The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

Nymph

Prince Nymph

Insect Species Icon March Brown, Green Drake, Isonychia and 5 others
Difficulty Icon Easy - 3-5 Min
Water Category Icon Coldwater

Tying Video

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Tying Recipe
  • Hook: Straight Hook, Down Eye Nymph Hook
  • Bead: Brass or Tungsten Beadhead
  • Wire: .015 Lead-Free Round Wire
  • Thread: UTC 70
  • Tail: Goose Biots
  • Wire: UTC Brassie Wire Gold
  • Body: Peacock Herl
  • Head: Saddle Hackle Feather
  • Wings: Goose Biots
  • Wire: Gold or Silver Tinsel

If you want to tie a proper prince nymph, the materials and substitutions above should be what you do.  However, there are several variations that are shown below and we’ll include the recipes below.  YOu can variate on this pattern a lot and sub in materials, but what makes it “prince” like is usually some incorporation of goose biots for the tail and goose biots for the “horns” or “wing case”

Rubberleg Prince Nymph

Same as everything as above except before the hackle and white biots, you add a set of rubberlegs on the sides.  I like spanflex, but small to medium black or barred rubber legs are great too.  You can get white legs and then color them with permanent marker too.

Psycho Prince Nymph

  • Hook: Straight Hook, Down Eye Nymph Hook
  • Bead: Brass or Tungsten Beadhead
  • Wire: .015 Lead-Free Round Wire
  • Thread: UTC 70
  • Tail: Goose Biots
  • Wire: UTC Brassie Wire Gold
  • Body: SLF Purple Dubbing
  • Head: SLF Purple and Tan Dubbing
  • Wings: McFlyLon in White and white goose biots tied on the side of the hook.

The Fly Formerly Called Prince

Simply use red goose biots and a read hot spot of thread at the top and you’ve got the variation complete.

 

I don’t care who you are or where you fish, trout will eat this fly. How’s that for a benefit? Much like a pheasant tail, or parachute adams, this fly is so popular because it works so well in so many places during so many times of the year. It’s versatile, allowing you to tie different colors and styles allowing for different uses, but the standard is hard to beat. Psycho princes are a close second but still don’t perform as well as the original in my opinion. This is a fly everyone should have in their box in sizes 12 – 18 at least if not 8 – 18.

As with all top producing flies, you can’t really go wrong fishing this in any way.  A traditional 2 – 3 fly nymph set up under an indicator or in a euro rig makes this fly very effective.  I’ve found particular luck during early spring and summer months.

A tip on sizes is to start in the spring with sizes 16 and each week or two, go down a size until you get to 12 or 10. Then every two weeks after, go back up a size until you get back to 16’s and 18’s.  The key strategy to understand here is smaller flies in early spring and late fall, and progressively get bigger until mid summer, then slow it down.  I’ve had best luck with sizes this way, but I’ll admit it is a generalization.

Dragonfly

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

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

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

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

Salmonfly

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest
Salmonfly
Sizes: #6 - #14

Skwala Stone

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest
Skwala Stone
Sizes: #12 - #16

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