First I imagined a fly that combined the best features of a hare’s ear nymph and a salvation nymph; my two top producing flies in 2014. Next I tied a single prototype, named it hare nation, and posted a photo of the new composite fly on this blog.

Hare Nation Nymph

As I prepared to tie thirteen beadhead pheasant tail nymphs to bring my inventory back to 60, I looked at my hare nation and decided that it was similar in appearance to a pheasant tail but offered some notable enhancements.The hare nation was tied on a size 14 2457 Tiemco hook, and excluding the space consumed by the bead, this yields a fly that approximates a size 16 which is the size range of pale morning dun nymphs. I tie my standard beadhead pheasant tail on a size 16 Tiemco 2457, and I have noticed on several occasions during pale morning dun hatch time periods that the larger nymphs outperform the smaller ones.

Underside

The hare nation contains legs in the form of brown pheasant feather fibers, whereas, my pheasant tail nymph pattern skips legs. Finally the hare nation uses flashy black peacock ice dub and the shiny flashback black and flashabou for the overbody and wing case. I suppose I could add legs to the pheasant tail pattern and tie them on a larger hook, but the most significant difference between the two is the durability of the synthetic materials compared to the brittle pheasant tail fibers.

Completed Cluster of Hare Nations

Perhaps I’m in love with the idea of creating and naming my own fly? At any rate I tied thirteen hare nations and added them to the 47 beadhead pheasant tail nymphs in my fly bin. I still have plenty of the old style pheasant tails as backup in case the hare nation does not yield superior performance and meet my expectations.