{"id":3341,"date":"2020-09-20T20:56:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-20T10:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/?p=3341"},"modified":"2025-10-23T19:47:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T08:47:35","slug":"fly-tying-wed-23-sep-2020-original-sawyers-pheasant-tail-nymph-and-his-killer-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/fly-tying-wed-23-sep-2020-original-sawyers-pheasant-tail-nymph-and-his-killer-bug\/","title":{"rendered":"Original Sawyer\u2019s Pheasant Tail Nymph and His Killer Bug Fly Tying &#8211; Wed 23 Sep 2020 &#8211;"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>Shaun is the instructor and offered these notes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Original Sawyer\u2019s Pheasant Tail Nymph.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"258\" height=\"195\" class=\"wp-image-3340\" src=\"http:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/PTN.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>It\u2019s such a common fly now that its easy to take for granted, but the original is quite different from what you might pick up from your local fly shop, and has a history that\u2019s worth understanding.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Frank Sawyer was the inventor of this fly. No flashback, no peacock here, just a simple fly that he used to catch trout for a living on the River Avon the 1920s as a keeper. There are several Avon\u2019s in England, this was the one near Salisbury\/Stonehenge. It\u2019s my favourite river name and Avon in proto Celtic means river, so it\u2019s clear what the waterway is!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The Sawyer nymph is just small or extra small copper wire (gold, silver and red also work), and several long pheasant tail fibres &#8211; not even any thread is required. It\u2019s so simple that I left out the materials list because it looked embarrassingly short! Add a nymph hook of your preference and you are all set.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The tying instructions are also pretty straightforward. Rather than write out a very short list, perhaps it\u2019s best to see Frank himself tie it for us. This is the only footage of him tying recorded:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=416Os9V84n8&amp;feature=youtu.be<\/div>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>His Killer Bug<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"200\" class=\"wp-image-3339\" src=\"http:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/HKB.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Out of guilt for the simplicity of the nymph, I\u2019m going to show a second on the night &#8211; His Killer Bug. Originally a Grayling fly, but trout don\u2019t seem to be so sophisticated as to care. Again the tying list is three items long, same hook, same wire, and a pinkish, brownish or greenish hank of wool. There\u2019s a whole mythology behind what wool to use, and I have a collection of the \u2018right\u2019 ones if anyone wants to drop in and collect a sample, but again, I suspect the trout don\u2019t spend enough time in knitting stores to really care.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>keyword wetfly nymphfly<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shaun is the instructor and offered these notes. Original Sawyer\u2019s Pheasant Tail Nymph. It\u2019s such a common fly now that its easy to take for granted, but the original is quite different from what you might pick up from your local fly shop, and has a history that\u2019s worth understanding. Frank Sawyer was the inventor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fly_tying"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7aQnH-RT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5879,"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions\/5879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canberra-anglers.asn.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}