Tungsten Headed Nymph

red tungsten head ptn

Materials required (supplier in brackets)

  • Hook: #16 or #18 Barbless jig hook (Hends, Dohiku, JMC, Partridge or similar)
  • Head: Gold, silver, copper plated 2mm diameter, slotted, tungsten beads.
  • Rib: Small diameter red copper wire (UTC Ultra Wire or similar)
  • Tail and Body: Long Cock Pheasant Tail Fibres (Cookshill, Sportfish or Veniard’s)
  • Dubbing: Peacock glister (Sportfish, Veniard’s or Hends)

Instructions

  1. Thread slotted bead onto the hook (non-slotted end first) and push it up the hook shank until front of the bead butts up against the eye of the hook.
  2. Put on a generous number of thread wraps to secure bead firmly in place.
  3. Tie in a generous length of copper wire for the ribbing.
  4. Tear off approximately eight fibres from the pheasant tail and tie them in at the back of the hook shank to make a tail. If necessary pull the fibres through the thread wraps to make the tail the correct length (same length as the hook shank).
  5. Put wraps around the fibres, to secure them all the way up the hook shank to the back of the tungsten beads.
  6. Fold the pheasant tail fibres over and secure them all the way back down the hook shank to the tail.
  7. Wrap the fibres around the shank, all the way back up to the beads, to form a body.
  8. Take the copper wire and rib the body, in the counter direction to the body turns, all the way up to the beads.
  9. Tie in the copper and “worry” it to break off the tag end.
  10. Dub a small amount of glister onto the tying thread and form a “buggy” thorax.
  11. Finish off with a whip finish.

Fishing the fly

The fly can be fished as the dropper fly on a team of nymphs, or suspended from a dry fly, such as a klinkhamer, New Zealand style. The latter is very effective for catching fish and covering a lot of water.

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