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Ammonite Nymph

Started by scotfly, April 16, 2009, 02:19:48 AM

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scotfly

This is a variation of Steve Thornton?s Ammonite Nymph. You can use all sorts of materials for the abdomen and thorax cover; such as, Latex, Nymph Skin, Flexibody/Thin Skin or even strips cut from a thick plastic bag. All come in a variety of colours, or you can use clear with the colour coming from the underbody.
The underbody is normally floss, but here I have used fine polypropylene dubbing. I prefer dubbing over floss because it?s quicker and easier to work with.
For the thorax you can use any type of dubbing either natural or synthetic that you like.
For weighting flat lead wire or tungsten sheet is normally used, but you can also use round or square wire too. For really heavy flies you can add one or two tungsten beads at the thorax.
Tie in a variety of size from 8 ? 18 on any grub type hook, such as Kamasan B100/110 and Tiemco 2457/2487, etc.
Because I fish mainly Chalkstreams which are relatively slow and shallow compared to many spate rivers, I will most commonly fish this in sizes 14 ? 18, and I will also use less weight.
For this one I am using fine flat lead.   
Tie these in a range of colours to suit. The thorax always being the same or similar colour to the underbody.


Instructions assume right-handed tyers.

HOOK ? Kamasan B110 #12
THREAD ? Grey Roman Moser Power Silk
WEIGHT ? Fine Flat Lead
BODY ? Clear Flexibody  (cut according to hook size, usually between 2mm and 4mm wide)
UNDERBODY ? Creamy Yellow Fine and Dry Polypropylene Dubbing 
THORAX COVER ? Clear Flexibody (again, cut according to size, and always wider than the body, usually between 3mm and 5mm)
LEGS ? Partridge Neck Hackle
THORAX ? SLF MC #7 Heptagenia (Sulphurea Dun and Emerger (Yellow May)
COLOURING ? Brown Permanent Marker.

STEP 1
            Take your chosen weight.



Then lash it on top of the hook shank in several layers. Each layer should be slightly shorter (at both ends) than the one below. This will build up a distinct hump shape.



Once you have all the lead in place, cover it all with thread wraps to smooth it all out, making sure that you have a nice clean taper at either end.
On smaller size I colour the thread with a permanent marker and omit step 3



STEP 2
          Cut a strip of clear Flexibody (3mm wide here) cut a taper on one side.



Tie it in on top of the hook shank.



STEP 3 (Omitted in smaller sizes)
             Apply a generous pinch of dubbing to the thread.



Then wrap to form the underbody.



STEP 4
           Wrap the Flexibody in lapping turns to form the overbody. Each turn should lap the previous turn by approximately 50%



STEP 5
            Tie in another strip of Flexibody on top of the hook shank, remember that this is the wider one.
Note that the tie in point is above the hook point. The Ammonite has a prominent thorax.



STEP 6
           Prepare a partridge hackle by stripping the flue from the base.



Then draw some fibres back from the top as shown.



Then tie the hackle in by the tip and with the natural curvature of the feather upward. When you pull the hackle over later the natural curvature will help with the lay of the legs. After tying in build a smooth taper to the thorax.



STEP 7
           Apply some dubbing to the thread and wrap to form the thorax.



STEP 8
          Pull the hackle over the thorax and tie down at the head.





STEP 9
            Trim the waste hackle stem, then pull the thorax cover over and tie down at the head. The thorax cover will force the hackle fibres down.



Then trim the waste Flexibody and  form a neat head and whipfinish, detach the thread.



STEP 10
            Finally, colour the thorax cover and the top of the body with a permanent marker. You can also give the thorax a rub with Velcro if you wish.










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