The pattern notebook · nymph
Shop Vac
How do you tie a Shop Vac?
Shop Vac is a nymph fly pattern for trout. Find its 6 materials and 30 tying steps below.
- Difficulty
- 2 of 5
- Target species
- trout
- Pattern designer
- Craig Matthews
Added to catalog · Updated
At the vise
Materials
- Hook: Scud/pupa hook (Dai-Riki 135), size 16
- Bead: 3/32-inch, gold
- Thread: 8/0 or 70 Denier, black
- Rib: Ultra Wire, small, copper
- Body: 6 to 8 pheasant-tail fibers
- Wingbud: Z-lon, white
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Tying instructions
Mash the barb with needle-nose pliers or the jaws of your tying vise.
Slide a gold 3/32-inch bead onto the hook point, small hole first.
Secure the hook in the vise with the bead all the way up against the hook eye.
Start the thread on the hook shank at the back edge of the bead.
Take a few wraps rearward and snip or break off the tag.
Secure the small copper Ultra Wire to the near side of the hook.
Take thread wraps rearward, binding down the wire well into the hook bend.
Return your thread back up the shank so it rests at about the hook point.
Strip 6-8 natural-colored pheasant tail fibers from the stem.
Snip the curlies off the pheasant tail fibers.
Reorient the fibers so you're holding onto the tips.
Snip an eighth inch or so of those brittle tips off square.
Lay the fibers on top of the hook shank and start taking thread wraps to secure them.
Continue wrapping to that same place in the hook bend as you did before.
Hold the pheasant tail fibers and make touching wraps up the hook shank to form the body of the fly.
Wrap behind the tying thread to help ensure the fibers stay together as you wrap, forming a nice even body.
When you reach the bead, secure the pheasant tail with a few tight turns of tying thread and snip the excess fibers off close.
Hold the copper wire and make open spiral counter wraps over top of the pheasant tail to add segmentation and increase the fly's durability.
When you reach your tying thread, go around the copper wire to reverse the direction of your thread wraps.
Counter wrap to tighten and bind down the wire.
Helicopter the copper wire to break it off close.
Use white Z-lon for the wing bud.
Snip a single full-length strand free from the hank.
Cut an inch-long segment from that.
Center the segment right at the back edge of the bead and take two or three thread wraps over top to secure it.
Pull both ends of the segment back and take thread wraps to bind the material down so it projects rearward.
Do a five or six turn whip finish, trying to keep the thread band fairly narrow.
Snip or cut your tying thread free.
Trim the wing bud to extend about halfway down the body.
Apply a drop or two of head cement or Hard as Nails to the thread wraps.