Fly Tying - Quill Jig Nymph By Doug Freemann

This is a fly that I have constantly been adapting since Cam Chioffi first showed me a similar fly on Big Fishing Creek. My version is a little different but the general concept and look is the same. Obviously this fly has been tied by many others before but this is my take. O, and this fly hammers fish from Penn's Creek to Lehigh Valley Limestoners to the Yampa River in Colorado. It is a staple in my box, here is how it's tied. 

Hook – Hends BL 120 Jig hook or Dohiku Jig hook 18-16

Bead -  Tungsten Slotted 2.5 or 2.0 millimeter bead

Thread – UTC 70 Florescent Orange, you can also use a dull thread if you wish to omit the hot spot

Tail – Medium Pardo Coq de Leon

Body – Polish quills natural, olive, or ginger, you can also strip your own quills.

Collar- Dark Brown SLF Squirrel Dubbing

Take a hook and slide a tungsten slotted bead on it. Here, I am using a Hends Jig hook but Trout Legend and Dohiku also make nice small jig hooks.

Start your thread behind the bead and wrap back to the bend.

Take some CDL and snip a few fibers off for the tail. Keep it very sparse 3-5 fibers.

Take a few wraps forward to secure the tail.

Find your quills and remove one from the package. Because the quills are very dry and fragile, to prevent them from breaking or splitting during the wrapping process, I like to dip them in a little dish of water to rehydrate them.

Snip the fine tip off of the quill and tie it in with the dark side facing up. The quill should be bound to the near side of the hook. You can then wrap forward and make a nice smooth and slightly tapered underbody.

 Wrap the quill forward to create a nice smooth well-segmented body. Take care to keep any of the orange thread from showing through.

You can now take your dubbing out, here I am using dark brown but natural grey, olive, and black will also work.

Dub a sparse noodle on your thread; remember this is a collar not a thorax.

Wrap the dubbing behind the bead and then whip finish the fly.

And there you have a streamlined small nymph pattern that will shoot threw the water column and imitate a host of insects. By changing the quill or hot spot color you can cover bwo’s, PMD’s, sulpuhers or most any mayfly nymph. You can also see I choose not to lacquer or epoxy the body as I prefer a slim clean profile but you certainly could coat the body to increase durability if you like.