A Secret French Nymph!

Morning,

Firstly, thanks for all of your orders over the weekend - we plucked out one lucky winner of the framed hatch chart yesterday morning - congratulations James . We have just one more framed hatch chart remaining and will be doing the same giveaway again this coming Bank Holiday Weekend.

Today's email missive is all about a very secretive French nymph - and the perfect box to keep them in!

Last month, something unexpected dropped on our doormat - with a French postmark ...

It was from good friend, and unique fly designer, Stan (of Ceramic Flies & Nymphèvolution fame). I opened the package and read the accompanying note - it described some nymphs which he'd been working on for a while (and could never lay his hands on the right materials) - but now he had found the perfect material, he'd sent them over for us to test - I love receiving packages like that!

Stan's note alluded to the nymphs changing colour when submerged - to perfectly (and realistically) match the majority of subsurface nymphs found in European waters - I'll admit, at first, I was a little sceptical, I've seen plenty of gimmicks come and go over the years.

As I didn't have time to get out on my local (it was our busiest time of the year), I asked our local fly fishing legend (John E.) if he'd give them a swim and let me know what he thought.

What came back wasn't just a testimonial - it was a bit of a love letter to what might be one of the most innovative patterns to cross the English Channel in decades:

John's results spoke for themselves, so I was keen to try them out for myself. I ventured out in the blazing sun (which was not ideal), but found a nice shady run, which had a little flow to it and was a couple of feet deep.

I tackled up with the Dark Olive version (below) and trundled a single nymph down the run - it took a couple of runs before the fish started to react!

All in all, I was on the bank for around 30 minutes and had a total of 6 fish - all small and wild - just how I like them!

These nymphs are tied to perfection (as is usual with any of Stan's flies). These are slightly lighter nymphs, but with a twist - the secret body material changes to a very very 'buggy' colour when wet.

A great fly to try at this time of year. This style of larvae are found in all of our rivers and stillwaters, with fish of all kinds gorging on them as they trundle along in the flow. Fish one of these just above the river bed, or suspend one under a dry fly on your favourite Stillwater/reservoir and hang on!

Let me introduce you to Stan's WFX Nymph Selection which includes 3 different colour variations:

• Cream (dry) & Butter (wet)
• Gold (dry) & Dark Olive (wet)
• Grannom (dry) & Insect Green (wet)

Each nymph is tied with a 'secret' body material, we did twist Stan's arm, but he still wouldn't tell us what it was!

With this selection of nymphs you will be able to provide a very passable imitation for virtually any nymph (or catepillar) found in UK waters, and they also do a very passable impression of a maggot!

This nymph imitation (which has a passing resemblance to a Caddis) is ideally used as a point fly in any nymphing setup (and great for sight nymphing). Don't forget about using these on stillwaters also - over half of the UK Caddis flies are found in stillwaters. These imitations are all tied on size 16 barbless Hends pupa hooks.

The tying specification for these WFX Nymphs is:

• Fly Name: WFX Nymph
• Hook: Hends BL550 N°16 Barbless Pupa
• Head Composition: 2.5mm Coloured Brass Bead
• Body Composition: 'Stan's Secret' Body Yarn
• Latin Name: Trichoptera
• Weight: Medium - 0.09g

Please Note: As usual with both Stan and our Bosnian flies, we never have loads of them - we've only 40 of these selections available. We did receive more, but I'm stashing away a few selections for myself to last me through Autumn and early Winter - as John mentions in his letter, these will be stunning when the Grayling start to take an interest.

We are only making these flies available as a selection of 9 (three of each colour) - just click on any of the fly images or buttons below to view more detailed images of each individual nymph. This selection of 9 nymphs is priced at £20.00 - we do understand these are at the pricier end of the spectrum for flies, but the quality is truely outstanding.

We only have 40 selections available for sale - I'm keeping some to use myself! So you will need to be quick!

We've even produced a quick video, showing you the nymphs colour changing ability - I hope you'll agree that once wet, they really do look 'buggy':

These are one of the most common nymphs found in virtually all waters. They are found on rocks, sand and all types of gravel, so Stan decided to try and make an imitation as realistic as he could.

The perfect imitation has to imitate the different body colours, thorax and legs .... so he decided that a woven style nymph is a perfect combination of back and thorax colour, with the segmentation imitating the thorax.

The 'secret' body material changes colour when wet, to the correct shade. With a dubbed thorax, these are all tied with either black or gold 2.5mm beads.

These nymphs are tied as a general representation of the nymphs commonly seen on our riverbeds. A 'real-life' nymph body looks something like this:

Our imitation WFX Nymphs look like this:

I think you will agree that the design running throughout the body of the nymph makes these look very like the real thing (if you sort of ignore the sharp metal hook hanging out of the end!).

The Very Best Nymph Box There Is!

If you're looking for a new home for your WFX Nymphs - there's no better place than the Tacky Double-Sided Day Pack. I use one religiously throughout the year, and always have one in my chest-pack, it carries all the nymphs I need and is really slim, I don't even notice I'm carrying it half the time.

Here's my nymph box - as you can see, there are a few empty spaces which I need to fill up:

As soon as we get into September, this is the box which sees the most use (with the exception of my 'Daddy Box'. This is also the box I use for all of my Grayling fishing.

We've just received a re-stock of these boxes, so if you would like one, we have them - they're only £24.99, delivered for FREE (if you're in the UK), will last you for years and they're ready for a new home!

These really are stunning fly boxes, you can tell they have been specifically designed to hold nymphs - with the micro slits able to secure nymphs from a size 8 to a size 24!

Tight lines.