Trim to long tail of nymphs

[toboden 0]

Dear members,

I'm new to this forum as well as fly tying. I've got a question about trimming too long tails from nymphs. Does this make a difference for the fish or do these nymphs catch worse? I have attached a picture.

Thank you in advance.

Tobi

[niveker 0]

Welcome to the site @toboden.

For nymphs, in my opinion, no it doesn't make a difference to the fish, so also no, they don't fish worse. Personally, I would rather leave a tail a little bit long than cut it. 

Your ties all look good, I really like the top two and bottom right. 

 

[cphubert 0]

toboden, Tobi welcome from Connecticut your flies look fine the top tail is just right. niveker comments are accurate the fish will not care, I also like to leave the tails a little on the long side. If you feel you have to trim them cutting  leaves a sharp ending some materials it is better to break or shred for a softer more natural end by pinching & pulling where you want to end the tail. This is all part of the journey and you developing your own style and techniques to what pleases your eye. You can use a basic portion diagram flytire has on his blog Flytying: New and Old: Parts & Proportions (flytyingnewandold.blogspot.com) hope this helps you and feel free to ask questions.

[flytire 0]

i prefer tails to be as natural as possible

no reason to trim as it is rather easy to tie them on with a wrap of thread and pull them to length

[SilverCreek 0]

11 hours ago, toboden said:

Dear members,

I'm new to this forum as well as fly tying. I've got a question about trimming too long tails from nymphs. Does this make a difference for the fish or do these nymphs catch worse? I have attached a picture.

Thank you in advance.

Tobi

 

Invariably, a major problem a beginner fly tier has is fly proportion. Fly proportion = the amount of and length of materials and where they are placed on hook to form a fly where the individual parts have the correct relationship to each other.

Here is a must read article by Charlie Craven on dry fly and nymph proportions. Charlie is one of the premier fly tiers in the USA and owns a fly shop near Denver.

http://www.flyfisherman.com/2013/12/13/tying-flies-beautiful-flies/

Here's a related article on tying hair wings.

https://www.flyfisherman.com/editorial/mounting-hair-wings/151671

I suggest saving these articles as PDFs that you can refer to as needed. FF often takes down the articles after they have been up for a while. The above URLS may not work in a few months.

Charlie's proportions for nymphs is below:

When tying, to get the correct proportions; measure the length of the material against the hook and then tie the proper length of material at the proper location on the hook.

For example, the image below is how you would measure the proper length of tailing material against the hook you are tying on.

[toboden 0]

@niveker @cphubertthank you for your answers. It helps me a lot. The problem was, that I had a hook shank length in my head as a reference and tied them all according to that, and only realized later that it was clearly too long. cphubert thanks for the link, it is also very helpful.

[toboden 0]

@SilverCreekYou are absolutely right, it is still extremely difficult for me to estimate the proportions of the flies. Thank you for all the helpful pages. For my first question in the forum, I am really surprised at the nice answers I have received.
Tobi 

[SilverCreek 0]

You are very welcome Tobi.

The sport needs more fly tiers. Glad we could help.