All copper wire nymph?

[Bimini15 0]

I think I remember watching a video once of a tier putting together a nymph with only copper wire.

Can someone tell me the name of that fly, if I remember correctly?

[Jaydub 0]

Sawyer's Pheasant Tail nymph is traditionally tied with copper wire and pheasant tail fibers, no thread. Could that be what you are thinking about?

 

http://www.flytierspage.com/hweilenmann/sawyer_pt.htm

[Bimini15 0]

Sawyer's Pheasant Tail nymph is traditionally tied with copper wire and pheasant tail fibers, no thread. Could that be what you are thinking about?

 

http://www.flytierspage.com/hweilenmann/sawyer_pt.htm

It very well might be. I did not remember the pheasant tail, but it does not mean it was not there.

Thanks!

[flytire 0]

Oliver kite created some bare wire nymphs using solely copper wire

 

http://flytyingnewandold.blogspot.com/2017/05/oliver-kites-bare-hook-nymph.html?m=1

[SilverCreek 0]

It may be the Brassie midge larva/pupa pattern

 

 

[fishinguy 0]

The Sawyers killer bug is also tied with wire instead of thread. But there is another material.

[flytire 0]

sawyers nymphs are tied usung copper wire in lieu of thread but none of the sawyer nymphs are "all copper wire"

 

oliver kite bare hook nymphs

 

[Bimini15 0]

Thanks for the answers.

What gauge wire do you think your poctures are showing?

[SilverCreek 0]

Copper wire was used to add weight before the invention of bead head nymphs.

[DrLogik 0]

Frank Sawyer is correct. From what I've read he used very fine lacquered copper wire around 0.0042" in diameter, almost like thread it's so thin. He used to tear apart small electric motor armatures to get the wound wire. Basically all copper wire sold to flt tyers, even the fine stuff, is too thick. Places that sell copper "Formvar" wire to rewire guitar pickups will have wire this thin.

 

He used amber-colored wire for Pheasant tails and red-colored wire for Killer Bugs, from what I've read. The Chawick's 477 yarn that he used on the Killer Bugs would go translucent in water and the red wire would show through and make the fly look like a live shrimp. I have the Chadwick's yarn and can attest that the fly looks like meat on a hook when wet. If I were a trout, I'd hit it!

 

Here is a video of Frank himself tying a Pheasant Tail and a mayfly dry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=416Os9V84n8

 

Sawyer fishing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_1M6mNfWHo

[SilverCreek 0]

I think Flytire has the correct pattern. Oliver Kite was a student of Frank Sawyer who tied with copper wire and used a copper body underwire for the original version of the pheasant tail nymph.

 

Bare Hook Nymph by Oliver Kite, a student of Frank Sawyer.

http://flyfishing-and-flytying.co.uk/blog/view/trout_must_be_caught/

Notice how the underbody of Sawyer's PT below. Notice how the Oliver Kite copper nymph posed by Flytire copies Sawyer's method of using copper wire to form the body shape.

 

 

[flytire 0]