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Frank Sawyer's Pheasant Tail nymph is a wonderful nymph pattern. It has worked so well for anglers all around the world. Frank Sawyer, a river keeper on an English chalk stream, developed the pattern and wrote about it in his wonderful book "Nymphs and The Trout". The book is a classic and a must for the dedicated fly fisher. The Pheasant Tail tied from simply cock pheasant herl and copper wire, probably imitates the deleatidium mayfly so common in many New Zealand trout streams. You can make variations, called variants, on Sawyer's original pattern, by varying the thorax or even tying in a brief hackle to give added "life." One variant I have much faith in, is the Speckled Nymph.Many years ago on the Mohaka River I was skunked for a start. I tried another favourite the Stonefly Nymph, an olive seal fur-based pattern on an 8 or 10 hook, that imitates the large green stone-fly that inhabits more bouldery rivers. However that particular morning the stonefly failed. I found the trout not only would not take it but even showed mild panic after inspecting it. I was puzzled by this uncharacteristic behaviour. I tried for several other brown trout which were feeding and I put each one down, although my presentation appeared satisfactory. I had tried other nymphs such as a coch-y-bondhu styled nymph on a long shank hook with a peacock herl body and very sparse hackle. Following that came the Kiwi creation of the hare and copper, the gold ribbed hares ear and yes Sawyer's pheasant tail to name a few of several. Then I tied on a speckled nymph, which is basically a variation on a pheasant tail with a turquoise-green thorax.
Suddenly I found that elusive success. I landed three good browns. So little details do count to the trout! One might suppose wilderness brown trout might not be too selective but the reality is that trout, anywhere and anytime, can be very selective to the point of discerning small differences of variation in a pattern.
Remember the trout had refused the pheasant tail but took a variation on the pheasant tail theme. The Pheasant Tail nymph, of course, is a brilliantly simple creation. In New Zealand the pheasant tail nymph imitates the mayfly species of Deleatidium which hatches in New Zealand's summer months of December, January, February and early March. However the pheasant tail nymph does bear a resemblance to other mayfly nymphs and is also regarded in New Zealand as a good general pattern too.
While Frank Sawyer tied his pheasant tail from just herl and copper wire and with no thread, I, far less skilled, use tying thread rather than make the gold wire serve double duty. I doubt if Frank Sawyer would have objected. I prefer a dark red (auburn) copper wire although it seems Frank Sawyer used a copper wire tending gold. I'm not sure the trout notice either way on this point.
Smith's nymph (A dear friend the late Squadron leader A G Smith of Nelson, a very fine fly fisher) , is a pheasant tail variant is tied as Sawyer's pheasant tail except that a thorax of coarse medium blue-grey wool and a hackle of two turns of Rhode Island red hen are incorporated. The tail, body (ribbed with copper wire) and wing case are essentially as for the original pheasant tail. Smithy found this pheasant tail variant on a size 8 to 16 hook, fishes well to the brown trout of the Nelson region. Like Smithy I have often found the speckled nymph, also a pheasant tail variant, to be the successful pattern for the day. The speckled nymph pattern, which probably imitates the Oniscgaster distans species of mayfly, is:- Hook; 6 to 10
Tail: Orange and black breast feathers of cock pheasant (long)
Body: grey cock pheasant tail ribbed with dark copper wire
Thorax: Greenstone shade wool
Wing case: cock pheasant tail rather dark
Hackle: Very sparse, Greenwell's (ginger and black). The fibres reach the bend of the hook. In my tyings I substitute for Jim's tail, golden pheasant tippets. But don't ignore the original pheasant tail either. One trip into a wilderness river, we couldn't get the trout to take any nymphs until we went down to tiny size 16 pheasant tails. I gave Frank Sawyer and his pheasant tail, a quiet murmur of thanks, whether for that size 16 pheasant tail or the variants. |
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