The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

Nymph

Hackled Skip Nymph

Insect Species Icon Quill Gordon, Blue Wing Olive, Callibaetis and 10 others
Difficulty Icon Easy - 7-10 Min
Water Category Icon Coldwater

Tying Video

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Tying Recipe
  • Hook: Slightly Humped Shank, Down Eye, Standard Wire, 2X Long
  • Thread: UNI 8/0, Brown
  • Weight: .010 Lead Free Wire
  • Rib: Small Ultra Wire, Copper
  • Body: Hare’s Mask Dubbing, Natural
  • Thorax: Hare’s Mask Dubbing, Natural
  • Tail: Pheasant Tail, Natural
  • Back: Pheasant Tail, Natural
  • Hackle: India Hen Back, Natural
  • Wing Case: Pheasant Tail, Natural

This fly uses just a few materials, but most of them serve more than one purpose. This makes it very cost efficient to tie, which is always nice to hear in the world of fly fishing. There are also some substitutions that can be made, even better!

Body: You can use Squirrel or Rabbit Dubbing in a Hare’s Mask color for this part of the fly.

Thorax: You can use Squirrel or Rabbit Dubbing in a Hare’s Mask color for this part of the fly.

Hackle: Partridge in a Natural color will also look nice as the hackle choice on this bug.

One of the biggest changes you can make to this fly is to add in a bead. You can add a regular or tungsten bead, depending on your preference. You can also do away with the hackle and add in rubber legs, or keep the hackle and add in rubber legs for some extra movement and an extremely buggy appearance. You can change up the color of the pheasant tail as well if you so choose. Having multiple sizes will pay off on the water!

The Hackled Skip Nymph requires very few extremely common materials to tie. That is always a welcome piece of information to any tier who plans on taking on a new bug. The bushy nature of this pattern is one of the things that draw fish to it like a magnet. Get to your vise and whip up some of these bugs as soon as you can. There should always a place for these flies in anyones box!

Whether you’re trying to imitate specific mayflies, or just need a general search pattern, this fly is your guy. It does a great job of giving an impression of many of the mayfly species, but can also be quite the successful bug in new water situations where you’re not totally sure what the bug life is like. You can fish this bug anywhere in your nymph rig, depending on the weight. You can also fish it as the dropper in a dry dropper rig in the lighter weight versions.

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

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

Hexegenia

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, East, Southeast, Midwest
Hexegenia
Sizes: #6 - #12

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

Mahogany Dun

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

Quill Gordon

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: East, Southeast
Quill Gordon
Sizes: #12 - #16

Trico

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest
Trico
Sizes: #18 - #26
Region: East, Southeast, Midwest
Trico
Sizes: #18 - #26

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