I think it might be worthwhile educating some of the forum members about the background, not of the patterns, but of the individuals concerned. The two individuals I'm talking about are Frank Sawyer and Oliver Kite (as mentioned above).

As Mark has mentioned above, Kite's pheasant tail nymph is almost the same if not exactly the same as Sawyers pheasant tail; that's because it is!

Frank Sawyer was a riverkeeper on the River Avon in Wiltshire, a position he took up aged 18 in 1925. He died on 18th April 1980 aged 73.

Throughout his years as the River keeper, he came into contact with many individuals, one of which was Olver Kite. Seemingly, to ensure the Rivers visitors of success, Sawyer would impart his local knowledge and techniques that were honed by spending every waking hour of every day on the River Avon.

Kite became a very good friend of Sawyers and lots of knowledge was shared or imparted. Unfortunately, as Sawyer wasn't viewed as an educated man, allegedly Kite took advantage of this and started to publish 'his' (by that I mean Sawyers!) findings in various journals and publications. Ultimately their frienship ended when Kite, by writing a book, including in it Kite's (Sawyers) pheasant tail and claiming it as his own.

At no time did any of the success or financial rewards end up with Sawyer. To this day, there is still bitterness over what happened and the story can and has evoked bitter exchanges in the letters pages of angling periodicals and publications.

I do feel that perhaps Mark has done Sawyer an injustice; I have always called the nymph, tied in the style Mark has demonstrated, Sawyers pheasant tail nymph.

As to the Bare hook nymph, to quote an extract from another book: 'Oliver Kite fished this after he discovered that Sawyers' pheasant tail nymphs still caught trout when they had been well and truly chewed and lost their body herls.

Without Sawyer, there would be no bare hook nymph and certainly no Kites pheasant tail nymph.

I take no sides in this argument and don't wish to offend. You of course can make your own decision.