The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

Nymph

American Pheasant Tail Nymph

Insect Species Icon Blue Wing Olive, March Brown, Yellow Sally and 9 others
Difficulty Icon Easy - 1-3 Min
Water Category Icon Coldwater

Tying Video

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Tying Recipe
  • Hook: Straight shank, down eye, nymph hook
  • Thread: UTC 70
  • Tails: Pheasant tail fibers
  • Rib: Copper Wire
  • Body: Wrapped pheasant tail fibers
  • Thorax: Peacock herl
  • Wing Case: Pheasant tail fibers
  • Legs: Pheasant tail fibers
  • Tails: Try hackle fibers for various flare
  • Rib: Various flash or copper wire
  • Thorax: Try red-dyed peacock herl to stand out
  • Wing Case: Add a flashback with your favorite flash
  • Legs: Use rubber legs to make things extra-buggy

The Pheasant Tail is one of the most widely varied patterns in existence and for a good reason! Be sure to carry a wide selection of these variations as they really work well. Add a beadhead to get things a little deeper or tie in some flash to use a flashback in murkier water. Adding soft hackle can be a great way to stick out from the crowd and catch a lot of fish. Think outside the box with these variations as there are simply endless possibilities.

  • Hook Variations: Jig Style, Straight Shank or Curved Shank Hooks
  • Bead Variations: Jig/Slotted Bead, Brass, Tungsten and Glass Beads
  • Pheasant Tail Variations: Different colors of died pheasant tail, brown, natural, black, red, olive, yellow etc
  • Different Body Wraps:  You can wrap wire completely over the pheaseant tail to make a copper john type of body.  Mix and match wire colors or go two-tone to make a variation of wide colors
  • Hot Spot Heads: different thread colors of hot spots, red, orange, blue, purple etc
  • Rubber Leg it Up:  all different kinds of rubber legs
  • Otrich herl: sub in ostrich herl for the body

The American Pheasant Tail is a great all-around pattern that every angler should always have in their box. Not imitating anything with excentric detail, the American Pheasant Tail is one of the world’s best flies and does so by imitating a lot of insects at once. If you’re not catching fish, you should probably put one of these on. Extremely versatile, this fly can be fished behind a dry fly or subsurface on a nymph rig; both of these techniques will really produce with the American Pheasant Tail.

Confidence should be in abundance with the American Pheasant Tail. Be sure to key in to the depth of fish for success using the American Pheasant Tail.  Anywhere mayflies are present in the river, this fly will produce fish.  Make sure to carry a variety of sizes and colors to match the nymphs for each area.  When fish are rising but not to your dry, try skating this upstream like a streamer and fish will often strike it.

Blue Wing Olive

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24
Region: Northwest
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24
Region: East
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24
Region: Southeast
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24
Region: Midwest
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24

Brown Drake

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West
Brown Drake
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: Northwest
Brown Drake
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: East
Brown Drake
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: Midwest
Brown Drake
Sizes: #10 - #14

Callibaetis

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West
Callibaetis
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: Northwest
Callibaetis
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: East
Callibaetis
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: Midwest
Callibaetis
Sizes: #12 - #18

Golden Stonefly

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West
Golden Stonefly
Sizes: #8 - #16
Region: Northwest
Golden Stonefly
Sizes: #8 - #16
Region: East
Golden Stonefly
Sizes: #8 - #16
Region: Midwest
Golden Stonefly
Sizes: #8 - #16

Green Drake

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, Midwest
Green Drake
Sizes: #8 - #14
Region: East
Green Drake
Sizes: #8 - #14

Hendrickson

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: East, Midwest
Hendrickson
Sizes: #10 - #16

Isonychia

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: East
Isonychia
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: Southeast
Isonychia
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: Midwest
Isonychia
Sizes: #12 - #18

Light Cahill

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: East
Light Cahill
Sizes: #12 - #20
Region: Midwest
Light Cahill
Sizes: #12 - #20
Region: Northwest
Light Cahill
Sizes: #12 - #20

Little Black Stone

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, East
Little Black Stone
Sizes: #14 - #20
Region: Midwest
Little Black Stone
Sizes: #14 - #20

March Brown

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, East
March Brown
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: Northwest
March Brown
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: Midwest
March Brown
Sizes: #10 - #14

PMD

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, East, Southeast, Midwest
PMD
Sizes: #14 - #20

Yellow Sally

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Midwest
Yellow Sally
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: Northwest
Yellow Sally
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: East, Southeast
Yellow Sally
Sizes: #12 - #18

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