Here’s a great fly pattern that comes from the youth movement in fly fishing—specifically from two members of the US Youth Fly Fishing Team, Hunter Hoffler and Doug Freeman. Freeman showed the fly to author and blogger Matt Grobert, who demonstrates it here. What sets this fly apart is its sparseness and ability to sink quickly through the water column, which can help immensely when the fish are focused on the bottom of the river.
In this video from Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions, Grobert shows in great detail how to get the proportions, the segmentation, and the sparseness of the pattern just right. I love the trick for tying in the stripped peacock quill. This looks like a great fly for spring olives!
Blue-winged Olive Quill Nymph
Hook: Barbless dry-fly hook, size 16.
Bead: Silver tungsten bead, 2mm.
Thread: Fire Orange, 6/0.
Tail: Medium Pardo Coq de Leon, sparse.
Abdomen: Golden olive peacock quill, stripped.
Collar/thorax: Dark brown squirrel dubbing.
Hot Spot: Tying thread.
Note: There are two distinct lines of Coq de Leon. “Pardo,” or the
brown line, features feathers that are marked with fine speckling.
Aw, this was an incredibly good post. Finding the time and
actual effort to produce a really good article… but what can I say… I put
things off a whole lot and never seem to get anything
done.