PMD Bristle Nymph Fly Tying Kit | Complete PMD Nymph Kit
Tie the Moonlit PMD Bristle Nymph — Everything You Need in One Place
Tie the Moonlit PMD Bristle Nymph without hunting down every hook, bead, thread, and material separately.
The PMD Bristle Nymph Fly Tying Kit puts everything you need for this pattern together in one place. Simply choose your hook size and tungsten bead size, add the kit to your cart, and you're ready to follow along with the complete tying tutorial.
The PMD Bristle Nymph takes inspiration from the highly effective style of modern CDC-collared nymphs but gives the concept a different kind of movement.
Instead of CDC, this pattern combines Golden Olive Pine Squirrel Dubbing with a sparse Bright Yellow Pine Squirrel Zonker collar spun in a dubbing loop. The mixture of fine underfur and longer mottled guard hairs creates a buggy, bristled thorax with movement, texture, and a broken natural silhouette.
A slim Primrose thread abdomen, Bronze Holographic Tinsel segmentation, Brown Micro Glint tail and legs, and a Metallic Coffee tungsten bead complete a PMD nymph designed to get down, move naturally, and look alive in the drift.
Choose Your Hook & Bead Combination
Select the combination that matches the size and depth you want to fish:
Size 16–18 Hook + 2.5mm Tungsten Bead
Our standard combination for smaller PMD Bristle Nymphs. The 2.5mm bead is already toward the larger end for a size 18, so we do not recommend oversizing the bead on the #18.
Size 14 Hook + 3.0mm Tungsten Bead
Our standard combination for the larger version of the pattern.
Want a faster descent on the #14?
Upsize to a 3.5mm tungsten bead for additional weight and a faster sink rate.
Tying Tip: We often upsize tungsten beads when we want a nymph to reach depth quickly, but hook proportions still matter. The #18 is already paired with a relatively large 2.5mm bead, so there isn't the same need to oversize it.
Why Pine Squirrel Instead of CDC?
CDC is an outstanding nymph material. Its extremely fine fibers create delicate movement with very little bulk, which is one reason CDC collars have become so popular on modern nymph patterns.
Pine Squirrel doesn't try to imitate CDC. It gives us something different.
The fine underfur creates softness and body while the longer guard hairs add mottling, structure, and movement. Spinning a sparse amount of Pine Squirrel Zonker in a dubbing loop creates the irregular Bristle collar that gives this pattern its name.
That means you get:
- Natural mottling from the Pine Squirrel fibers
- Longer guard hairs that move in the current
- A broken, buggy thorax silhouette
- More structure than an extremely soft CDC collar
- Natural fibers combined with subtle Micro Glint movement and flash
It's not about one material being better than the other.
It's about giving the fly a different profile and a different kind of movement.
Watch & Tie Along — PMD Bristle Nymph Tutorial
Follow along with the complete step-by-step PMD Bristle Nymph fly tying tutorial below.
What's Included in the PMD Bristle Nymph Tying Kit?
Your kit includes the materials needed to tie the pattern shown in our tutorial:
Hook: Moonlit Premium TOGATTA ML501 — selected size
Bead: Moonlit Slotted Tungsten Metallic Coffee — selected size
Thread / Body: Semperfli Classic Waxed 12/0 — Primrose
Tail / Legs: Semperfli Micro Glint — Brown
Ribbing: Semperfli 1/69" Holographic Tinsel — Bronze
Thorax: Moonlit Pine Squirrel Dubbing — Golden Olive
Collar: Moonlit Pine Squirrel Zonker — Bright Yellow
Standard fly-tying tools and UV resin/application equipment are not included unless specifically stated in the kit options.
Why Fish the PMD Bristle Nymph?
Pale Morning Duns can create some incredible dry-fly fishing, but trout don't wait until PMDs reach the surface to start feeding on them.
PMD nymphs are available below the surface before and during the hatch. As nymphs become increasingly active, trout can key heavily on this subsurface food source.
The Bristle Nymph combines a slim mayfly profile, defined segmentation, subtle flash, a buggy Pine Squirrel thorax, and tungsten weight to make it an excellent choice for:
- Fishing before a PMD hatch begins
- Targeting trout feeding on ascending PMD nymphs
- Riffles and broken water
- Seams and feeding lanes
- Deeper runs where tungsten helps reach feeding depth
- Fishing underneath an active PMD hatch when trout aren't fully committed to the surface
Adjust your bead size and rigging to control where the fly fishes in the water column.
Learn More About the PMD Bristle Nymph
Want to dig deeper into why we chose Pine Squirrel instead of CDC, how the two materials behave differently, and when to fish the PMD Bristle Nymph?
👉 [READ THE PMD BRISTLE NYMPH PATTERN & FISHING GUIDE]([INSERT BLOG POST URL])
One Kit. One Tutorial. Everything You Need to Tie It.
No searching through multiple product pages. No wondering whether you've selected the right materials.
Choose your hook and bead size, grab your PMD Bristle Nymph Fly Tying Kit, start the tutorial, and meet us at the vise.
Adventure Starts at the Vise.