The Classics: pheasant tail nymph

[maharg]

Pheasant tail nymph

Who first used pheasant tail herl to create the body of a fly? Who knows!
What we do know is that Frank Sawyer created his version and used it to devastating effect on the chalk streams.
He used copper wire, fine as a human hair, to tie this pattern along with cock pheasant tail herl. With these two ingredients he created a giant of a fly.
Casting upstream to seen fish, Sawyer was able to watch his fly and the reactions of the trout. Using an “induced take” method he lifted the fly in front of the fish imitating an emerging nymphs’ passage to the surface. The wink of white as the trout opened its mouth was the indication that the fish had taken his fly.
• Sawyer, Frank (1952) Keeper Of The Stream
• Sawyer, Frank (1958) Nymphs and Trout

• Hook: d/e 16/14
• Tails: tips of the pheasant herl
• Thread: fine copper wire
• Body: cock pheasant centre tail herl, twisted together with the wire

There must be more variants to the PT nymph than there are stars in the night sky but here are a couple I have had some fun with.
Pearly PT Nymph

• Hook: Heavy wet fly 14 to 10
• Tails: teal breast
• Body: pheasant herl
• Rib: copper wire
• Thorax: pearl tinsel with the remains of the herl pulled over as a wing case.
• Hackle: light ginger hen.

Hot spot PT


Dressing as a standard PT but with a mix of hears ear and a coloured seals fur of you choice for the thorax.

One Pheasant Tail I cant ignore has to be Arthur Coves' version.


Again a simple fly tied and used by an amazing angler. Used as his point fly to anchor his cast it must have caught thousands of fish. Tied around the bend with the herls layed flat, not twisted. Ribbed with copper wire and a thorax of blue rabbit under fur, the ends of the herl again pulled over to form wing cases. Cove, Arthur (1986) My Way with Trout.


Two very simple flies tied and fished by two remarkable men, one a giant of the river the other a giant of still water.
P.S. the Cove nymph has already been covered art great depth by Steve, The Classics: Cove's Pheasant Tail Nymph

[steve collyer]

Nice post & well-tied!
Here are a couple of other basic variations, starting with my favourite - the Dick Walker pattern from the early 1960's which I think is better than Sawyer's!:



And another classical variation which often still does well:

[maharg]

Again nice,simple and deadly.
Cheers Steve.

[Buzz]

If Carlsberg made nymphs........

[horses50]

dont you think that this proves the point that less is better,simply tied flies do catch there fair share of fish!!

[maharg]

Originally Posted by horses50

dont you think that this proves the point that less is better,simply tied flies do catch there fair share of fish!!

You may well be right.
Here is the thing though, both of these anglers were outstanding in their respective fields.
Sawyer had the eyes of a hawk and the skill to fish the induced take.
Cove had the patience of a heron and fished his fly ultra, ultra, ultra slow.
Us lesser mortals have difficulty with both these skills.
Further, simple flies do catch more fish, but we flytiers cant help ourselves with our tweeks here and there. There is no harm in this and it has created some brilliant patterns and a vehicle for the highly skilled to express their art.
Perhaps we should comtinue with our fly tying as it is but we should really fish a simple fly to catch fish

[muddler9]

Sawyer may well have got his inspiration from an older fly called the Pheasant Tail which was very popular in his day. Courtney Williams states that it originated in Devonshire, devised by Mr Payne Collier around 1901.

Dressing:-

Body: pheasant tail (no thorax) ribbed with gold wire
Tail: three long strands of honey dun saddle
Hackle: honey dun
Hook: size 14

There is no mention of thread colour.
This was used to good effect both dry and wet on river or lake.
It seems to have fallen into disuse, but has recently been revived in different form. Add a thorax and wing case and you have a Cruncher !!
I still use Sawyer's PTN myself and find it very reliable.
If you don't tie, visit the sawyernymphs website and buy the real thing from Sawyer's son. I can recommend them.

[midlander]

An absolute classic. Oddly though, the PT in all its guises has all but disappeared from my boxes which is sad really. I had a day earlier this year that brought it home to me that it's still a very useful pattern. After messing about with various buzzers, including natural PT herl bodied Carnill style ones I stuck on a Cove PT and it's all they would look at. Inexplicable but true. Back in the 80s a chap called Ken Fox developed a number of L/S PTs called "Super Nymphs", not unlike the hot spot PT, with fluoro wool cheeks and an ostrich herl rib amongst other things . He even issues a short print run book on the subject. At the time they certainly were super and were a major contributor to some monster bags at Eyebrook long before they introduced a bag limit. For me, the ultimate refinement of the Sawyer PT in both terms of technique and form would have to be Alan Bithell's Bi-Coloured Nymph.

[Guddler]

I think that this was maybe the third fly I ever tied:
easy pheasant tail nymph

I've been told that they shouldn't catch fish in Shetland but I can confirm that that is a big fat lie

[maharg]

A very good Step By Step from Steve.
http://www.flyforums.co.uk/fly-tying...ail-nymph.html