Bodkin / Patterns

Brent's Improved Premier

Nymph · Trout · Intermediate · 1 version

Tyer Recipe

  • Hook Nymph hook (slightly curved shank), 10
  • Thread Brown 6/0

Materials

  • Seal and Ice Dub blend Dark green seal with ~25% holographic olive Ice Dub (Body)
  • Moose body hair Natural dark moose body hair (1 stacked bunch, shellback and tail)
  • Hackle Furnace brown hackle (1 small feather, palmered)
  • Head cement / flex cement (Rear tie-off, optionally over shellback)

How to tie it

  1. Start the thread, dress the shank, and put a half hitch at the rear.
  2. Dub a fairly thin body of the dark green seal / holographic olive Ice Dub blend along the shank. Dubbing lets this pattern scale down to a 10 where the original chenille was too thick.
  3. Stack a bunch of moose body hair, tips even. Measure it against the shank so the tips will reach your rear tie-off point as a short tail, then tie it in at the front, pinched slightly to your side of top so it doesn't roll. Trim the butts at an angle for a tidy front.
  4. Tie in a small furnace brown hackle at the front, then run the thread and the hackle together to the rear in one pass, the thread reinforcing the stem.
  5. Tie the hackle off at the back, then clip all the hackle fibers off along the top of the body.
  6. Pull the moose hair back snug over the top as the shellback, hold it tight while bringing thread pressure down, and whip finish at the rear.
  7. Add head cement to the rear thread wraps (flex cement over the whole shellback is optional for durability).
  8. Trim the hackle off both sides so fibers come only off the bottom of the shank, non-negotiable, or the fly won't swim right.

Tying videos

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