Legs ….

a prime trigger for fish accepting a nymph when looking at a fly from a distance checking for «triggers» in the silhouette. I believe fish do the same. Tiny details which set an edible item apart from a piece of debris floating in the water column. A big part of this is the correct presentation of the fly, the appropriate size, shape and very very important ….. LEGS

The silhouette of insect legs is no exception. They are also very characteristic. Even from alrger distance these tiny legs can be identified as such. This, in my mind is prime trigger for fish too.

The fly shown is an upside-down tied variation of the famous pattern by Oliver Edwards. It fishes very well and is a lot of fun to tie. You need a pheasant tail feather. Take a few fibers off the the main stem by ripping them in a 90 degrees angle from the main stem. The fiber roots make nice little feet.

The problem is how to angle the fibers sort of 90 degrees from the body of the fly.  This is solved by «pulling» the fiber into a softer material. The fiber is held by the tying thread in the softer material. The remaining fiber is clipped off.

So this «soft material» is the basis for you fly. You can use all sorts of materials for that task. One very common solution is latex strips in 3mm width offered by various manufacturers. Make sure it is not too thin. I am very happy with a product called “Nymphskin” sold by Virtual Nymph Products in England. That material is also used by Oliver Edwards for his original design.

The following pictures take you through the whole process of tying a Hydropsyche larva. These bugs live in abundance under rocks in streams. I highly recommend you examine the river bed and see what you can find.

USD Hydropsyche Larva

Why upside down?

Well, you can use a bigger hook and the pattern is easier to tie, I think. You can of course use the same type of hook in regular fashion and have the legs on the same side as the hook point, meaning under the hook eye. For the fishing it makes no and if only minimal difference.

Materials: Grubs Hooks (Partridge CZ or CZF), lead foil or wire, a filoplume (small feather found under the main feather on a partridge), ostrich feather, pheasant tail, latex strip 3mm, marker pens, UV cured resin. two bobbin holders, Dyneema thread white & regular thread black.

Note: If you do not have UV curing resin you can use normal head cement, but be aware that this takes much longer to dry.

lead foil or wire

Virtual Nymph Products Nymphskin

UV goo and UV lamp

Pheasant tail feather

a filoplume (small feather found under the main feather on a partridge)

Ostrich feather

Caddis grub hook

cover the hook with lead foil

thread base

filoplume for tail

Tie in two fibers of the ostrich feather. These small «hairs» on this fibres will later represent the breathers on the belly-side of the bug.

Cut a corner of the latex forming a tag you can easily tie in. Fix the latex securely on the hook. Pull the latex while you tie it in. This thins the latex so the material becomes less obtrusive and «bumpy». Note: Leave the tying thread and bobbin holder «behind».

wrap the nymph in overlapping turns

tie off the nymph skin using a second bobbin with thread

whip finish and snip off remains

fix the ostrich herl with the thread which you had left behind

Now on to the legs. Bring the fibres of the first pair of legs under the thread. I find it easiest to lay the thread in the respective groove and bring the fibres one by one, holding the fibre with both hands on one either end and «lift» the thread with the fiber just enough so it slides into place. It helps to use a thin synthetic thread as these tend to be more «slippery». After having place the two «legs», pull them into the latex. The «feet» will be orientate depending on how you have placed the fiber. I like to place the root of the fibre forward over towards the eye of the hook with the kinked part of fibre root facing down. But I leave that is up to you, just make sure to be consistent.

A neat trick to make these larva legs look more real is to start with the first pair rather central and than bring the second pair more to the sides, in other word separating the pairs gradually. The larva uses its front legs more like arms to grab food items and such. So I try to bring the fibres to the very sides of the fly.

Using the hook eye as a reference point for measuring the length of the legs is another neat trick. Since the distance between the tie in point and the hook of the eye is becoming ever shorter the legs are too. I think it adds to the neatness and overall appearance.

Set the last pair of fibres and finish with a whip finish knot.

Start at the head and mark the segments over legs with a very dark brown or black water resistant marker pen

apply UV resin on the back and in between the legs. 

Get you UV lamp and cure the resin.

done … the finished fly

Update: we made a set of videos you find here:

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