Materials
Hook—Use a wet fly hook 1XL or 2XL in sizes 10 to 16.
Tail and Throat—Fibers from any soft hackled flank feather.
Body—Use dubbing of choice in dark olive.
Rib—Use small copper wire.
Thorax—Use the same dubbing used for the body. Mix in some black to make the thorax slightly darker than the abdomen.
Wing Case—Turkey feather fibers.
Fly Tying
Attach the tying thread to the hook and wind back to a point opposite the barb of the hook. This is the tie in point. Trim off the thread tag.
The next step is to add a tail. For the tail, we are using wood duck flank fibers but any soft body feather fibers or soft hair would work. Pull 6-8 hackle fibers from the feather. Hold the fibers in your right hand and measure them against the shank of the hook. The tail should extend the length of the shank from the eye to the start of the bend of the hook. Position the fibers on top of the hook and hold them in place with your left hand. Grasp the fibers with the right hand at the tie in point. Reposition your left hand to the tie in point and attach the fibers using a soft loop. Bind the fibers to the shank of the hook with tying thread. Trim off the excess and wind the thread forward to just behind the eye of the hook.
Attach a piece of small gauge wire for a rib just behind the eye of the hook using a soft loop. Wrap the thread back to the barb of the hook. Trim the excess wire. By binding the wire the entire length of the shank you avoid an uneven body.
The body consists of soft fur dubbing. When dubbing for the body, you usually will have to apply the dubbing in sections. This is especially true for a large fly, Apply a small amount of dubbing to the tying thread using the same technique used to tie the Simple Midge Larva. Wind the dubbing forward until only a small amount remains and add more dubbing to the next section of the tying thread. Repeat this process until the body is complete. Dub the body forward to the mid point of the shank. This method works well and has the advantage of allowing more dubbing to be applied in subsequent sections so that a nice tapered body results. The disadvantage of this method is that it is slow. A faster but slightly more complicated method of dubbing involves the use of a dubbing loop or a dubbing noodle.
Wind the wire ribbing forward in even open turns and tie off at the mid point of the shank. Wrap the wire forward in a direction opposite the direction you wound the dubbing.
Next a wing case is added. The wing case is cut from a turkey feather but any other feather such as duck quill or pheasant tail feathers could be used. Cut a section of turkey quill about one-third the size of the hook shank. Prepare the quill fibers by coating with clear finger nail polish. Attach the end of the quill section at the tie in point in front of the dubbed body. Use the soft loop method to attach the quill fibers.
Now dub the thorax. Use slightly more dubbing here and you may also want to use slightly darker dubbing. The thorax of most nymphs is generally thicker and darker than the body. An easy was to make the dubbing darker is to use the same color dubbing as the body and add a small amount of black dubbing to it. The fibers can be mixed together by pulling the dubbing apart with your fingers and then recombining the fibers several times. Wind the thorax forward to within one eye width of the eye. Leave enough room to finish the head of the fly.
If you are using a rotary vice, turn the fly upside down. If you are using a regular vice, remove the fly and remount the fly upside down temporarily. Add throat fibers using the soft loop method. Use the same material for a throat that you used for a tail. The tips of the throat fibers should reach the point of the hook. Turn the hook upright..
To finish the fly, bring the wing case forward over the thorax and tie down using the soft loop method. Use loose loops at first. Once the wing case is positioned correctly bind down firmly and trim the excess. Finish with a neat thread head and either whip finish or use two half hitches. Use head cement to prevent unraveling of the tying thread.
This fly can be modified using different colors of dubbing and varying sizes of hook to imitate almost any mayfly nymph.