11 Pheasant Tail Fly Patterns

Over Christmas, a teacher both Amanda and I had in high school, Chas Deremer, gifted me some pheasant tails from a recent hunt to tie flies with. To return his kindness, I wanted to tie a box of flies for him using those tails.

So for the past three weeks I’ve tied nothing but various pheasant tail patterns in sizes 12-20, exploring the possibilities of this one material through dry flies, weighted and unweighted nymphs, streamers, midges, and kebari. Pheasant tails for all fishing situations.

This helped me learn some new tying skills while limiting my options enough to narrow the list of infinite possibilities. I tied eight of each. Four for Mr. Deremer, four for me.

Here is what I tied and what I learned:

Pheasant tail nymph

Soft hackle pheasant tail

Frenchie

Hard head nymph

Teeny nymph

Glass bead pheasant tail emerger

Dry pheasant tail midge

Parachute pheasant tail

Pheasant tail X-Caddis

Arakawa River Kebari

Pheasant Tail Sakasa Kebari

Pheasant tail nymph

Hook: Partridge Czech Nymph size 12

Thread: Olive 6/0

Rib: Gold wire

Body: Pheasant tail

Thorax: Peacock herl

Wings: Pheasant tail

Wing case: Pheasant tail

I followed The Feather Bender’s excellent instructional video.

I used the tips from trimming the wing case to use as the wings on the next fly.

Soft hackle pheasant tail

A classic and one of my favorites.

Hook: Gamakatsu R19B, sizes 14 and 16

Thread: White Veevus GSP, 100D, colored with alcohol markers

Rib: Copper wire

Body: Pheasant tail

Thorax: Peacock herl

Hackle: Partridge

I tried using a single kind of thread, GSP, colored with alcohol-based markers when I need a color. Read for the head, olive for tying in the peacock herl. This technique is described by Barry Ord Clark in The Feather Bender’s Flytying Techniques, which I’m reading. GSP, or Dyneema, is super thin, but incredibly high strength. So far it has been pretty easy to work with, as long as I wax it at the beginning so it doesn’t slip around on the hook. It is nice not having to switch threads when you need different colors, just get out a different marker. I cut it with an Xacto instead of my tying scissors to save them the wear and tear.

Frenchie

A modern favorite created by Lance Egan.

Hook: Orvis tactical jig, size 16

Bead: Slotted tungsten pink bead from Saluda

Thread: Pink 8/0

Rib: Gold wire

Body: Pheasant tail

Collar: Pink ice dub

Hard head nymph

Hook: Moonlit TOGATTA ML502 size 14

Bead: Slotted tungsten, gold

Thread: Black Veevus GSP 150D

Rib: Gold wire

Body: Pheasant tail

Collar: Peacock herl

I know these are similar to the Frenchie, but they are easy to lose, so I thought I’d do a variation. I also waned to experiment with various dubbing collars, but I liked the peacock best.

Teeny nymph

Jim Teeny has been fishing with this pattern exclusively since 1971. Worth a try in my book!

Hook: Gamakatsu R19B size 12

Thread: Black Veevus GSP 150D

Body: Pheasant tail

Glass bead pheasant tail emerger

Hook: Saluda SB302 Czech wide, size 18

Bead: Pink glass bead, 8/0

Thread: White Veevus GSP, 100D, colored with alcohol markers

Tail/hotspot: Orange marker on the thread

Rib: Gold wire

Body: Pheasant tail

Wing/gills: Hareline white para post yarn

Thorax: Peacock herl

I got the glass beads from Michael’s in the jewelry section. The small body of these small flies allowed me to use shorter pheasant tail barbs. I did half with a wing and half with gills, and you have to tie these in a different order.

Dry pheasant tail midge

Hook: Saluda SB501 dry, sizes 18 and 20

Thread: Black Veevus GSP 150D

Body: Pheasant tail

Hackle: Grizzly

I learned that size 18 is about as small as I like to tie. 20 is just too small. I tied a few size 20s and went up to 18 after that.

Another variation would be to add grizzly hackle wings to make it an Adams.

Parachute pheasant tail

Hook: Gamakatsu R19B size 14

Thread: Dark brown 8/0

Post: Hareline white para post yarn

Rib: Gold

Body: Pheasant tail

Thorax: Peacock

Hackle: Furnace

The first couple were frustrating and slow, so I took a break for a couple days. The second batch was faster, easier, and turned out better after I switched to finer thread and doubled the amount of para post, based on some helpful tips from folks on Bluesky. Nice community over there.

One interesting variation to try in the future is using pheasant tail for the post as well. Para post floats better, though.

Pheasant tail X-Caddis

Hook: Gamakatsu R19B size 14

Thread: White Veevus GSP, 100D

Tail: Para post

Body: Pheasant tail

Rib: Fine gold wire

Thorax: Olive dubbing

Wing: Elk hair

These went faster than I expected. It was my first time using a hair stacker and my first time using elk hair, which is a big more coarse and easier to work with than deer hair.

Again, The Feather Bender’s video here is the one to watch.

Arakawa River Kebari

Hook: Mustad streamer size 12

Thread: Black Veevus GSP 150D

Body: Peacock herl

Rib: White floss

Wing: Pheasant tail

I’ve seen these called Asahi kebari, too. It is a small streamer with pheasant tail as the wing. I really like the look of the floss rib over peacock herl and will use that more in the future.

Pheasant Tail Sakasa Kebari

Hook: Gamakatsu R18B, size 14

Thread: Red 6/0

Hackle: Ringneck pheasant back feathers

Rib: Gold wire

Body: Pheasant tail

Thorax: Black peacock ice dub

I tied half of these on a size jig hook after seeing Tom at Teton Tenkara do that for some sakasa kebari, then I switched to a standard eye hook.

If/when I do more of these, I think I am going to leave off the tail and instead make the body longer.

Some general things I learned:

Peacock eye feathers are cheaper and higher quality than the packs of strung peacock herl sold to fly tyers. I bought a strung pack before I knew any better. I recently bought some full feathers on Amazon ($5 for 12 of them), and they are so much better! I don’t know why anyone would prefer the strung stuff.

It is important to keep the pheasant tail fibers from crossing each other while you wrap the body, so they stay flat.

It is easier to wrap pheasant tail fibers by hand rather than using hackle pliers.

If they pheasant tail fibers start to slip from your fingers, you can stick a finger on the hook to keep everything from unraveling.

How to use a hair stacker.

If you keep the thread just in front of the pheasant tails while wrapping, the thread will help keep everything in place.

How to photograph flies! Lots of light, close to the source. In addition to the lamp I use on my fly tying desk, I use a bright variable temperature LED that usually lives on my desk for video calls. I hold this next to my phone while I take photos.

I made two of these boxes:

This was fun! After taking a break to tie some various tenkara kebari I’ve had my eye on, I might do this again with red fox squirrel tail as the material.