PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH FLIES
The Pheasant Tail Nymph suggests all sorts of real trout food throughout the season. The standard pattern developed by English River Keeper Frank Sawyer, uses the butt ends of the Pheasant to build a wing case. A useful variation is this fly tied as a gold bead head. Frank did not try to suggest legs in his design as he had observed that nymphs tuck them in when swimming. He devised the pattern for use on the River Avon in Wiltshire in Southern England. it quickly became world famous. Frank's book 'nymphs and Trout' first published in 1958 describes the method of tying and fishing the nymph. The main theme in all of his patterns is simplicity. Franks wife was an expert fly tyer. For years she supplemented his earnings by producing batches of  Pheasant Tail Nymphs for sale to anglers

Early fly fishing in America was influenced very significantly by English traditions, particularly before 1920. Today, America has its own flies, techniques and equipment. However, some English traditions still have a tremendous influence. One of these is the work of George Edward MacKenzie Skues, a solitary bachelor lawyer and master of the famous River Itchen, in Hampshire, Southern England. (the same UK county where the English Fly Fishing Shop first started) Between 1900 and 1939, Skues wrote dozens of articles for British fishing magazines as well as several influential books, almost exclusively on fishing for trout with nymphs. Skues successor as a leader in British nymph fishing was Frank Sawyer. If Skues is the grandfather of modern nymph fishing, Frank Sawyer is the father. In G E M Skues extreme old age he encouraged and helped Frank Sawyer to publish his findings, realizing that the young keeper had hit upon something truly significant. 

The Pheasant Tail is, without doubt, the best may fly nymph imitation ever designed. For example just have a look at a photograph of a Blue Winged Olive nymph and you will see that it is a wonderful match for it's shape and color. The nymph is designed to sink fast when presented up stream to a subsurface feeding trout. It works effectively in the moving water of streams and the still water of lakes. It is one of the five most popular trout flies used. Different types of may flies appear all year long, and the nymph stage is the easiest one for trout to find consistently. May fly's nymphs are versatile as they can live in fast, turbulent water, or in slow or still water environments. By shuffling the gravel on a stream or lake, and looking on stream bed rocks, you'll find the nymphs and it's a simple matter of matching the fly size to get a convincing match. The may fly nymph on a stream river or lake bed will try to hide and can be difficult of fish to find unlike the mature nymphs that rise to the surface to emerge into the adult dun may fly. 

If you see trout darting from side to side under the water they are grabbing rising mature may fly nymphs as they are swept past on the current. You do not need a heavily weighted artificial fly to imitate these ascending nymphs. With it's streamlined shape the pheasant tail nymph penetrates the water surface instantly and sinks quickly. If lifted gently in front of or beside a fish to simulate the upward movement of the real natural insect rising to the surface you can induce a 'take'. To document the effectiveness of this pattern, Gary Borger, in his book Nymphs, noted that in 1973 he received Frank Sawyer's book for his birthday and from it tied some Pheasant Tail nymphs for use on a Montana spring creek. In his first experience with this fly, he caught 27 fish in 100 feet of stream in 2 hours, all between 1 and 3.5 pounds. While I make no promises, this anecdote illustrates why you need to add this fly to your nymph selection, if you have not already done so. It's a good idea to carry a good size assortment of Pheasant Tail Nymphs. The English Fly fishing Shop carries a range of six Pheasant Tail Nymphs. They all have flash on the top of their body but the flashback pheasant tail nymph has it on top of the whole length of the nymph. The flash helps catch the eye of passing trout. We have also used crystal (also known as Fritz or Krystal) on one of the flies for fishing dark colored waters. Light will flash on the crystal and draw the fish. Don't leave home without them!

CUSTOMER'S COMMENTS
Pheasant Tail Nymphs in size 16, 14 & 12 are in my top ten list of flies. Most of my fishing is on rivers and streams in Maine, USA. Occasionally I'll canoe a few ponds. Most noted are the rivers of Kennebec, Penobscot, Moose, Crooked, Rapid, Messalonskee, Kenebago, Grand Lake Stream, Magaloway, Dead River, Kenduskeag and Sebasticook. As always tight lines, Jeff Haresear

CUSTOMER'S COMMENTS
I have had the Pheasant Tail Nymph take countless trout in the 2-6lb range in Iceland. Adrian Latimer, France

DEEP WATER BOAT FISHING
Chris Reeves is a local guide and active competition fly fisherman. His favorite match fishing deep water boat fishing technique involves having a very long leader the same length as the depth of the water. He ties on four buzzers. Pheasant Tail nymphs or soft hackled 'Spider' wet flies. the trick is to make a long cast down stream, then wait until the boat has floated directly on top of the flies. The flies have had time to sink to the bottom. he then begins the retrieve. The flies move up to the surface vertically mimicking the natural emerging insects as they make their way up to the surface. He keeps his rod tip near the surface above them and makes a stop start gentle retrieve with no slack line. When the fish take they are slightly disorientated at first and move up towards the boat but then hang on as they realize what has happened and try to swim off 

THE WASHING LINE RIG
I like using this set up of buzzers and Pheasant Tail Nymphs on droppers when other tactics are not working. Rather than have the point fly at the end of your leader, the largest and heaviest fly to help the leader sink, I tie on a very buoyant booby nymph. This keeps the end of the leader up near the surface. I then tie on a mixture of three buzzers or Pheasant Tail Nymphs each on their own dropper. They dangle down in the water, off the horizontal leader, just like clothing hanging down from a washing line. It simulates buzzers that are nearing the surface just before they reach the top and emerge into adults. I tie the leader onto an intermediate or slow sinking line. In August during a heatwave I went to a local fishery in Southern England. Talking to a few of the anglers on the lake they said that the fishing was slow as expected. They were all fishing deep with three buzzers on droppers tied to a long leader. If I did the same I would get the same results. It was too early for a hatch but I believed that the nymphs might be getting ready for the hatch and moving up through the water. I tied on a 'washing line rig' and sent out my first cast. I caught four times the amount of fish as the other stillwater fly fishermen.

TAILING TROUT
There is a trout feeding pattern that you should always be on the look out for. The tell tale sign is when you see a fish tail popping out of the water. The fish is head down in the weed, sometimes ripping out the weed with its mouth, trying to disturb all the shrimp, nymphs, pupa and scuds that have sort refuge in the weed. This is where they live and feed. This is the only way trout and grayling can get at weed imbedded insects and crustaceans. The fish dive aggressively head long into the weed mass with the object of panicking the residents to make a dash to an alternative place of safety. This is what the fish are after. They start to feed on all the fleeing food forms. Do not cast when you see tailing trout. Wait until the tails have disappeared and the fish are hunting. The harvesting of panicked insect phase is when the fly fisher can make the most impact. Place your fly in the feeding zone and let it let it drift at the mercy of the current and to tumble about just like the naturals. Give a short sharp strip to imitate them fleeing to escape.

FISHING FOR TROUT OR STEELHEADS IN SALMON COUNTRY
If you are lucky enough to live, or go fishing in a salmon fishing area, from July onwards lookout for the red marked salmon lying in mid stream. It is salmon spawning time. It is not hard to locate trout or steelheads. Just look about three feet behind every pair of spawning salmon. The trout are fixed on eating salmon eggs that escape the gravel nest being made to keep the eggs. Egg patterns are a good choice but are not the only pattern to choose. Before spawning takes the salmon pair up. They then start digging a groove in the gravel of the river bed. This is called a 'redd'. This nest building activity disturbs and flushes out insects from the gravel. The trout are on the look out for mayfly nymphs and caddis larvae. If your egg patterns are not working because the fish are being very selective try a Pheasant Tail nymph. They will get you a good sized fish that you might not be able to fool with a traditional egg.  If you are fishing water that allows the use of a dropper, try a Pheasant Tail nymph behind an egg pattern. The egg will get the trout's attention but you will be surprised how many reject the egg and go after the nymph. If the regulations do not allow this type of fishing I normally like to spot a good target fish. It may take about 15 drifts of the nymph in front of of the fish. Most feeding trout will eventually take the fly.

NYMPH FLIES
Nymphs and most wet flies are very similar, they both represent insects in their aquatic life stage. This stage comes before the adult stage (dry fly). While nymphs and wet flies may imitate slightly different things, the main difference is wet flies have wings and nymphs do not. These flies weigh a little more than a dry fly, and weight is often added to them in order for them to achieve the proper depth. This additional weight makes them a little harder to cast but the good news is that there is almost no wind resistance. Generally fish nymph flies along the bottom, moving it slowly and smoothly. Every now and then dart the fly forward as if it is attacking its prey. It can also appear to a fish that it is trying to escape from its advances. Such movements may induce a following trout to take your fly.

If the water is not clear and you cannot see your target fish you will have to read the water to try and find out the best place to cast your fly. Large areas of the river will hold no trout at all. Trout are usually solitary feeders and can normally be found next to something solid like a big boulder, patch of weeds, or the river bank. They lie up in stretches of the river where there is a high concentration of food. Look for creases on the water surface. These are lines that normally run downstream. They are caused by bodies of water, flowing at different rates, colliding. Trout food is concentrated in and around these creases. There is often slack water by the river bank and fast flowing water a few inches away. This is why a lot of trout can be found near the bank. Boulders and weedbeds cause the water to speed up to as they get past them. A crease is formed between the fast and slow water that traps floating aquatic insects in the eddies.  Fish the crease and providing the trout are feeding you will catch fish.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF NYMPH FISHING
Many of the very early flies fished below the surface were being used in the North of England and Scotland. Many of these wet fly techniques were being developed into a fine art. Down in the South of England , during the Victorian era, on the clear chalk streams of Hampshire and Wiltshire it was the floating or Dry Fly technique that became popular in fly fishing  circles. It was considered the most sporting method of tempting trout. By the end of the nineteenth century the rule of 'dry fly only' had become entrenched on most rivers. this was despite knowing fact that large river fish rarely feed on the surface. These values were transported around the British Empire.

However this dogma was challenged by one G.E.M. Skues, who fished on the famous River Itchen. Skues made himself very unpopular with the Victorian dry fly traditionalists, by singing the praises of a nymph pattern fished just beneath the surface to represent a hatching fly. Eventually Skues' arguments won the day and on most chalk streams the rules were changed so Gentlemen could fish either a floating fly or a nymph. With the 'rot' having set in, Frank Sawyer, a South England, Hampshire Avon river keeper, publicized his new 'induced take' method of fishing a heavily weighted nymph from near the river bottom. A method still widely used on both chalk and rough water streams.

With the building of  reservoirs for public water supplies the opportunity for trout fishing increased in areas that previously had poor fishing resources. Many of the reservoirs are extremely deep and new nymph fishing techniques and lures have been developed to tempt the huge trout that live at the bottom. The growing popularity of stillwater trout fishing has led to many farmers and landowners digging trout pools as an extra source of revenue. These small stillwater lakes and ponds make fly fishing accessible to more people.

WINTER FLY FISHING
There is normally no need to hurry to be on the water before noon in winter and you will be finished by dusk. The best winter fishing is during the warmest part of the day. Trout food is not as scarce as you think at this time of the year. You might not see any insect activity on the water surface but there is lots of activity on the bottom as they prepare for the coming season of hatches. A trout’s metabolism slows in the cold water but it still needs to eat to survive. They may not eat as much as in the summer but they still search out food.

Nymph fishing is the best method for this time of the year. Lightning Bug, Copper John, Beaded Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear Nymphs and Pheasant Tail Nymphs fished dead drift in the current can be very productive. Make sure you work the water thoroughly as cold winter trout will not move a great distance to take a fly. I concentrate on deeper runs, pools and shallow water. I fish slow and deep on a floating line with a strike detector. Takes can be subtle so you have to concentrate hard.

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