Overview
Developed by Fly Fish Food, this pattern combines traditional pheasant tail materials with the added bugginess of natural squirrel dubbing and CDC. The jig hook design ensures the fly rides hook-point up, reducing snags while maintaining excellent hook-up ratios. The brown tungsten bead provides fast sink rates necessary for euro-nymphing presentations. Coq De Leon tail fibers add natural segmentation and movement.
Related patterns
Behavior & presentation
- Natural Behavior
- Burrowing nymphs emerge from silt to filter-feed, becoming vulnerable when floods dislodge them from protective tunnels into open drift.
- Where Trout Eat It
- Fish hold near bottom in feeding lanes 2-5 feet deep, intercepting pale, soft-bodied nymphs in pocket water and seams.
- How to Fish It
- Tight-line euro with minimal leader weight. Dead drift through feeding lanes while CDC collar creates subtle breathing movement.
- Best Water
- Target pocket water with varied flows, seams along structure, and riffle edges where dislodged nymphs enter feeding zones.
- Strike Type
- Subtle tick in sighter. CDC movement triggers visual strikes from fish positioned in feeding lanes.
Fishing strategy
- Rigging Suggestions
- Fish on a 9-12 foot leader with 4X-5X fluorocarbon tippet. Use as the point fly in a two-fly euro rig with a lighter pattern as the dropper.
- Seasonal Timing
- , particularly productive during spring and fall Baetis hatches when mayfly nymphs are most active. Also works well in summer and winter in tailwaters with consistent flows.
- Pro Tips
- Sinks quickly due to the 3.0mm tungsten bead, reaching productive depths rapidly in 2-4 feet of water. The jig hook design and CDC collar create subtle movement even in slow currents.
Where to fish it
Rivers anglers pair with this fly, with local shops that stock it.
River details and fly shops from River & Run, our sister site.
Entomology
Burrowing mayfly nymphs excavate U-shaped tunnels in silty substrates, periodically emerging to filter-feed on suspended organic particles by creating water currents with feathery gills. Flash floods and scouring flows dislodge these nymphs from protective burrows, suddenly exposing pale, soft-bodied invertebrates that fish aggressively target during turbidity spikes when visual predation on surface prey becomes impossible.
- Order
- Ephemeroptera
- Common name
- Mayfly
- Organism
- insect
- Life stage
- nymph
Pattern details
- Moving Water
- Rocky Mountain
- tight-line-nymph
- competition
- dead-drift
- baetis-hatch
- classic
- searching-pattern
- low-clear-water
- tailwater
- freestone
