Fly Focus: Spearfish Special

For years I had heard all of the virtues of the Pheasant Tail Nymph. Everyone said that it was one of the best all-around nymph patterns you could use. They said that it was easy to tie and a deadly fish-catcher. But I had never had much luck with it. Of course, I wasn't much of a nymph fisherman back then. Fishing with nymphs was not as visually stimulating as fishing with dry flies. Not that I was a dry fly purist or anything, but I was mush more adept at fishing dries than I was anything else.

Still, I liked to tie nymphs, and wanted to become a better nymph fisherman. So I tied a lot, and tweaked the standard patterns to try to find some that worked for me. It was while doing some of this tweaking that I decided to add a CDC hackle to standard nymphs to see if it helped. I figured the barbules on the CDC feather might trap tiny air bubbles under water and look like an insect getting ready to hatch.

I tried my CDC nymphs often around here in western Wisconsin and SE Minnesota. I never had much luck, so I stuck them in my nymph box and forgot about them. Then, on a trip out to the Black Hills, I was fishing a stretch of Spearfish Creek which had a beautiful riffly stretch, and I could see trout cruising around in the crystal clear water, eating nymphs all afternoon long. After many fly changes I finally put my Pheasant Tail Nymph with a CDC hackle on, and caught a big bruising brown on my first cast. That fly continued to slay the trout all day long, and my confidence in it grew exponentially. I decided to call my fly the Spearfish Special, since that's where I first had success with it.

Since then I have had great luck, not only with the Spearfish Special, but with all of the nymphs I have added CDC to. My CDC-Enhanced Hare's Ear is an absolute killer! But that's a fly for another day. Let's watch how to tie my Spearfish Special now...

Spearfish Special Pattern Recipe

Hook: Daiichi 1560 or other 1X-Long nymph hook, size 12-18
Bead: Copper or gold, sized to the hook
Lead: 6-8 wraps of .020 lead wire
Thread: Rust colored 8/0
Tail: 6-10 ringneck pheasant tail fibers
Rib: Copper wire, size Small or Brassie
Abdomen: 6-10 ringneck pheasant tail fibers, wrapped forward
Hackle: natural dun colored CDC
Thorax: Peacock colored Ice Dub