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Prince Nymph
Prince Nymph
Tying Instructions
1. Mash the barb with the vise and slip on a Gold tungsten bead. I’m using a 3/32 with a size #12 hook.
2. Wrap a section of leadfree wire behind the bead. Hackle pliers make this an easy step.
3. Attach your thread behind the lead wraps and secure the lead wraps tight against the bead. Wrap the thread back to the bend of the hook where the tails will be secured.
4. Select a pair of Brown Goose Biots and have the tips even with the biiots curving outwards. Measure the tail so that it is about 1 hook shank in length.
5. Just switch hands to mark the tie-in position of the biots and place the biots on each side of the hook shank at the tail tie-in position.
6. Secure the biots with thread wraps up to the leadfree wire wraps.
7. Trim off the tag ends of the biots and wrap the thread at the base of the leadfree wire wraps for an even underbody.
8. Attach a section of Oval Tinsel to the top of the hook shank behind the leadfree wire wraps and secure the tinsel to the tail tie-in position.
9) Select three peacock herls and even the tips. Clip off the tips so that the strong portion of the herl is attached to the top of the hook. Secure the herl to the tail tie-in position.
10. Wrap the three herls around the thread as a chenille.
11. Wrap the herl chenille forward to just behind the bead. Leave some space for tying the legs and wings. Trim off the tag ends.
12. Spirol wrap the ribbing in a counter wrap to just behind the bead and secure with thread wraps. Trim off the tag ends.
13. Seloect a henback or partridge feather. Remove the basal fluff to expose a bare quill. Sweep the feather fibers back leaving a feather tip that will be trimmed off.
14. Lay the feather above the bead and apply one thread wrap behind the bead to help secure it in position. Grab the bare quill and pull the feather through the thread loop.
15. Adjust the length of the fibers until they are just short of the hook point. Now, secure with some tight thread wraps behind the bead and trim the tag end of the feather.
16. Turn the fly back up on the vise and attach a first biot wing at a 30 degree angle behind the bead with the point of the biot turning down.
17. Attach a second biot wing at a 30 degree angle on the opposing side. The biots are an “X” at the point where they will be tied in behind the bead. The length of the wings should be from the collar to the base of the tail. The width of the biot wing points should be just a little wider than the body. Secure with thread wraps behind the bead for a thread collar.
18. Whip finish behind the bead and trim off the thread.
19. Apply some UV fly finish to the collar thread.
20. Cure the epoxy with a UV Lamp.
21. The finished Beadhead Prince Nymph.
| Materials
to Order Material, click the link |
|
|---|---|
| Hook | Daiichi 1560, sizes 10-16 |
| Thread | Danville Black 6/0 |
| Head | Gold Tungsten Bead |
| Weight | 0.020 Leadfree wire |
| Body | Peacock Herl |
| Tail | Brown Goose Biots |
| Collar | Danville Black 6/0 with Loons UV Fly Finish Flow |
| Wing | White Goose Biots |
| Legs | Natural India Hen Back |
| Ribbing | Uni-French Small Gold Oval Tinsel |
Prince Nymph
The Prince Nymph is a variation from an earlier pattern named the Brown Forked Tail Nymph which was originated in 1930’s by brothers Don & Dick Olson of Bemidji, MN. There are many stories about the name of this fly but, according to Timo Kontio of Fly Tying Archives, Doug Prince of Monterey, CA started using this fly in 1941 on his favorite stream, the Kings River, and had good success with it. Doug changed the original body from Ostrich Herl to Peacock Herl and re-oriented the wings to curve downwards.
Buz Buszek wanted to include the pattern that Prince had tied for him to his mail-order catalog in 1940’s but didn’t remember the name of the fly so he decided to call it the Prince Nymph after Doug Prince. The catalog was spread around and the Prince Nymph became really popular and it’s better known by that name today. The above recipe is the actual pattern described by Doug Prince. The Peacock Herl is the better choice as the material provides a very attractive irridescence to the body and has proven to be an excellent body material on other flies, such as the Zug Bug.
Materials
Often this fly is weighted using a beadhead and/or leadfree wire. When using a beadhead a 3XL nymph hook, such as the TMC 5263, can provide some extra room for the beadhead. A few wraps of Leadfree wire can also be used to fill the void of the bead. Substituting turkey biots with goose biots is also often done for the larger hook sizes. Keep in mind that the tail should be about half the shank length and the wings should extend from the head to the tail tie-in position.
Both the tail and wing should have a narrow symmetrical angle in which the wing tips are just beyond the width of the body. When selecting the biots, note that the biots at the end of the quill tend to be narrower than those near the base of the quill. The narrower biots are often preferred for the tail materials while the wider biots are preferred for the wings. A hackle collar should not extend beyond the point of the hook. The hackle can be tied as a full collar behind the bead or eye of the hook or it can be tied as a beard to the underside of the shank just below the wing tie-in position.
Variations
A nice variation (CDC Prince Nymph) is to use CDC for the collar hackle, this tends to give the fly a wispy action. Tie the CDC in by the tip and give 2-3 wraps before securing the wing biots. Try to keep the CDC fibers from exceeding the end of the body by pinching off the excess. Other Variations include: Mercer’s Psycho Prince Nymph, GB Lite Brite Prince Nymph, TB Hotwire Prince, Fred Gordon’s Prince Nymph, King Prince, and Queen Prince.
The Gold Bead Lite Brite Prince became quite popular within the Northwest during the 1980’s and has moved its way south into the Sierra. Popular colorations are Copper, Blue/Olive, and Dark Olive. The Lite Brite provides a nice flash attraction with the white contrast of the biot wings. It is often used as a beadhead nymph attractor in freestone streams.
The King Prince and Queen Prince are recent variations introduced by Idylwilde Flies and distributed to a number of Sierran Fly Shops. Using a scud-type hook, it is considered to be a better fast water variation. Both use hackle materials that provide plenty of movement from the Partridge throat hackle on the King Prince and the full collar hackle of a Partridge Aftershaft quill on the Queen Prince.
When Wapsi introduced it’s colored copper wire, many patterns were adapted utilizing the wire for body patterns as seen in the TB Hotwire Prince. Mike Mercer’s Psycho Prince is a recent variation utilizing many synthetic materials such as Ice dubbing, Angel Hair, and Z-lon. The Orange ice dubbing body gives the fly a great attractor element as well as the Electric Banana Angel Hair which represents the bursting wing case. Note how the wing splays outward, highlighting the wingbud. Mike maintains a sense of realism to his patterns by utilizing a turkey tail carapace that gives a dark/light contrast to the body, similar to the naturals.
The pattern is also tied in larger sizes 6-12 for steelhead. Sierran Guide, Lance Gray came up with his variation, Amber Wing Prince. It uses the Green and Gold Hot Wires for the body, a Furnace Hen Hackle for legs, and an Amber Goose Biot for the wing. He left off any thorax material so that it could have the shape of an emerging caddis but the colorations will allow the pattern to be fished as a stonefly as well.
Variations
King Prince Nymph
| Hook | Daiichi 1120 #12-16 |
| Thread | Danville 6/0 Brown |
| Head | Gold Tungsten Bead |
| Body | Blue Wing Olive Superfine with Chartreuse Wing N Flash |
| Tail | Brown Goose Biots |
| Collar | Danville Brown 6/0 |
| Wing | White Goose Biots |
| Legs | Partridge |
| Ribbing | Small Gold Wire |
Queen Prince Nymph
| Hook | Daiichi 1120 #12-16 |
| Thread | Danville 6/0 Brown |
| Head | Gold Tungsten Bead |
| Body | Amber Superfine Dubbing with Chartreuse Wing N Flash |
| Tail | Goose Biots, Amber |
| Collar | Danville Brown 6/0 |
| Wing | Goose Biots, Amber |
| Hackle(Legs) | Partridge Aftershaft feather |
| Ribbing | Small Copper Wire |
CDC Prince Nymph
| Hook | TMC 5263 #12-16 |
| Thread | Danville Black 6/0 |
| Head | Gold Tungsten Bead |
| Weight | 0.020 Leadfree wire |
| Body | Peacock Herl |
| Tail | Brown Goose Biots |
| Collar | Danville Black 6/0 with Loons UV Fly Finish Flow |
| Wing | White Goose Biots |
| Hackle(Legs) | Medium Dun CDC Feather |
| Ribbing | Uni-French Small Gold Oval Tinsel |
Fred Gordon’s Prince Nymph
| Hook | TMC 3761 #12-18 |
| Thread | Danville Brown 6/0 |
| Head | Copper Tungsten Bead |
| Weight | 0.020 Leadfree wire |
| Body | Peacock Herl |
| Tail | Black Goose Biots |
| Wing | Amber Goose Biots |
| Hackle(Legs) | Greenwell Hen Cape Hackle |
| Ribbing | Medium Copper Wire |
GB Pearl Blue/Olive Lite Brite Prince Nymph
| Hook | TMC 3761, sizes 12-18 |
| Thread | Danville Black 6/0 |
| Head | Gold Tungsten Bead |
| Weight | 0.020 Leadfree wire |
| Underbody | Black Floss |
| Body | Lite Brite Dubbing, Pearl Blue/Olive |
| Tail | Brown Goose Biots |
| Collar | Danville Black 6/0 |
| Wing | White Goose Biots |
| Hackle(Legs) | Ginger/Brown Saddle Hackle |
| Ribbing | Small Gold Wire |
TB Hotwire Prince Olive/Copper
| Hook | TMC 3761, sizes 14-18 |
| Thread | Danville Black 6/0 |
| Head | Gold Tungsten Bead |
| Weight | 0.020 Leadfree wire |
| Underbody | Black Floss |
| Body | Copper and Olive Ultra Wire, BR |
| Thorax | Ice Dubbing, Olive Brown |
| Tail | Brown Goose Biots |
| Collar | Danville Black 6/0 |
| Wing | White Goose Biots |
| Hackle(Legs) | Brown Henback Hackle |
Mercer’s Psycho Prince
| Hook | TMC 3769, sizes 14-18 |
| Thread | 8/0 Camel Unithread |
| Head | Gold Tungsten Bead |
| Weight | 0.020 Leadfree wire |
| Carapace | Dark Mottled Turkey Tail |
| Body | Ice Dubbing, Orange |
| Wing Bud | Yellow Flat Diamond Braid |
| Tail | Brown Goose Biots |
| Collar | UV Brown Ice Dubbing |
| Wing | Amber Goose Biots |
| Ribbing | Small Copper Wire |
Lance’s Amber Wing Prince
| Hook | TMC 3769, sizes 12-16 |
| Thread | Danville 6/0 Tobacco Brown |
| Head | Gold Tungsten Bead |
| Weight | 0.020 Leadfree wire |
| Underbody | Black Floss |
| Body | Ultra Wire Green and Gold, Small |
| Tail | Brown Goose Biots |
| Collar | Danville 6/0 Tobacco Brown |
| Wing | Amber Goose Biots |
| Hackle(Legs) | Brown Henback Hackle, one size larger |