Give it a good try next time you’re out.
- Jeff
rawfish;
Welcome to a very creative pastime! Think outside the box!!
That is the beauty of fly tying. You may have just created your own “classic”. Keep those creative juices flowing and you will be richly rewarded by catching fish on something that you have totally created yourself. 
Keep on practicing and you’ll be tying tricos on a size 24 hook in no time. :lol: Take care and let us know what works.
Ray
You could address your basic problem by tying in more strands of pheasAnt fibers and you’ll find you can cover the hook shank with fewer wraps and get “better mileage” from the strands. Good luck.
The pheasant feathers you should be using is the center feather from a cock pheasant.Only these strands are long enough to tie the flies from the continuous feather. I hjave tied a lot of E-Z nymphs and unless you are tying them really small like 16’s to 20’s you need that longer center feather. Hope this helps,Dave
rawfish,
All good tips and encouragement, but to solve your initial problem, go buy a pheasant tail at your local fly shop that’s not ‘cruddy,’ and you should be in business to tie the pattern as it’s described. (By all means, do fish the newly created fly and watch it catch fish. Peacock herl makes fish go crazy.)
Joe
Or … try washing it in warm soapy (dishsoap) water, let it soak and really clean the fibers, rinse and let it dry. It might be better than you think.
Both pheasant tail fibers and peacock herl are great fly materials.
What size do you consider a normal fly? The fibers from a pheasant tail should be about 2" long. That should be plenty.
You are right when you say:
hang in there, your in for a lot of pleasure from fly tying
raw fish
Once you get to reading more about different pattern the more you find that almost anything goes. If it works use it is the basic theory about fly tying. by the way pea cocks are in the pheasant family, lol you find the domesticated chicken their too.
Ghost