During recent years many of my nymphs and buggers have been made entirely from one or two soft hackle feathers, usually marabou type feathers from Turkey, Quail and Partridge. They are made with a conehead or beadhead, and the fish gobble them up.
Here are a couple of links to other flies I have constructed with these feathers and for which I have previously provided step by step instructions:
Conehead Combo
One-feather Fly
The Hungarian Partridge Nymph is made along the lines of the one-feather fly, except that I am using two feathers. Partridge feathers are nicely sized for the hook I am tying with in the step by step pictures below, a Tiemco #5263 size 10.
The first feather serves as a tail and abdomen. The second feather serves as a thorax and a bunch of legs, and is applied with a dubbing loop.
The best feathers for the tail and abdomen are the ones with long fibers that point toward the tip of feather. When you tie the tip onto the shank, you capture a good percentage of the barbs. If you have an entire partridge skin, the best feathers for this will be flank feathers, and not feathers from the neck, saddle, or back.
Below are the two feathers that I used in constructing the fly below. See how the barbs are angled toward the tip?
Here are the tying steps I use:
Here are a couple of links to other flies I have constructed with these feathers and for which I have previously provided step by step instructions:
Conehead Combo
One-feather Fly
The Hungarian Partridge Nymph
The Hungarian Partridge Nymph is made along the lines of the one-feather fly, except that I am using two feathers. Partridge feathers are nicely sized for the hook I am tying with in the step by step pictures below, a Tiemco #5263 size 10.
The first feather serves as a tail and abdomen. The second feather serves as a thorax and a bunch of legs, and is applied with a dubbing loop.
The best feathers for the tail and abdomen are the ones with long fibers that point toward the tip of feather. When you tie the tip onto the shank, you capture a good percentage of the barbs. If you have an entire partridge skin, the best feathers for this will be flank feathers, and not feathers from the neck, saddle, or back.
Below are the two feathers that I used in constructing the fly below. See how the barbs are angled toward the tip?
Here are the tying steps I use:
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| Prepare the hook shank in the usual way. Used here: Size 10 TMC 5263 Beadhead dimension is 5/32 inch |
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| Tie in one partridge feather. |
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| Twist the feather to make a rope. Wrap the rope about 2/3 up the shank to create an abdomen. Tie down and snip off excess |
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| You may wish to trim off some of the barbs. However, it may fish even better if left long. |
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| Create a dubbing loop |
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| Insert second feather into dubbing loop. Trim off the stem and right side of the feather with scissors. Notice that the feather is positioned so the "fluffy" fibers will be applied to the shank last, and will appear behind the bead. |
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| This is what the trimmed off piece looks like. |
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| Spin the dubbing loop. A few more spins and the fibers positioned at the top will split away from each other. |
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| After the dubbing loop has been wrapped around the shank you'll have this nice mix of soft hackles and fluff. Also, this will be a very durable fly. |
2 comments:
I like this fly. I do not often fish nymphs but do enjoy the way they look.
Hello Brk Trt, Thanks! I am a simple tier, though I can really appreciate the more complex patterns and love seeing real art at the vise!! But catching fish on a fly that has only one ingredient (or maybe two) has always been a "thing" for me. BTW, I read your blog and like it! ---Peter
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