My favorite nymph (and how to tie it)

So I’ve already confessed to being a dry /:fly:/ fanatic but there are times where I will put on a nymph too, not often thought, and when I do you can be sure that it is a Fox poopah caddis nymf at the end of the tippet. I’ve often fished it underneath a Klinkhammer in a two /:fly:/set up, just tied in a second length of tippet at the bend of the klinkhammer and fish it at about a meters depth or so. The trout love it and the grayling too, and it is a very easy /:fly:/to tie too.

About six years ago I got some flies sent to me by my good friend Thom Sullivan in the US, one of them was the Fox Poopah. I hadn’t seen it before but I really liked to look of it. Once I tried it I liked it even more. I specially remember a small stream far north in Norway, I’ve been catching huge grayling on dry flies all week but had trouble at this spot. So I put on a fox poopah and started catching browns at every cast instead.

The /:fly:/was originally created by American Tim Fox around 1990 for use on the lower Sacramento. Here in Europe it is not a well known pattern but I think it deserves more attention.

The below step-by-step instructions was something I created for elmerfishing.com a few years ago, I was meaning to shoot new photos but since I am still feeling ill I gave up on that and you just have to do with the old ones, I think they will do fine.

Hook: any straigh hook size 12 and downwards. This is tied on a size 12 Partridge straight shank nymph hook.
Body: Micro chenille (“Vernille”) over flat silver tinsel and ribbed with oval silver
Legs: Patridge
Thorax: black ostrich
Antennas: Wood duck

Start with sliding any type of bead head on, I like those Nymph heads with articulated eyes.

Tie in the oval silver tinsel all the way from the head to the hook bend. Keep a smooth underbody

Catch in the flat silver tinsel at the back and tie that one down the hook shank all the way up to the head again.

Touch the end of a vernille piece with a flame to taper it slightly to the end.

Wind the flat tinsel in touching turns, tie off and tie in the body here.

Rib the body and trap it on the top side of the hook towards the hook eye and tie off.

Trap in a stripped down partridge feather on the underside, make the fibers about half way between the hook point and the bend.

Trap in two fibers from a wood duck feather as antennas, let them stick out a bit behind the body.

Tie in a black ostrich herl.

Wind the ostrich forward, tie off behind the head and finish it there! Voila!

Here’s a variant that I really like that uses a looped micro chenille for body instead, a fatter profile and perhaps a little more realistic profile.