Bodkin / Patterns

GIMP Nymph

Nymph · Trout · Intermediate · 2 versions

Savage Flies dressing

  • Hook nymph, 10-14
  • Thread Black

Materials

  • Weight 0.015 or optional material
  • Tail Dun hen fibers
  • Body Peacock herl
  • Wing Pheasant after-shaft feathers
  • Hackle Dun hen, sparse

How to tie it

  1. Wind 0.015 lead wire over the front half to two-thirds of the shank. Build a thread dam behind and in front of it, then take the thread back to the start of the bend.
  2. Tail: about ten hen fibres, a little longer than a hook gap, bound in flat on top without flaring. Do not snip the butts; a couple of wraps and the peacock herl will bury them.
  3. Bind in a length of extra-small black wire at the rear. It will never show, but it makes a peacock herl body far more durable.
  4. Advance the thread to about halfway. Bind in about six peacock herls (fewer if they are good thick ones), give them a light twist together, and wrap the body forward to the front of the weight. Tie off.
  5. Counter-wrap the black wire forward over the herl, take two or three turns at the front, tension and helicopter it off. Add a couple of locking wraps.
  6. Wing: take two pheasant aftershaft feathers, align the tips, and lay them flat on top so they reach back almost to the end of the tail. Pull gently on the stems to make a tie-in point and bind them in with moderate pressure. Tidy the butts with a few extra wraps.
  7. Hackle: one medium hen feather, bound in by the tip. Wind three turns, fold the feather back and lock it with a couple of tight wraps, snip the stem, then sweep the fibres back and check the collar is spread all the way around.
  8. Build a generous thread head (it is a nymph, so a big head is fine), whip finish, and apply head cement.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Tyer Recipe.

Tying videos

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