So I tied up a few micro mayflies today, but as I was tying them up I realized that there is little differences between them and say a PT nymph. So my question is why use one over the other?
With a traditional PT nymph, I find it hard to get the abdomen as small as I like on flies #18 and smaller. With thread-bodied micro mayflies, I can easily make the abdomen small to fit my preferences. I can also make the fly any color I want to match particular species of mayflies.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
For one thing I don't tie my PT's on straight hooks anymore, I always tie them on caddis hooks so they curve. A drifting flashback is what the shop calls em. I use the 921 for the MM which as you know is straight. You have more freedom with the colors on the MM than the PT. Seems the regular color PT has always caught me more fish than other colors I try like olive and burgundy. Are you tying the original MM with stripped pea$ock and silver wire? Mercer makes a good argument as to why the MM is such a fatty in his book. Good read.
I usually do my MM with the stripped hurl and wire just like the mercer recipe and it's always worked for me. I've really come to like doing size 18 PT's on a scud hook with an olive dyed pheasant tail, give it a try, you'll like the results!
Cole - Ya I was following mercer's recipe with the striped pea$ock herl, but I was subbing gold wire for the silver wire becasue I did not have any silver wire.
I will have to try PT on a scud hook, never have done that but it sounds interesting
Sorry to bump this topic, but I found this searching the archives. Do pheasant tails on scud hooks work well? Recently Ken Davis was telling me how funny it is that nymphs are tied on straight hooks when in the water, most nymphs curve. I'd be curious to hear if they fish as well or better.
I always tie my nymphs on curved hooks. I figure it may be a tiny bit different than what the next guy is throwing which may make all the difference in the world.
I tie PTs on both straight and curved hooks. Sometimes both types of hooks will get equal grabs (usually in waters with planted fish). In some waters (usually wild trout streams), trout will only key in on the curved PTs.
