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With the actual natural nymph to be represented floating under one’s eye … the length of the hook’s shank necessary to give room for the thorax and abdomen can be exactly ascertained … In the representation, it is well to get the actual outline and taper as correct as possible.

G. E. M. Skues, Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout, 1939.

Three major groups of aquatic trout foods have an incomplete life cycle consisting of a egg, followed by a nymph, followed by the adult: the upwinged flies (or mayflies), or Ephemeroptera; stoneflies, or Plecoptera; dragonflies and damselflies, or Odonata. The nymph is the growing stage, so that after hatching from the egg it is minute, whereas just before the adult emerges the fully grown nymph may be very large. Some Ephemera and Hexagenia mayfly nymphs attain length up to 1 ½ inches, or 4 cm, whereas the nymph of the huge stonefly Pteronarcys calfornica, of America’s West, can exceed 2 inches, or 5 cm.

One feature of many nymphs is a slender abdomen and a thicker, rounder thorax. Thus the tying of the body is usually separated into these two components. Nymphs also develop wing buds or wing cases as they grow, and in the final stage the wing cases are very prominent and usually a darker colour than the body colour. They are often included in the tying of artificial nymphs.

While less bulky nymphs often sink fairly quickly, larger ones do not. It is therefore essential to have some weighting (provided the rules permit the used of weighted flies). If lead is permitted, wind fine lead wire down the hook shank in touching turns in larger nymphs, down the front half of the hook shank (i.e. under the thorax) in smaller patterns, or lash two or more strands of lead wire along the hook shank. If lead is not permitted, use tungsten or copper wire. Another alternative is to have a drilled metal bead fixed in place behind the hook eye (tungsten, brass, or silver or gold plated). Very heavy versions may be tied with body a lead wire underbody and a metal bead head. See also Goldheads, below.

Many of the more effective nymph patterns are general patterns and could be taken by the fish for a host of nymph species. There are also many more precise imitations.