Bodkin / Patterns

CDC and Catgut Micro Nymph

Nymph · Trout · Grayling · Intermediate · 1 version

Lucian Vasies

  • Hook Barbless nymph hook, 14-18
  • Thread Yellow Tyer's choice

Materials

  • Tail Corzuno medio (Coq de Leon barbs)
  • Body Olive ostrich herl (catgut, size S)
  • Thorax Green shell lip (synthetic dubbing)
  • Hackle Grey hackle (CDC, one or two turns)
  • Hot spot Hot orange arctic fox (thread)

How to tie it

  1. Lay a smooth yellow thread underbody down the shank. Catgut is translucent, so the yellow showing through it is what gives the finished body its warm olive tone.
  2. Tie in a sparse Coq de Leon corzuno medio tail at the bend.
  3. Tie in size S olive catgut and wrap it forward in slightly overlapping turns to the 70% mark, stretching as you go. Stretched catgut thins down and segments itself, which is why Polish and Czech competitors guarded this material for years.
  4. Dub a small green synthetic thorax, then tie in a grey CDC feather and take one or two turns as a hackle. One or two is the limit. CDC gives the halo and the movement, but any more and it swamps a micro nymph.
  5. Finish with a few turns of hot orange thread as a hot spot behind the eye and whip finish.
  6. Fish it small and dead drift to fish that have seen everything else.

Tying videos

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