Nuke Egg

Traverse City and Grand Rapids shop standard (Current Works, Nomad Anglers)

A McFly Foam or Glo Bug yarn core under a yarn veil that goes translucent when wet, imitating the milky, non-viable eggs that make up most of the drift. Tied on a Gamakatsu C14S or TMC 2457 #8 to #12 (TMC 105 #6 to #10 for salmon); natural combinations for clear water, Chartreuse over Flame and Flame over Cerise for high or stained flows. Fish it behind spawning salmon from September through November, with aging-egg colors through winter, and natural steelhead-egg shades in March and April on the Manistee, Betsie, PM, Muskegon and Au Sable.

#6–12Oregon Cheese over Steelhead OrangeApricot Supreme over Steelhead OrangeEgg over SockeyePink Lady over Shrimp PinkSalmon Egg over ChartreuseChartreuse over FlameFlame over Cerise

What the pattern looks like

Reference photos of the Nuke Egg tied by others, shared by their photographers. Not our flies; our own product photos replace these as they are shot.

Nuke Egg reference photo — Photo © Quinn, used with permission

Season

Months this pattern is in play across Michigan, derived from what it imitates.

Imitates

Eggs

Chinook salmon eggs6.36–8.36 mm
Coho salmon eggs6–8 mm
Steelhead eggs4–5 mm
Brown trout eggs (resident and lake-run)4–5 mm
Pink salmon eggs6–8 mm
Atlantic salmon eggs5.6–5.6 mm

Fish it for

Steelhead Brown trout Rainbow trout (resident)Chinook salmon Coho salmon Pink salmon Atlantic salmon

Setups

Indicator nymphing
Chuck and duck
Euro / tight-line nymphing

How it's tied

A dense yarn nucleus wrapped in a sparse veil of paler yarn. The veil turns milky when wet and gives the egg the halo of a freshly dropped one; the Traverse City and Grand Rapids shop standard. Our own write-up of the standard tie, checked against the sources below. Recipe by Charlie Craven, Charlie's Fly Box (2022).

Materials

Hook: Gamakatsu C14S, sizes 8 to 12 (Northern Angler, Kraimer); TMC 105 6 to 10 or TMC 2457 8 to 12 (Kraimer); TMC 2457 or 2488H 14 to 18 for trout (Craven)Our sizes 6 to 12.
Thread: Uni 6/0 in Light Cahill or a colour matching the veil (Kraimer, Northern Angler); Craven uses GSP 50 orange
Nucleus: McFly Foam (Craven, Nomad, Northern Angler) or Glo Bug yarn (Kraimer) in the darker egg colourMichigan combos, listed nucleus first: Steelhead Orange under Oregon Cheese; Steelhead Orange under Apricot Supreme; Sockeye under Egg; Shrimp Pink under Pink Lady; Chartreuse under Salmon Egg; Flame under Chartreuse; Cerise under Flame. Our colour list names the veil first.
Veil: Conventional Glo Bug yarn (not foam) in the paler colour: Oregon Cheese or Apricot Supreme in Michigan; white or pale pink for Craven's trout versionA wisp only; you should see the nucleus through it.
Head cementoptional: Thin cement on the head wraps

Steps

1.Mount the hook and lay a thread base from behind the eye back to above the point, then return to the middle of the shank.
2.Pull off a clump of nucleus yarn, about pencil thickness for a size 16 and about the thickness of a whip-finisher handle for a size 8 to 10. Lay it on top of the shank and bind it at its middle with three very tight wraps while it is relaxed.
3.Pull both ends of the clump straight up and trim them square about 1/8 in above the wraps; cutting longer makes a larger egg.
4.Fluff the stub with your fingers so it opens into a loose ball. Stopped here it is a plain McFly Foam egg.
5.Move the thread just in front of the ball. Cut a piece of veil yarn about twice the shank length and peel it down to a sparse wisp, a few fibres thick, with ragged uneven ends.
6.Drape the wisp over and around the ball so fibres fall on every side, pinch it down behind the eye, give it a slight twist to spread it, and lock it with two tight wraps.
7.Comb the forward-pointing fibres back over the egg with a dubbing brush so the veil spreads evenly around the ball instead of piling on top.
8.Build a small wedge of tight wraps behind the eye to hold the veil swept back, whip finish and cut the thread.
9.Trim the veil to roughly shank length, a little past the nucleus, leaving the ends uneven, and add a drop of cement to the head.

From the tier

Charlie Craven: the veil imitates the connective goo that holds eggs together in a clump, and brushing it back is what keeps it from bunching on top and spoiling the milky film. He credits Pat Dorsey with making the fly a Colorado staple.
Ted Kraimer (Current Works): Chartreuse over Flame as an attractor, Oregon Cheese over Steelhead Orange for spring and fall; adjust sparseness to water clarity and to whether you are matching steelhead or salmon eggs.
The Northern Angler (Traverse City) calls Steelhead Orange under an Oregon Cheese veil the essential tie, and adds Pink Lady over Cerise, Chartreuse over Flame, and Apricot Supreme over Chartreuse for cold water.

Nuke Egg (Step By Step Tutorials) Steps summarize Craven's fifteen-photo tutorial merged with Kraimer's Michigan version; Nomad and Northern Angler pages provided materials and colour combos only. Unconfirmed: No source names who first tied the Nuke Egg. Also checked against Ted Kraimer, Current Works Guide Service, How to Tie the Nuke Egg Fly Pattern, The Northern Angler Fly Shop, Traverse City (2022), Nuke Egg Tutorial, Nomad Anglers (2018), Simple Nuke Egg Pattern for Steelhead Michigan and Ted Kraimer, Current Works Guide Service, Egg Patterns for Fly Fishing Steelhead, Salmon & Trout.

Materials to buy

Everything one Nuke Egg takes, each item once: 4 items, plus 1 optional. Quantities are for a single fly. We do not sell components yet; when we do, these will link to them.

Hook and hardware

Egg or scud hook1
size 6 to 12; C14S 8 to 12 · Gamakatsu or TMC
Hook
1

Synthetics, flash and legs

McFly Foam or Glo Bugs yarn, nucleus colour1 pack per colour
Steelhead Orange, Sockeye, Shrimp Pink, Flame, Cerise, Chartreuse · McFly Foam or The Bug Shop
Nucleus
1 pack per colour
Glo Bugs yarn, veil colour1 bag per colour
Oregon Cheese, Apricot Supreme, Egg, Pink Lady, Salmon Egg, White · The Bug Shop
Veil
1 bag per colour

Thread and finish

Tying thread1 spool
Uni 6/0 Light Cahill, or GSP 50 orange
Thread
1 spool
Head cementoptional1 bottle
Head cement
1 bottle

Sources