FLY-TYER'S

CORNER

by Paul Egan

PRINCE NYMPH

Originator: Doug Prince

Let’s go classic. This fly has been used for years. It has been tied in all kinds of variations; bead headed, weighted, non-weighted, extra hackle, black wings and tail (Black Knight), yellow wings and black body (Dark Lord) and so on and so on.

The fly for this month's contest will be the one originated by Doug Prince. Stock, basic, and deadly, this was my first “Go To” nymph when I was in Salt Lake City cutting my fly fishing teeth on the Provo River. The Prince nymph is easy to tie and produces fish regularly. It's a confidence builder.

To my knowledge the Prince Nymph has not caught anything as big as the fish on the front of last month's Leader, but I did see a very nice steelhead caught with a size #8 in the Feather River Wild Life Preserve two years ago.  Everyone was catching fish in the one to two pound range and some a bit bigger were being lost. Even the guide boat that slipped through hooked and lost fish on cast-masters. It was a good day for ½ pounders., but no big fish. One guy waded to the top of the riffle swinging a nymph, and soon his fly line was stretched straight down stream with the backing stripped at drag-blistering speed. Everybody just stepped back and in about 10 min. the angler was holding a beautiful Feather River Steelhead.

When he returned to the bank between all of the “way to go’s”, "At-a-Boy’s" and, "nice fish" comments, most of us were asking what fly he was using. I was surprised to hear “A Prince Nymph” and then to see that big Prince in the hook holder of his rod. He was using floating line with out split shot, so I assume he was using a weighted version. The original Prince Nymph was tied without lead, and we will use that pattern to follow this month. I will recommend tying some without lead, some with lead, some with bead heads, and some without in lots of sizes. This is a very easy, inexpensive and effective tie.

MATERIALS

Hook: TMC 5263 sizes 4-16

Thread: Black 6/0

Tail: Brown striped goose

Rib: Fine flat gold tinsel

Body: Peacock herl

Hackle: Brown hackle

Wings: White striped goose

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place hook in vise and smash barb

2. Pull two biots from the goose feather and place them on top of one another, curves down, and tips pointing back.

3. Tie them in on top of the hook shank at the bend. Use one soft loop, then spread the tips so they fork, and then tie down with three or four tight wraps.

4. Tie in a piece of flat gold tinsel for ribbing.

5. Tie in two to six Peacock herls depending on the size of hook you are using.

6. Wrap your thread forward forming a base layer. Stop behind the eye about 6-7 thread widths.

7. Twist the peacock herl together and wrap it forward. Form a cigar shaped body by not overlapping at first, then overlap a bit and a bit more until reaching the center of the body. Now overlap less and less until you reach the hanging thread. Tie off the peacock herl with two hard wraps and clip the ends.

8. Reverse spiral wrap the tinsel to the tie-in point and secure with two wrap directly on top of the wraps holding the herl.

9. Select and trim a brown hackle (dry fly quality) with barbs 1 ½ times the gap of the hook.

10. Secure the feather by the butt end at the tie-in point directly on top of the other materials.

11. Wrap thread forward three wraps. Then wrap the hackle to the thread.       

12. Three finger sweep and tie down the hackle into wet fly style.

13. Now select two white striped goose biots and put them together, points rearward, curves down. Fork the tips and tie them directly on top of the shank, forming the wings. The points of the biots should be longer than the hackle and shorter than the body.

14. Form a smooth tapered head, whip-finish, clip the thread and glue.