Spectral Nymph

[Old Hat]

Something I'm playing with. An easy unweighted nymph design. Cal Bird's spectral dubbing blend for the abdomen. A little seal for the thorax. Legs are coq de Leon. Legs are clipped to length on hackle, then tied in and wrapped, then clipped on top.

[Smuggler]

Very nice Carl. Maybe a tad bit more build on the thorax? Or are you trying to keep this guy slim and in shape?

[Roadkill]

Nice creation, are you tying this as a generic swimming nymph?

[letumgo]

Capital killer, as they used to say. I love the spectral dubbing.

[William Anderson]

Carl, that's very compelling design. I always like spectral dubbing blends and this whole impression is very cool.

[Old Hat]

Thanks gentlemen.

Eric - Yeah, this is an organic vegan nymph. I used to be a stickler about the shape of the body. But over the years I have grown to believe that the shape of the body is quite low on the importance list. Now the overall profile (big picture) of the fly is quite important, and the shape of the body certainly can contribute to that, but not enough that I worry about it much. As far as the thorax area goes, I believe a color change plays a much bigger role in the distinction of the thorax from the abdomen.

Bill- Yeah, right now its just a generic pattern. But the spectral dubbing, in Cal's Bird's thoughts anyway, covers a multitude of species. The thinking is the fish's brain looks for what is there, not for what isn't there. If the trigger color is yellow, and the fish sees yellow, then it's all good. The trigger is fired. If the trigger color is yellow but there is some blue mixed in with the yellow, the yellow trigger is still fired. The blue isn't a negative trigger. The fish doesn't think "Oh it's is not really yellow, there is a bunch of blue in there, I won't eat it." It just selects for yellow, because that is the trigger at the moment. So the thinking is ...give the fish as many color triggers as possible in one design. Atherton was big on this as well, I believe.

I think I'll be adding some tails to some of these as well.

[swellcat]

I think I'll be adding some tails to some of these as well.

As long as you're feeling experimental, what about a few with full, in-the-round, untrimmed hackle . . . if it wouldn't otherwise interfere?

(Sorry about the design-by-committee. We could always try to tie our own, I reckon. )

[Old Hat]

My fault, I wasn't very specific in my material description. The hackle is trimmed Coq de Leon saddle hackle. The feathers are very translucent and quite stiff, similar to dry hackle. They don't soak up water readily even when trimmed. There is a couple highly thought of patterns that use these as hackles this way. I was using the hackle tips on other patterns and figured why waste. Untrimmed, the hackles would be way too big. Hen hackles in the round certainly would work, but that's so yesterday!