Pheasant Tail Green Rockworm

(Click on the image to get a much, much larger jpeg version)

Materials

Hook: something in the style of an English bait hook (#20-#12)

Thread: olive

Rib: relatively strong olive thread (monocord works good)

Shellback & Tail: pheasant tail (see below)

Body: light olive angora goat

Thorax: olive squirrel dubbing

Tying Instructions

1.

So the first thing you need to do here is figure out how you want to place the hook in your vise. The wicked curve in an English bait hook is ideal for green rockworms & such, but has the drawback of making things a bit tricky for the tyer. If you are tying with a fixed vise like a Thompson A, it seems to work best if you start out with the eye of the hook set lower than normal, making the back half of the hook closer to being level. Then halfway through the body carefully loosen the hook and raise the eye to make the front half closer to level. I use a Regal vise now, so all I need to do is tilt the vise as I go.

2.

OK, so you have your hook tilted as you like in the vise. Attach the thread and wind back toward the bend. (notice that there are sort of two bends in this hook, a slow gradual one from the eye back, and a sharp one nearer to the point. From here on, when I refer to the bend, I'm talking about the sharper one.) Clip off a few fibers (depending on the hook size... say about 5 for a size 20, a dozen or more for size 12) from the pheasant tail. I like to use the fibers from the lower part of the central tail feathers, because they don't marry together, and have a nice iridescent tinge to them. For the olive flies above, I used a tail that was dyed yellow -- if you take a natural (unbleached!) pheasant tail and dye it yellow, you get a nice olive/brown color. Tie them in by the tips about 1/3 of the way up from the bend. The idea here is to leave just a hint of a tail (something like 1/4 of the body length) , to provide some movement, and simulate the gills and "anal prolegs" (oooh, fancy words...) of the natural. Don't trim the rest of the pheasant -- it will become the shellback .

3.

Tie in the monocord thread. Take a sip from an ice cold beverage.

4.

Start dubbing the body with the angora goat. You really don't need to taper it much, as the actual bugs aren't really tapered... And don't worry if its a bit lumpy, the natural is kinda lumpy anyway. The angora should cover about 2/3 the body length. Somewhere in there you may need to reposition the hook.

5.

Carefully pull the pheasant over the top of the body and wrap the olive monocord over it to hold it down. This also gives an added segmented effect. When you reach the point where you stopped dubbing, secure only the monocord with the thread, and leave the ends of the pheasant alone. You may want to secure them out of the way somewhere for the next step.

6.

Dub in the squirrel for the thorax. It should be a bit thicker and more shaggy than the angora. Leave a bit of space for the head.

7.

Now pull the pheasant over the top of the thorax & tie it off. Finish off the head and you are done. The head maybe should be a bit larger than it would be for most flies, since its actually simulating the bug's head. If you really want, you can put two back dots on either side of the head to simulate the eyes.

dmason@zebu.uoregon.edu