This is a Richard Walker variation on the Sawyer classic.
I much prefer it & have had far better results than with the Sawyer original, both on stillwaters & also on the rare occasions I've been lucky enough to fish the Southern chalkstreams . The pattern is probably slightly easier to tie, although it does use about triple the amount of pheasant tail fibres, as you will see...
Walker's Pheasant Tail Nymph
Thread:
8/0 Uni-thread in brown or rusty brown
Hook:
Size 10-16
Tail/Body/Thorax/Wing Cases/Legs:
Cock pheasant centre tail fibres
Underbody/Rib:
Fine copper wire
Start the thread in the usual way at the eye & take down to the start of the bend in touching turns, then back up to where the head will start. The base layer of thread is important because it stops the wire slipping on the hook, which makes building the thorax up a lot easier.
There tie-in a length of about 6 inches of fine copper wire.
Wind a pronounced thorax as shown (a couple of layers should be plenty) then take the wire down to the start of the bend in open turns & follow with the thread. Tie it in here, but don't trim off. The 3 inches or so that you should have left over will be used as the rib.
Add about 5 or 6 pheasant tail fibres for a tail, once the tips are lined up & then use a couple of tight turns to lash them down as below.
Take the thread back up to the start of the thorax.
You can now varnish the underbody to help make it more durable, and whilst the varnish is still tacky, wrap the tail fibres around the shank without twisting to create a slim body.
Tie in well & trim off the waste ends.
Rib the body with neat, even turns of the copper wire & tie in well then "wobble" off.
Add another bunch of fibres (about 15-20 or so in this case) to create the wing cases/legs on top of the shank with the tips pointing back. You need to get the length right, as you don't want the legs to be either too long or short, when you bring the fibre tips forwards later.
Add yet another, smaller bunch of 4-6 fibres to create the thorax. Bring the thread to just in front of the thorax. If you want, you can add a little more varnish to the underbody in the thoracic section.
Wrap the thorax fibres around the shank, again without twisting. Tie down & trim off at the start of the head.
Bring the wing case/leg fibres over the top of the thorax & tie in with 2 or 3 turns at the head.
Divide the fibres into 2 equal bunches & pull them gently backwards, either side of the thorax, so the tips are now pointing towards the tail.
Tie in place with a few turns of thread, create a neat head, whip finish & varnish.
My favourite Pheasant Tail Nymph
Eddie
Linear Mode
