This pattern imitates the nymph stage of our two largest mayflies, Ephemera vulgata, that is most common in lakes, and Ephemera danica, that is most common in slow flowing rivers and streams. These nymphs prefer sandy or muddy bottoms, where they live more or less buried for two to three years. These large nymphs can be recognized by the breathing gills along the sides of the rear body. Nymph patterns like this one should be weighted, so that they don´t swim up side down in the water, this should be done by tying in two strips of lead wire on the underside of the hook shank. The R73 hook from Mustad that I have used here is so heavy in the bend that it will swim the right way even if you use extra weight under the thorax. On these large nymphs I prefer to use Golden pheasant as the wing case. These tail feather fibers are tougher than normal ring neck pheasant tails fibers and have a little more shine.
Table of Contents
Mayfly Nymph pattern recipe
- Hook Mustad R73 9671 # 8-12
- Tying thread Dyneema
- Tail Olive ostrich herl
- Body Olive brown Antron dubbing
- Rib Olive Ostrich herl
- Thorax Olive brown Antron dubbing
- Wing case Golden pheasant tail
- Legs Pheasant tail
How to tie Mayfly Nymph
Secure your hook in the vice and attach your tying thread.
Wind on a short length of lead free wire under the thorax.
Tie in three long ostrich herl fibers for the tail. These should be tied in like the legs on a photo tripod.
Cut away two of the ostrich herls. The remaining one will be used for ribbing.
Spin the Antron dubbing onto the tying thread and dubb a tapered body along 2/3 of the hook shank.
Wind on the ostrich herl as a rib over the rear body part. About 6-7 even turns. Remove the access herl.
Cut off the small ostrich herl fibers on the top and bottom of the rear body.
The rear body should now look like this.
Clip a large bunch of golden pheasant tail fibers and tie them in close to the rear body end.
Cover the thorax with dubbing, finishing about 2-3 mm behind the hook eye.
Cut two smaller bunches with normal pheasant tail fibers and tie in on both sides of the thorax as shown.
Spin a little more dubbing and dubb in front of the legs.
Pull the fibers over the thorax to form the wing case.
Tie down the fibers behind the hook eye.
Trim off the access pheasant fibers and whip finish. Apply a little varnish and your large mayfly nymph is finished.
The nymph seen from above.
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Great minds think alike! Take a look at my two recent blog posts, in which I write about the “gill bodied nymph”. I have done mine with V rib instead of the dubbing, to give an exo-skeletal body, as well as to protect the fine ostrich herl between wraps. But also trimmed top and bottom.