A Christmas Fly

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A Christmas Perdigon

Welcome to winter!  As I’m writing this, we in Western Montana are having our first major snow storm.  Most of the birds that are going to leave have left.  The ones that stay sit puffily in the mornings waiting for the late rising sun and a few more degrees before they get going for the day.  The grind and possible glory of hunting season is over.  Some people filled their freezers, some people, myself included, are eating tags.  

It is time to slow down for a while.  The snow coats the ground. The lakes are frozen, but not yet safe, the rivers are low and clear.  Not much hatching, spawning runs are over, and often there are only a few hours where the temperature is above freezing.  Fishing can still be very good if you can find the fish and get a good enough drift.  Mostly the fish will be in slow mid-depth holes and flats.  They hang close the bottom.  Sometimes you can find a school of whitefish and catch a whole slew of them.  Almost always the fish will be hitting small to tiny nymphs that need to be absolutely dead drifted right in front of their noses.  

Perdigon style nymphs lend themselves well to this style of fishing.  They sink quickly, are simple to tie and you can modify them for almost any color scheme.  My most popular color schemes are brown and pink, think Frenchie, black and white, and purple and pink.

In the case of this fly, it’s a bit of an attractor.  It could be a midge larva, or a little mayfly nymph, but mostly it fulfills the requirements of a good winter nymph.  It’s small, it sinks quickly, it has contrasting colors, and segmentation.  As a bonus, it also fits in with the popular cultural color scheme of the season.  Merry Christmas and have fun!! 

Christmas Perdigon

Hook: #16 Heavy wire scud hook

Bead: 7/64″ White glow tungsten

Thread: 140 White Ultra thread

Tail: Silver Flashabou

Rib: Small silver Ultra wire

Body: 170 Peacock Body Fly

Thorax: 170 Red UV Body Fly

Glue: Solarez Thin Hard

Here we go. Put the bead on. Start your thread and wrap back to where the shank starts to curve down. One of the most important parts of perdigon style nymphs is thread control and sparseness. Take as few wraps of thread as you can throughout the fly and keep your wraps as smooth as possible.
Next you tie in two strands of silver flashabou for the tail and the silver wire for the rib. I did one wrap over the flashabou and the next wrap incorporates the rib, then smoothly wrap all the way to the bead and back. You can faintly see the wire under the thread wraps.
Tie in a piece of the peacock Body Fly and wrap three quarters of the way to the bead. Again, try to keep your wraps as smooth as possible.
Tie in the red Body Fly and wrap up to the bead. Leave a long tag end of this piece, at least three inches. You will use it in the next to last step.
Wrap the wire forward to the bead and tie it off. I usually have four or five wraps of wire. Once the wire is tied off go ahead and do a two wrap whip finish with the thread and cut that off. You could just use a couple half hitches as well. You don’t need a strong knot, because the whole fly is covered in glue at the end. Note, you still have that tag end and you can see that there is a bit of exposed thread right at the bead. You will take that tag end a make a couple of wraps at the bead to cover the thread. This can be a bit tricky, but tie a half hitch knot with the tag end and cut it as close as possible.
Add a small amount of glue to the entire fly and move it around until the coating is smooth. Blast it with your black light for a few seconds all around the fly until the glue is set and not tacky. You can see that I was able to cover the thread and get a really clean look. The fish may not care, but it sure looks nice ;).

If you want to talk flies or just have questions about what I’m tying, you can contact me at: anglersvice406@gmail.com

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