This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Swisher and Richards Floating Nymph.
I was searching my fly fishing and fly tying library for a little inspiration on what fly to feature this week. I decided to pull out Mike Lawson’s Spring Creeks (2003) book and thumbed through it. After several chapters, I thought I should leave the book out and reread some of the chapters!
Lawson presents several flies he uses for fishing spring creeks, including his home waters, the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. I found a few flies listed in his book that I’ve highlighted in previous TBT posts, including the Caddis Emerger, the Spent Partridge Caddis, and his EZ Caddis.
I found the Floating Nymph on page 270 of his book. He provides a brief description and he states in part “Doug Swisher and Carl Richards first described this pattern in Selective Trout (1988).
Beside Lawson’s book, I found the Floating Nymph in Ed Engle’s Tying Small Flies (2004). Ed sent me a book after meeting him on the Metolius River back in 2016 as he was fishing with an acquaintance I knew who lived in the Willamette Valley.
It’s funny, I’ve looked at that book many times, but didn’t really pay attention to Chapter 12 – Floating Nymphs! Sure enough, it’s listed there. Ed also details a variant where a parachute wing is added for more floatation. He writes he carries both versions of the fly.
It’s a relatively simple fly to tie, but a little knowledge about how to create the round ball for the wing might need practice.
Many natural nymphs float in the surface film as they struggle to free themselves from their nymphal shuck. This makes them easy pickings for trout.
I bet this will work on my home waters!
Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!
