Gold Head Nymphs
The gold bead flies that are now so popular, actually originated in the central part of Europe - more than 100 years ago.
By Roman Moser
What it all lead to: gold beads
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History
The roots of the Gold Head or Pearl Head flies lie in the Northern Italian area. I
think that already at the turn of the century the fishermen of Piemont, Bergamo, Brescia and Friulia
fished in their alpine rivers with this type of nymph.
The nymph was build on a snelled hook (no eye). The silk gut was fixed
already to the hook and the body of the nymph was mostly made from pure
silk in different colors ribbed with an gold, silver or black metal wire. When the silk got wet it became translucent.
Instead of the head there was a glass pearl slipped in place and fixed (laquered).
The fishermen at that time and also today use these flies - although the new flies are made
of modern materials - on a special fishing rig called "Tiroler-Hölzel"; A "Tyrolean woodpiece".
Tiroler-Hölzel
At first these nymphs were used only with spinn-fishing equipment. At
the end of the nylon casting line the "Hölzel" was attatched; a 10 cm (4") long slightly
conically shaped piece of wood with a ring eye at the upper end and a lead
inlay on the bottom. Then came the side arms of the rig consisting of 4-5 pearl nymphs
with a 50 cm (20") distance attached directly to the line. This "wet fly system"
with weight at the end was cast upstream as far as possible. The current
pushed the "Hölzel" downstream so it rolled slowly over the gravel bottom
towards the spinfisherman. The angler reeled the line in, in the same speed
the nymphs were washed downstream. When the continous move stopped the
fisherman set the hook.
This system was and is still deadly mainly on graylings and is now
prohibited in many rivers of The Alps. The method of fishing with the
"Tyrolean Hölzel" is also called "Rieseln" meaning slowly rolling over the
bottom. It was also very popular in Switzerland, Tessin, Graubünden,
Montafon and the upper part of the Inn-river which is the main river of the Tyrol
in Austria.
Back to the nymph
As I mentioned earlier the pearl on the head of the fly was mostly a
golden or silver glass pearl from the Venicien glass industry (Murano).
Later it was replaced with plastic pearls in different colors from the doll and
toy industry. These nymphs were exclusively used by bait- and
spinfishermen in the most silty (glacial) rivers of the Tyrol,
Switzerland and northern Italy. It was never used for flyfishing.
The nymph was also - as I told you earlier - very successfull in very tiny
sizes imitating mitch-pupers (gas bubble thorax - my interpretion).
And the grayling really loved it.
Now I come into the game
In 1978 I got some of these pearl head flies from Tyrolean friends who told
me that these nymphs were extremely successfull in the murky Inn-river. They
thought that I could maybe make something out of these nymphs for
flyfishing. They found them useless for themselves because they were to
light in weight.
I tied some of these nymphs a tiny size 14 hook, making a medium to dark
brown silk (Polycrylon - Kreppnylon) body with gold ribbing some brown
hakle fibers pointing backward and a golden plastic pearl. To get
the fly down I also added two layers of fine lead wire as underbody.
I used the fly first on my home river the Austrian Traun - at that time a
world famous grayling river (today a world famous CORMORANT river).
The success was tremendous and astonishing. In the clear water I could see
how the graylings turned around and followed the nymph over many meters
downstream to take it without any hesitation.
New technique
It was orgiastic at this time. I caught endless numbers of fish at any time
of the day as well as any water depth. At that time my nymph technique (RM
bottom downstream technique) was born as it's shown in the video "New ways with the
caddises and new ways with mayflies". I used leaders of 5 meters length (15') and
caught fish after fish with this system. At that time there was a rumor on
the river saying that I had to use maggots and worms, otherwise my success
could not be possible.
Further improvement
Anyway the next step in further developements at that time was to create a
gold head nymph heavier then that with the glass or plastic head. The
logical step was to use a brass ball or bead as aditional weight. These I
found in the Cabela's catalog offered as round spinner bodies in different
sizes. The smallest type of these brass beads - which at that time had no
conical tapered bore - I could slip over a Partridge Captain Hamilton L3A
wide gap hook by pressing the barb close and opening the bend of the hook
slightly to bring the bead around the hook bend.
Two simple Goldkopff (Gold Head) nymphs
with hare's wool and pink dubbing.
The right one also has a copper ribbing.
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A new fly was born, and I named it the "Gold Head". I had a saying at that time: "Clever heads fish Gold Heads". The orginal Gold Head nymph I tied only with some body dubbing which was a mixture of medium grey with a touch of pink and the brass bead.
But nobody understood me until I published the making of that Gold Head in the German magazin "Fliegenfischer" January/March issue 1985 page 58.
The article was titled: "New ways of fishing the caddis" - because I found out that especially right before and when sedge flies were hatching, the Gold Head was most successfull fly probably because the bead resembled the air bubble thorax of the natural.
Years before in 1981 I also developed Gold Head microjigs. A
jighook nymph from size 8-16. For the smaller sizes I used japanese soft
wire hooks in size 12 and 14 and bent the shank with a pair of pliers and
superglued a split shot in place which I painted with gold varnish. Very
successfull for grayling in late fall and when midges were hatching - in
larger sizes excellent for trout in deep pockets.
his type of hook is
really perfect for deep fishing because the nymph is diving down actively
where the fish are and can be jerked over the bottom without snagging.
About ten years ago I brought this fly to England when I was invited for a
casting and tying demo at the Chatsworth Angling Fair. Afterwards it was
successfully used by friends like Oliver Edwards, Charles Jardine, Greenhalgh,
Alan Bramley and Taff Price. There were many articles written on the
subject and the fly was spread out all over of the british area.
About 7 years ago Orvis bought and marketed my video
in the US. The video was "New ways of fishing the caddis" where I show how to tie a Gold Head nymph. The pattern was then adapted by Tom Rosenbauer from the Orvis company and intruduced into the US market via their catalog. An article by him written for the Flyfisherman magazine appeared about 3 years ago. Now this very successfull nymph is spread all over the
world and fish from bonefish to salmon were caught with the Gold Head fly.
More stuff to look at on The Global FlyFisher |
These other stories on "Beads - Flies with bead heads" might also interest you:
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