Tying Jeff's QB Nymph   

Springtime is one of my favorite times of the year to tie and use larger bead head patterns, mainly because at this time of the year we have some of our largest flies of the year hatching- -and often in good number too.  We are fortunate to have rivers that offer a large variety of mayflies.  While heavy hatches of any one insect are uncommon, they do occur at times.  Our early season flies like Gray Foxes, March Browns, Quill Gordons, followed by Hendricksons, Sulphurs and Green Drakes- all of these present excellent opportunities to forego "fishing small" and use larger flies.  This pattern
will work well in a variety of colors.  Yellows, tans, medium brown, and dark brown all are great  colors to tie the pattern in.

Materials:
Hook:  Curved Nymph (Caddis, emerger, or "scud" hook -doesn't matter all will work)  sz 12-20
Thread: Unithread 8/0, color to suit (olive, black, brown all good)
Tail:  Pheasant tail fibers
Abdomen:  Turkey Biot, wrapped
Short Wing:  Sparkle Emerger Yarn, Brown
Wingcase:  Thin Skin, Black   
Thorax:  Red Fox Squirrel dubbed
Legs:  Soft Hackle Fibers, tied in a 'V'

What the Materials Look Like:    Hook      Thread      Tail      Abdomen    Short Wing     Wingcase
                                                                Thorax       Legs
   
Directions for Tying Jeff's QB Nymph

    
Steps 1 -3:  Start tying thread, lay a thread base as shown, leaving thread at the rear.  Tie in a  bunch
 of Pheasant tail fibers for a short tail.  Trim excess.

  
Steps 4 -6:  Tie in a turkey biot by its tip, advance thread forward, then tie off the biot just back of the 
bead.  Trim excess, then tie in a small, sparse bunch of brown sparkle yarn as shown, secure with several
tight thread turns, and trim excess.  Tie in a strip of Thin Skin about as wide as the bead for the wingcase
flat on top of the body as shown.  
  
Steps 7-9:  Dub the tying thread with red fox squirrel, and create a small, rounded thorax as shown.  Next
trim a small partridge, grouse, hen, or similar soft hackle feather as shown by removing all long fibers and
marabou from the base and trimming out the tip, leaving just a 'V'.  Place 'V' on top just back of bead and
tie it in so that one half of the 'V' goes off each side of the fly as legs.  Secure tightly then trim excess.

 
Steps 10-11:  Pull the thin skin over to form a wingcase, trim, create a neat thread collar, and whip finish.
Add head cement to collar area.  I also like to put a thin coat of cement or epoxy to the thin skin as well
for durability.


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                                                   Jeffrey Wilkins Fly Tying
                                                 3703 Windspray Court 
                                                             Summerfield, NC 27358
                                           (336) 644-7775   jeff@jeffreywilkinsflyfishing.com