Mallard and Peacock Nymph SBS

Mallard and Peacock Nymph
Mallard and Peacock Nymph
Type of fly	Nymph
Originator of Pattern if known	Webrx - Dave Little
Tied and submitted by	Webrx
Level of tying experience need to tioe this pattern	Beginner a simple but very effective pattern
Materials in order of tie-in
Hook	Nymph hook, a 2xl size 12 here
Thread	Tan
Tail and Shellback	Around 8 -10 fibers from a yellow dyed Mallard flank feather the length of the hook. Fold the butts end over towards the rear of the hook after tie-in, this will be folded forward later to become the shell back
Ribbing	Ultrawire size small
Body	Peacock herl
Hackle	Grizzly (eed dyed here) palmered up the body. (Palmered = wound in open turns rather than tight touching turns used to form a hackle collar)
Shellback	After body has been formed and hackle wrapped, the butt ends of the mallard flank tail are pulled over the top of the body and tied down
Head	Thread
Start your thread and tie in the tail, then fold the butt section back for later use - do not trim it off
Tie in your wire and hackle
Tie in your herl (3 strands used here) leaving thread about 2 eye lengths from eye
Wrap the herl forward and tie down, trim excess
Wrap the hackle forward and counter wrap the wire rib
Pull the mallard flank over the top and tie it down
Trim any hackle that angles up, leaving the hackle that goes to the sides or down
Whip finish and add a little head cement and your done.
Note: If you do everything the same, but swap out the mallard flank for olive or burnt orange maribou, you basically have a Denny's Stillwater Nymph (Denny uses simi-seal for the body, and I use peacock herl but they are basically the same)
Fishing notes	This (and Denny's) nymph is extremely effective for stillwaters when baetis or damsel nymphs are in the water. I fish this either on a sinking line or on a floating line generally down about 2 to 4 feet. When fishing, impart a little action to it, i.e. from your tube or boat, or shore, cast it out, let it sink a little and then bring it back in a couple 2 inch strips, followed by a couple second pause. I like to also fish it right at the edges of weed beds where they drop off to deeper water. I have caught fish (16 to 20 inchers) at Davis Lake on this fly when nobody else was catching anything. It also works well at Frenchman's. Have fun. Dave