Beadhead Pheasant Tail

The Pheasant Tail is one of the most commonly used and productive patterns you can have in your fly box. This pattern works anywhere, anytime as long as you use the right size. With some variation in the tying, you can add in flashback, or different colored pheasant tail fibers to imitate mayfly nymphs and stonefly nymphs with ease. In colder months, stick to smaller sizes (#16-24) and in warmer months you can get larger in sizes (#10-16). An all around good option for most places are #14 – #18.

It’s a fairly easy pattern to tie and one of my favorites to have in my box. Personally I always tie these with beadheads (tungsten) and tie in a variety of colors. I’ll sub out the body of pheasant tail and instead wrap my colored thread (yellow, orange, black, white, purple, etc) to cover the body of the fly and then finish it in the same way as the pattern below suggests. This provides a lot of color variation so I can match it to whatever mayfly nymph colors I find in the water.