How to Tie the Mayer's Mysis Fly Pattern

Learn how to tie the Mayer's Mysis fly pattern, including step-by-step instructions, a video tutorial, pictures, and much more. Improve your fly-tying skills here.

Trident Fly Fishing is a full-service fly shop. We spend a lot of time testing gear and writing reviews to give you all of the tools to make your next trip a success. We are not a blog or a review site. 100% of our funding comes from your gear purchases, so if this blog post helps you on your next fly fishing adventure, please support us by buying your gear from us

Join us as we demonstrate how to tie the versatile Mayer's Mysis Shrimp/Nymph fly from Landon Mayer's book, "Guide Flies Easy to Tie Patterns for Tough Trout." The Mysis shrimp, a false shrimp species, was first introduced to Colorado reservoirs in the 1950s as a food source for salmon and lake trout. This fly effectively imitates these shrimp and can be fished in various ways to entice even the most selective trout.

Mayer's Mysis can be tied in sizes 12-20 to match various shrimp sizes. When fished on a dead drift, fish may take it as a dead shrimp. Add a twitch and swing to your retrieve, and you'll effectively imitate a live shrimp, increasing your chances of hooking up with a tough trout

Material List

• Hook: TMC 200R size 14
• Thread: Uni Thread 8/0 in Red
• Abdomen: Hareline Pearlescent Flat Tinsel Large
• Thorax: White Ostrich Herl
• Antennae: Hareline White Daddy Long Legs

Step One

Secure your thread behind the hook's eye with a jam knot, then wrap back to just beyond the hook's point.

Step Two

Select five strands of Hareline's Daddy Long Legs material and tie them on top of the hook at roughly the middle point of the hook's shank. If your vise has a material clip, capture the excess length of the Daddy Long legs in it so that it's out of your way.

Step Three

Now select a piece of tinsel that's about 3"-4" long, trim a point at its end (to make tying it in a bit smoother), and tie it in directly on top of the hook shank; wrap back so that it's right in front of the tail.

Step Four

Select a single fiber from an Ostrich Herl and prep the tie-in point by removing some of the fibers from the stem. Once it's ready to tie in, tie it in just in front of the tinsel and wind it forward to be about one-third of the hook's shank. Once you've completed the thorax, tie the Ostrich Herl off and trim the excess.

Step Five

Now create the fly's body by wrapping your thread up the shank to the hook's eye and then wrap it back to be just in front of the thorax.

Step Six

Pull the tinsel over the back of the thorax and tie it in.

Step Seven

After securing the tinsel, keep it on top of the hook's shank and wrap over it with open wraps all the way to the hook's eye. Once at the hook's eye, pull the tinsel rearward and make a few wraps in front of it.

Step Eight

Whip finish the fly and cut the thread.

Step Nine

Finally, trim the tinsel so that it extends beyond the eye roughly a quarter-inch (on smaller flies, you'll want to trim it a bit shorter, and for larger flies, you'll trim it to be a bit longer) and trim the antennae so that they're about half of the length of the hook's shank.

Step Ten

The last step for this fly is to coat the tinsel and body with a bit of Zap-A-Gap. Doing this will greatly increase your fly's durabilty.

The Mayer's Mysis is now complete. This is the perfect pattern to whip up during the winter and hit your favorite tailwater.