Stephen Martin's Nymph
I do the majority of my fishing on streams and rivers, both around the Waikato and further a field. Therefore my main weapons are nymph’s, although there is nothing like catching fish on the dry fly, as I do very little wet lining.

Over the last year and a half I have been using the following nymph pattern exclusively. Either by itself, in tandem with pheasant tails and caddis and even in a large version as a bomb on the Tongariro.
 

Hook : Black Magic A&B sizes 10 & 12 Thread : 6/0 Black Uni-thread Tail : Pheasant Tail Rib : Fine copper wire Under body : Lead wire Abdomen : Olive or natural rabbit dubbing Thorax : Claret rabbit dubbing Wing case : Pheasant tail Head : Gold bead

Tying:-
Gold bead on first, if tying a number at a time, save time by putting all
the gold beads on the hooks before you start.
Run a layer of thread down the hook and tie in the lead. Form a tapering body with the lead and wrap over with thread to hold it in place. Tie on the pheasant tail, leaving the excess to form the wingcase. Tie in the copper wire rib.

Dub on the olive rabbit dubbing and wrap up to start of thorax, then wind wire rib up in even spirals and tie off.
Dub on the claret and up to bead head. Make this slightly bulky.
Pull pheasant tail over and tie in then whip finish and glue.
I then brush the dubbing from front to back to give a ’buggy’ streamlined look to the fly.

I have had great success with this nymph even when in tandem with a smaller fly.
The ‘Bomb” version I used on the Tongariro accounted for half of the fish I caught and the smaller/lighter stream ties work well just fishing the one fly.

I also tie smaller versions with out beads and have even experimented with straight claret flies. These work but I find not as well as the olive and claret.

Hope you try the fly and it brings you success.

Stephen.