What it is
Frank Sawyer tied the Pheasant Tail on the Hampshire Avon in the 1950s from two materials, cock pheasant tail fibres and fine copper wire, to imitate the slim swimming mayfly nymphs of a chalk stream. It has since become the general nymph of the world, and in Australia it is the slim, dark half of the starter pair with a Hare's Ear on every trout stream from the Snowy Mountains to Tasmania's rivers and the streams of the south-west of Western Australia. This guide fishes it weighted through pocket water and runs, and unweighted in the film when mayflies are emerging and the fish will not take a dry.
Anatomy
From the bend forward: a tail of three or four cock pheasant tail fibres. A slim abdomen of the same fibres wound forward, ribbed with fine copper wire in open turns (on Sawyer's original the wire is the thread, the weight and the rib at once). A thorax of peacock herl, or a small ball of dubbing on modern ties, over an underbody of wire for weight. A wing case of pheasant tail fibres pulled forward over the thorax and tied down. A tungsten bead at the eye on the bead-head version, copper or black. A thread head on the bead-less tie.
Key features
- Slimness. A real mayfly nymph is thin. The Pheasant Tail's narrow silhouette is what separates it from the fatter Hare's Ear, and why fish take one when they ignore the other.
- Colour. The reddish brown of pheasant tail and the bronze of peacock herl are the colours of most stream nymphs, and the copper rib flashes like a nymph's segments.
- Weight where you want it. Sawyer's wire underbody, or a tungsten bead, sinks a slim fly fast. A flashback version with a strip of tinsel over the wing case adds a spark for coloured water.
- Two flies in one. Weighted, it is the bottom half of a dry-dropper or a tight-line nymph. Unweighted and greased, it fishes as an emerger in the film.
Typical materials
| Part | Typical material |
|---|---|
| Hook | Standard nymph hook, size 12 to 20; a jig hook on the modern tie |
| Bead | Tungsten, 2 to 3.5 mm, copper or black (bead-head version) |
| Thread | 8/0 or 70 denier, brown; fine copper wire on Sawyer's original |
| Tail | Cock pheasant centre-tail fibres, three or four |
| Abdomen | The same fibres wound forward, tapered |
| Rib | Fine copper wire |
| Thorax | Peacock herl, or brown or hare's ear dubbing |
| Wing case | Pheasant tail fibres; a strip of pearl tinsel over them on the flashback |
Fishing it
Weight it enough to tick the bed in the water you are actually fishing, not the water you walked past. In a pocket, drop it at the head, let it sink, and lead it through on a tight line so you feel the take. In a run, a dead drift under an Adams or a foam hopper as a dry-dropper covers more water with less guessing.
If you are not ticking occasionally, you are too light. If you are hanging up every cast, you are too heavy or fishing the rocks instead of the seam. Change weight before you change fly. See nymphing pocket water for the rig and the mistakes that cost fish, and carry a Hare's Ear beside it for the day the fish want the fatter fly.
