Bodkin / Patterns

Pheasant Tail Emerger-Beadhead

Nymph · Trout · Grayling · Advanced · 1 version

Patagonia dressing

Shuck (if desired) Zelon, mayfly brown
Abdomen 4–6 pheasant tail barbs
Ribbing Thread
Wing Para Post, medium or dark dun, and/or cul de canard feathers
Thorax Hareline Super Fine Dry Fly Dubbing or Semperfli Kapok Dry Fly Dubbing to match the natural coloration

Start the thread on the curved shank and run a smooth base back around the bend, where the shuck will sit.
Tie in a sparse tuft of Zelon, mayfly brown, as the shuck and slope it down the bend of the hook so it hangs cupped and bent, the way a dun looks still trapped and struggling in the nymphal shuck.
Strip four to six pheasant tail barbs off a ringneck pheasant — five or six on the larger sizes — and bind them in at the shuck tie-in point.
Wrap the pheasant tail barbs forward to form the abdomen, stopping about two-thirds of the way up the shank.
Rib with the tying thread: criss-cross the wraps back over the abdomen to the shuck tie-in point and forward again to the tie-off, so the thread segments and locks the barbs.
Tie in a length of Para Post, medium or dark dun, at the two-thirds point as the emerging wing bud, left a little long for visibility and flotation.
Trim the wing butts, but leave a small bump standing proud of the abdomen rather than cutting flush — that stub imitates the wings pushing out of the shuck and the Para Post floats like a cork, so the butts add flotation.
Twist a thin noodle of Semperfli Kapok Dry Fly Dubbing matched to the natural onto the thread, figure-8 a few wraps around the base of the wing, then bring it forward.
Whip finish at the head, leaving the wing butts in place, then push the wing forward and upright so it flares around the body and holds the fly sitting upright.