ISO Nymph

[Dave_W]

Swimming ISO nymph...

 

[LongLineRelease]

Always cool Dave

 

[acesedgley]

Let's see it swimmin'!
U gotta demo tying the swimming green drake nymph at the Jam.
That thing was awesome.

 

[MathFish]

That is a great looking nymph!

In the photo, it looks like the head of the nymph is in front of the eye of the hook. Is that the case?

If that is the case, would you mind sharing how you accomplish that effect? I realize that it could be a tying technique that you developed on your own and that you might want to keep the technique to yourself... so if you don’t want to share, I completely respect your decision. (I also realize that I may be misinterpreting what I’m seeing...)

Nonetheless, that is a SWEET nymph!

 

[blueheron]

Nice tie, one of my top flies for sure.

 

[Steeltrap]

How do you get that yellow line on the back? Do you set 'em out when the road crews are gonna paint the yellow lines on the highway? :-D

But seriously.....hook size? Materials? Degree of difficulty?

Thanks

 

[tomgamber]

You know that stump of soft feather you have left after you use up a piece of hackle? I used to tie one of those flat over the abdomen on ISO nymphs. They made the best gills sticking out from the sides. Looked and fished great.

this is as close a pic as i can find that uses a similar method.

 

[Dave_W]

tomgamber wrote:
You know that stump of soft feather you have left after you use up a piece of hackle? I used to tie one of those flat over the abdomen on ISO nymphs. They made the best gills sticking out from the sides. Looked and fished great.

Agree. This is precisely the technique I have used in this pattern although the tips are trimmed.

Another excellent material for tying abdominal gills on traditional nymphs is palmered ostrich herl.

 

[Dave_W]

Steeltrap wrote:
How do you get that yellow line on the back?
But seriously.....hook size? Materials? Degree of difficulty?

Thanks

For the typical ISO racing stripe, I'm using white Ultra Wire.

I've experimented with white thread and that works well too although it tends to darken if you put any form of epoxy or other sealant on it.

The legs are the small rubber product sold as "Centipede Legs" (ISO nymphs have mottled legs).

This fly is about 3/4 of an inch in body length and is tied on a #12 scud hook. I would rate the fly as difficult as it requires the breaking and redesign of the hook shank and an embedded counterweight.

In this case,I design the body separately using a concoction of materials. The body is then tied over a fur wrapped shank, secured with heavy thread and Shoegoo, and picked out with a wire brush.

The earlier green drake pattern I posted is a wiggle style body with separate thorax and abdomen. This ISO is a single body style.

Here's another view of the fly...

 

[Dave_W]

MathFish wrote:

In the photo, it looks like the head of the nymph is in front of the eye of the hook. Is that the case?

If that is the case, would you mind sharing how you accomplish that effect?

Yes, that's correct.

I get this effect by redesigning the hook shank. The over-body is split at the head so as to extend around the eye. The goal behind doing this is to tilt the fly when retrieved and ensure that it rides hook downward (this fly and the green drake are designed to be fished high in the water column and swim hook downward). I do this in quite a few of my flies, including some streamers.

The best example I can think of to describe this is a conventional lure like the Rattle-Trap. These lures have the eye well back from the nose of the lure. This eye position and the slope of the lure helps ensure it swims properly when pulled through the water. This is what I'm trying to replicate on a much smaller scale.

All,
Thanks for the compliments!

 

[LongLineRelease]

I talked the WetFly01 at the Edison Show. He said he uses dental floss for the dorsal stripe. I'd like to try that out since regular white tying floss just seems to disapear when it gets wet.

 

[tomgamber]

Out of curiosity I just painted the stem of the hackle butt white and left it on top. Just put a wire rib through it. Didn't seem to make much difference. Went back to doing it the right way out of durability later. I have an old spool of white floss I normally used.

 

[Steeltrap]

Nice tie!! Thank you for the information!!

 

[blueheron]

I use ostrich for the gills, not palmered, just run parallel on the sides. They are tied in at the back and the tips are the three tails.

 

[afishinado]

LongLineRelease wrote:
I talked the WetFly01 at the Edison Show. He said he uses dental floss for the dorsal stripe. I'd like to try that out since regular white tying floss just seems to disapear when it gets wet.

I often use dental floss to imitate the ISO white stripe.

LOL...but there is a multiude of types of dental floss. The flat type is too wide. To get the right look, try using the thinner, rounded waxed floss to get the effect. Also, as TomG posted a light colored stem from near the base of a hackle feather works well. Like with everything, try different things until you find what works best.

 

[tracker12]

Very buggy for sure.