Generic olive nymph

[lv2nymph]

I had set in my mind the next bunch of patterns that I need to tie and am in the middle of it. I have now become side tracked by Dave (old lefty). I have found it's impossible to watch him tie and not become inspired. So now dang it, I'm switching gears and tying some of these which will be different shades and sizes.
I blended olive & brown rabbit, purposefully used the part of the turkey feather so both the brown & black showed on the thorax, copper rib, picked out the gills along the abdomen which doesn't show in the pic. And the only weight is the hook. My intention for these particular flies is they will be used as droppers behind weighted flies & utilized in thin water along the banks. Size 16- 1130

 

[BrookieChaser]

I tied some nymphs very similar to that last week. I even tied them on scud hooks as well.

 

[djs12354]

Nice! I'll take a dozen........

 

[J55tyger88]

Those are sweet. I like the spikeyness of it!

 

[GenCon]

That's a good looking fly. Is the tail on that olive partridge?

GC

 

[whheff]

Nice fly.

 

[lv2nymph]

GenCon wrote:
That's a good looking fly. Is the tail on that olive partridge?

GC

It is, thanks guys.

 

[dc410]

Real nice, Jack. Old Lefty might have created a monster there on Saturday. I have enjoyed watching Dave tie at the last two Tying Jams. He tied an Iso nymph two years ago and an articulated Green Drake nymph this past year. Both patterns are amazing imitations of the actual nymph. He is meticulous and has seemed to perfected his method for imitating the abdominal gills on nymphs. Quite a talent and a wealth of information.

 

[sandfly]

nice looking

 

[gutcutter]

lv2nymph wrote:
...Size 16- 1130

The fly looks great.
Just curious - why the scud hook?

 

[lv2nymph]

Thanks Gc. I tried that style hook because of using that hook to tie the Czech/European style flies and fishing them as of late. So many comment that they look like nothing at all in the stream, yet work so well. I tied a few to mimic the general coloration of the insects in streams and they worked even better. While I've been fishing these I started thinking about trying a tie on these hooks that's closer to size not just color and see how it goes. I'm thinking there must be something to the shape of a scud hook that's attractive to the trout, keeping in mind that this is strictly theory I've been going over in my head. Any and all thoughts on this matter are more than welcome.

 

[blueheron]

I think the larger nymphs try to get small when caught in the drift,
or flail trying to regain some traction and in doing so form an arc in their shape similar to some popular curved hooks. I use bait hooks and scud hooks and articulate some to get that effect.

 

[lv2nymph]

There you go, I was remembering some video on just that thing. Perhaps capturing that posture is a good trigger for them. Not that straight hooks aren't effective I think that fact has ben proven beyond discussion.

 

[krott243]

That will fish! Nice work

 

[lv2nymph]

Hey, thanks Krott.

 

[barrybarry]

I'm no expert on drifting nymph posture, but that style of hook will catch more fish.

That may be part of the difference between a straight shank and a curved shank considered everything else is the same. They hook the ones that would otherwise become "the rock bump that almost felt like a fish" fish.

 

[lv2nymph]

I got ya, I've read about a circle hook for salt water ffing that is supposed to be amazing at hook-ups. You're thinking maybe it's not the shape of the fly but the shape of the hook that's responsible for more sets. Interesting thought.

 

[jeremymcon]

What's the thorax? Is it hare's ear? Or mink with the guard hairs? It's really spiky. The dubbing sticking out really suggests legs - they're almost as pronounced as if you had used a soft hackle for legs.

 

[lv2nymph]

Jeremy the thorax is hares ear & the legs are olive died partridge tied in under the wing pad.

 

[dc410]

Several summers ago I got into fishing tricos. I switched to tying all of my trico spinner patterns on curved shank hooks. My hook up percentage went up significantly with the curved hook. I attributed it mainly to the offset hook point and wider gap on these hooks helping with a quicker hook set. I also feel the curved shank hook is much stronger than the straight shank hooks in the smaller sizes. I was regularly bending hooks on larger fish with straight shank hooks. I would think some of these characteristics would also apply to larger hook sizes although maybe not quite as dramatically as in the smaller ones. This is just a theory that I have gained some confidence in.