POPULAR: Mayfly nymph imitation. Fish on bottom of lake or river under a strike indicator set at 1.5x water depth so that fly bounces on bottom. When cast upstream, leave rod tip down to keep line taught, raise rod as floats past you, let float past 45 downstream until below you, then give little tug as fish often will then strike. Works all year as mayflies always hatching and in nymph stage spend most of life on bottom.
MATERIALS
- HOOK: Tiemco 200R, size 14 to 10
- BEAD: Gold tungsten
- WEIGHT: medium synthetic lead wire
- THREAD: 8/0 Black
- TAG: Orange Floss
- TAIL: Goose biots - Brown
- RIB: Fine gold wire
- BODY: Peacock herl
- HACKLE: Brown neck hackle
- WING: White goose biots
TYING
- Wrap synthetic lead in about 6 loops onto hook shank.
- Put bead on hook.
- Wrap synthetic lead in about 6 loops onto hook shank and push up against bead (extra weight is to help get/keep fly on bottom).
- Tie on thread behind lead to hold lead against bead.
- Tie on Orange Floss at end of shank and wrap 1/8" wide butt at start of bend (25% more effective with orange butt than without).
- Cut off two dark goose biots and tie one on in front of butt at 45 degrees, tie second at opposite 45 degrees to make tail.
- Tie on wire from behind lead on far side of shank down whole shank (back side to better start wrapping later.
- Tie on two peacock hurl at end of shank, wrap hurl around thread, then wrap hurl and thread together around shank up to bead, unwrap excess hurl, tie off and cut off excess hurl.
- Reverse wrap wire up to bead, about 4 wraps, tie off and cut off excess (reverse wrap locks on hurl for protection from fish teeth).
- West fingers and pull back hackle feather barbs, tie on behind top and cut off tip. Fold back barbs with wet fingers and wrap hackle 2-3 times behind bead. Tie off and cut off excess. Wet fingers and fold the barbs down towards hook pointto look like legs, and tie on thread to hold down.
- Tie off two white biots behind bead at opposite 45 degrees as wings, same as tail.
- Wrap thread behind bead and tie off.
- Apply head cement.
COMMENTS
- This is an effective mayfly nymph imitation.
- Best fished under an indicator where permitted.
- The orange tag has proven to improve catch rates.