The Classics: Montana Nymph

[steve collyer]

This fly has a curious history, and one that I have some slight personal interest in.

The Montana Nymph was introduced to Britain from the US in the mid 1950's.
Lew Oatman showed some samples to Peter Deane & Peter thought them interesting; not least because the original "nymph" had a pair of wings which stood out over the eye.
Peter then thought nothing much of it until he "introduced the Montana Nymph to a tall, hefty fellow who visited my gallery one day. He was the late David Collyer..." (Peter Deane's Fly Tying 1993)
My father subsequently published an article on it in Angling during the early or mid 1970's.
The first time the fly appeared in a book was in my father's second Fly Dressing book in 1981.

I also have a curious tale to tell about the fly. Despite using it on many occasions, I have only ever caught a solitary fish on the nymph. That was an 8lb 8oz rainbow from Aveley Lakes in about 1987!

Here is the original Lew Oatman dressing:
Silk: black gossamer
Hook: any size long shank or largish standard hook
Tails: black cock hackle fibres or black cock hackle tip, not too long
Body: first 3/5 black chenille
Thorax: yellow chenille
Hackle: black cock - over thorax only
Roof: black chenille
Wings: long slender black rook or crow primary - a pair over eye

and I'm sure the late Mr Deane wouldn't begrudge me reproducing a photograph from his book:



So, by 1981 some changes had occurred. Chinese whispers of the fly dressing world lead to the version my father published in Fly Dressing II:
Hook: 6-8 long shank
Silk: black
Tail: short dyed black hen hackle
Hackle: black cock over front half of body only
Body: in two halves, black ostrich at rear, yellow chenille at front
Wing cases: ends of black ostrich body material
Horns: two sections from dyed black turkey tail

These "horns" were tied sloping backwards in a more streamlined way.

This brings us to the modern dressing, which seems to have cropped-up during the early to mid 1980's.
I certainly used the lime green fluoro one in the late 1980's.
Here's the modern one, courtesy of yours truly:



Silk: black
Hook: 6-12 long shank
Tail: black cock hackle fibres
Body: black chenille (underbody of lead wire optional)
Thorax: fluorescent lime-green chenille
Thorax cover: black chenille
Hackle: black cock hackle

[maharg]

Nice one Steve, was on my to do list, so you saved me the bother, good one.
One question though, were the horns and tail of the original not black biots?

[arkle]

No mention of "biot's" in Peter Deane's book.

[maharg]

Read about biots somewhere
Will try and find it, though I accept what you are saying.

[steve collyer]

Originally Posted by maharg

Nice one Steve, was on my to do list, so you saved me the bother, good one.
One question though, were the horns and tail of the original not black biots?

Peter Dean is quite specific when he says that "the thing that staggered me most about Oatman's tying, was the pair of long slender black wings which stood out over the eye..."
Since Deane does not mention biots and in fact gives us the dressing above with black crow feather fibre, I think we can safely assume that biots weren't used in the original dressings.

[maharg]

Fair enough, question answered

[arkle]

There have been as many variations of this pattern, as there are for the black buzzer over the years. A lot of which came from the trade, either trying to speed tying procedures up or use materials that they had loads of or just "sex up" a well selling pattern to increase sales of it over their competitors version(s). Hackle point tails, marabou tails, biot tails you name it & that's before you get too the thorax material.

As far as I know, no-one in the trade ties the original version & very few anglers would even recognize one.

[fourmations]

ermm

whats the story with the photo, lol

[maharg]

Got me

[steve collyer]

This must be a fault with ImageShack. It's certainly nothing I've done.
I'll check it out.