Bi-color Nymph

During a recent clean up of my external hard drive that holds my fly fishing and fly tying files that I have collected from many years of web surfing, I came upon a .PDF file of a pheasant tail nymph tied by a British fly tyer named Alan Bithell.. So I have decided to make this fly a new arrticle for this blog with a step by step tying instructions.

Hook: Nymph Style

Thread: Color to match body

Tail & Overbody: Pheasant Tail

Rib: Fine Copper Wire

Abdomen &amp: Thorax: Dubbing*

Tie in the pheasant tail fibers with the tips facing forward. The Pheasant tail should be about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hook shank long. Eventually these fibers will be pulled back to the hook bend and will make the back of the fly.

Pull the butt ends of the pheasant tail fibers forward and tie down behind the hook eye.

Pull the butt ends back towards the the hook bend and tie down. This is now the built up thorax area of the fly.

Trim off the butt ends of the pheasant tail fibers.

Tie in the copper wire and wrap the thread to the bend of the hook. Dub the thread with your favorite dubbing.

Dub the abdomen of the fly.

Dub the thorax with a darker color or use the same color as the abdomen. Your choice.

Tie off the thread behind the hook eye and trim it off.

Pull the pheasant tail fibers from the eye of the hook back to the bend of the hook and bind down with the copper wire.

Spiral wrap the copper wire forward and stop behind the thorax. Add a couple of half hitches or whip finish the wire and trim off the excess wire.

Top View

Side View

TYING TIP: When tying this fly, experiment with different colors of pheasant tail and/or different colors of dubbing. Use gold wire instead of copper or use the Ultra wire that comes in a rainbow of colors.

All Black Pheasant Tail

Natural Hares Ear