Fly Fishing After Dark: Fishing Harvey’s Pusher Fly
It was just before midnight on a humid August evening. I had spent the last three hours fishing what most would categorize as a “mouse fly.” Sadly, the desired heart-stopping surface explosion I had hoped for never came. Instead, it was crickets on every cast into this meadowy spring creek… quite literally. The pools I had worked were usually good for at least a fish or two a night. However, on this night I had not registered so much as a single tap from the fish. Looking up, the rising full moon was beginning to clear the very tall tree line that previously shielded the water from its bright light. Given that bright conditions often spell an end to the action at night, and the fact that I had zero action to begin with, my confidence started withering.
I paused fishing to change flies and noticed the iPhone had struck midnight. Today became yesterday and tomorrow became now as I opened my fly box, deciding what to throw next and how to present it. Like many times before, my attention almost immediately was drawn to the Harvey Pusher. Not solely because of its huge, uncanny and batwing-like appendages fashioned from ringneck pheasant feathers. Yes, visually the pattern is no doubt an attention grabber. However, the reason I settle time and time again on fishing this pattern at night is the many experiences where it has been the only fly the fish would eat, often in less than ideal conditions.
After tying it on and wading slowly into the head of a flat, shallow pool, I cast 45 degrees down and across stream to the outside bank that created a gentle bend in the creek. As soon as my fly hit the water I threw an aggressive up/cross stream mend towards the opposite bank, trying to position the line as close and parallel to the far bank as I could. The mend stopped the fly from being immediately swung off the bank into the main current by moving much of the belly of the fly line out of the faster middle section of the stream. The mend also pulled the Pusher slightly straight upstream along the bank as well. This short, quick upstream pulse flattens the massive wings of the Pusher against its sides before the fly comes to an abrupt stop allowing the wings to spring back outward again.
Immediately following this mend, the deep sound of displaced water coming from a violent subsurface eat was audible. Fighting the urge to startle and slam my rod back like Kevin VanDam in a Bassmasters Classic, I gently applied tension, checking to see if the fish striking my fly would match it. When I felt the strong pull of the fish, I came tight to it slowly, steadily, and smoothly by stripping line and drifting my rod sideways simultaneously into a taut, bent position. After wrestling this fish in quickly on 20lb tippet, its thrashes finally ceased in the net. There lay the trout with a Pusher stuck in the corner of its mouth.
It’s nights like these fishing the Harvey Pusher that make me sometimes wonder why I tie anything else on at all after dark.
Origins of the Pusher Fly and Why It Works
Joe Humphreys once told me the Pusher was created one night on Spring Creek while its inventor, George Harvey, was fishing in Struble’s Meadow. He said, “George didn’t like what he had on that night,” so he went home to the vise and made the Pusher. The next night, he went back out with his new creation and apparently had immediate success. To add to the legend, Joe Humphreys caught a state-record brown trout at night using this fly in August of 1977 in Big Fishing Creek.
In my experience, any good night-fishing fly excels in three important categories: casting a large silhouette over the stream bottom, displacing a significant amount of water, and possessing abundant built-in elements of movement. The thick-bodied, heavily hackled, and wide-winged Harvey Pusher gets an A+ in all three. It casts a large, easily visible silhouette. Its wings travel through a wide arc of motion when pulled forward, only to quickly snap back in place when paused. Each strip or twitch causes the large surface area of the wings to displace the water they move through, alerting fish via their lateral lines to the fly’s presence.
The fly’s creator, George Harvey, achieved something few other patterns do, in my opinion, by creating a highly mobile, yet elastic, “joint” made of feather quills, thread, dubbing, and hackle. This “joint” loads with movement and snaps back into form on every pause. Unlike two metal shanks linked together, it creates movement in the anterior-posterior direction rather than the side-to-side motion seen in articulated streamers.
The inevitable question is: what does this unique motion imitate? Well, I don’t know that it imitates any one prey species so much as it suggests several. However, Joe Humphreys felt it imitated a crayfish, which I’ve commonly observed tucking their claws in as they flee and splaying them outward upon stopping. I also think it could suggest the motion of a frog’s legs—straightening while kicking, then flaring outward while resting.
Who knows if fish even take it for anything specific at all, though. All I can say with certainty is that it does a great job broadcasting its presence to the underwater world.
Fishing this fly effectively starts with selecting the proper rod, line, and leader setup. I use a 9-foot, 6-weight fast-action rod. The weight and stiffness of the rod allow me to put a lot of firm pressure on the larger diameter points of the heavy-gauge hooks I tie night flies on. As I slowly come tight to fish on the hook set, I want to know I’m burying that hook point instead of just bending a noodly rod. The combination of the fast-action rod with a weight-forward 6WT floating line affords me the power and line speed to overcome the fly’s air resistance. This setup allows me to accurately punch the fly underneath tree limbs and into other tight windows.
A short, stiff, and strong leader is also key to turning over the Pusher and presenting it with accuracy. Long leaders will diminish your accuracy and cause your Pusher to land with slack piles in the leader, which can hinder strike detection—especially given how quickly fish react to a surface disturbance near the bank some nights. You want that leader to lay out straight—unlike a dry-fly leader. To do that, not only does it need to be shorter, but it also needs to be made of thick mono and taper rapidly, in my opinion. Thick, short, and rapidly tapering monofilament segments really help transfer the power from the fly line through the leader to the air-resistant Pusher, making it turn over effortlessly.
My go-to leader is: 2.5 ft of 40 lb test to 2.5 ft of 30 lb test to 2.5 ft of 25 lb, then to a large tippet ring, and finally 18 inches of 20 lb test to the Pusher. Do I need 20 lb test from a fish-fighting perspective? Not quite. However, it’s more about having thick and stiff enough line so that the Pusher doesn’t twist lighter mono, which is more prone to tangles and coils. I haven’t broken a fly line core yet from snagging with the 20 lb test, because the hook invariably seems to bend out first—even 1X strong wire ones. I’ll often hang a second Pusher off a 2–3 inch, 20 lb test dropper attached to the tippet ring.
Beyond leader and tippet setup, the only other major rigging consideration for the Pusher is weight. If split shot is added, you don’t want it on the fly’s nose. That will orient the wings toward the bottom instead of forward into the current, where they can push water effectively. Instead, pinch shot 9–12 inches above the fly to allow it to maintain the proper orientation. I almost always start out with an unweighted Pusher, except in faster riffles and runs.
Fishing the Pusher Fly
Once rigged up and out on the stream at night, you are now faced with the question of how to present and animate the Harvey Pusher. There are a number of different techniques I use to fish this fly. I think it’s most practical to talk about them in the context of what stream features or current speeds dictate the use of different techniques, in my opinion.
Wide shallow flats next to the bank.
Casting a Pusher horizontally or at a 45-degree angle down and across the stream to the bank can be very effective. Anytime you are intentionally fishing near bank water, make a real effort to get the fly as close to the bank as possible without hanging up. After the Pusher lands, I usually try to pulsate the wings without moving the fly far from the bank. A few micro-twitches with the rod tip or short strips with the line hand can accomplish this. The fly’s landing and its first few movements often trigger the most strikes. As the fly begins to swing off the bank, I continue twitching it by holding the rod tip higher off the water and pulsating it back and forth a few inches. As the swing progresses, lower your rod tip gradually while still pulsating the fly. This reduces line tension and slows the swing.
Narrow strips of soft bank water.
Fishing the Pusher in narrow strips of slow water near the bank with faster currents just a few feet away can be challenging. If you’re on the same side of the stream, it’s simple: stand upstream and swing down into the soft water, then retrieve the Pusher back upstream parallel with the bank. But often, standing on the same side isn’t possible.
If you must fish across fast midstream currents, line management becomes critical to prevent the fly from swinging out of the strike zone too quickly. In this situation, I use a technique I call the “pulse mend.” Cast down and across the stream at a 45-degree angle, then execute an aggressive up-and-across-stream mend to throw as much line as possible parallel with the opposite bank. This places the fly line—and ideally the fly—in that narrow strip of soft water, allowing for a more controlled presentation. The mend also gives the fly an upstream pulse, activating the wings before it drifts downstream again. After the mend, hold as much line off the fast current as possible to maximize the time your fly stays in the zone. As it eventually swings out, add intermittent twitches to keep the wings moving. Joe Humphreys mentions in his video The Night Game that the goal is to keep those wings moving at all times—this technique is no exception.
Fishing downstream parallel to the near-side bank.
If fish are feeding close to the bank you’re standing on, one of the best presentations is a downstream swing followed by an upstream retrieve along the bank. Cast out toward the center of the stream and allow the current to swing the fly downstream toward the bank. Begin twitching it as it nears the bank. Once the swing finishes below you, pause the fly along any current seams—these often hold fish. Don’t be afraid to let the fly hang and twitch straight below you for 20–30 seconds if the spot looks promising. Then retrieve it upstream parallel and close to the bank using a hand-twist retrieve with rod tip twitches, or steady line pulls. Vary your retrieve style each night to see what triggers fish.
Slow to walking-pace runs and riffles.
There are two common ways I present the Pusher in these situations. One is to cast perpendicular to the current toward the far bank and use micro-twitches to keep the wings moving while keeping the fly drifting in just one or two current lanes. This can often be enhanced with downstream mends that delay the swing and extend the drift.
Another approach is to stand at the head of a riffle or run where it meets the bank. Feed line to allow the fly to drift straight downstream to where you suspect fish might be. Once the fly is in position below you, begin pulsating the rod tip just a few inches to activate the wings while keeping the fly stationary. This presentation can be deadly—strikes are often explosive. I may spend 20–30 seconds twitching the Pusher in one spot if I’m confident in the water.
Instead of recasting to change the fly’s location, I often move laterally with my feet, repositioning the fly into a new current lane without changing the amount of line out. I repeat this “combing” technique—twitching in each lane for a while, varying the length of line to cover different distances from me—until I’ve covered the entire riffle or run. This solves one of the biggest issues in night fishing: fast current causing the fly to swing too quickly, not giving fish enough time to zero in. When trout are reluctant to chase, try this slower, more deliberate style.
Faster riffles and runs.
As mentioned above, fast current speeds up your swing and muffles the Pusher’s signals. It also makes it harder for trout to reach a surface-level fly. That’s why I often add split shot above the fly in these situations. My goal is to get the Pusher deeper, into slower water near the bottom, where the swing is more controlled and trout exert less energy to eat.
I picked up this technique from Joe Humphreys’ Night Game. Cast at a 45-degree angle downstream and constantly twitch the fly with a high rod tip while the split shot ticks along the bottom. This dramatically slows the swing compared to fishing the fly unweighted in fast surface current. Again, let the fly dangle below you and twitch it at the end of the drift.
Tailouts.
Jim Bashline’s Night Fishing for Trout: The Final Frontier heavily emphasized tailouts, and it made me focus on them early in my night fishing journey. At first, I only fished the wide, shallow “V” section. But over the years, I found that many tailouts end where a riffle begins. Fishing the narrow end of the tailout and just into the start of the riffle greatly increased my hookups.
The hang-and-twitch technique is often far more effective just 5–10 feet farther downstream than where I originally stopped. So don’t just fish the “V”—push beyond it into the start of the riffle.
Also, since tailouts are the last section of any pool, any of the techniques mentioned above can be adapted to include a hang-and-twitch presentation at the end. I often do this after casting across to soft bank water—at the end of the swing, I let the Pusher dangle in the tailout before beginning another cast.
Islands.
Islands are the opposite of tailouts. Instead of fast current converging into a “V,” the back side of an island often features a V-shaped patch of calm water formed by two stream channels joining. This calm convergence zone is a prime spot for fishing the Pusher.
The still water allows the Pusher’s wing pulses to travel farther, drawing in fish. These areas are especially good during higher flows. Stand directly in line with the downstream tip of the island where the two channels meet. Cast into one of the faster currents and let the fly swing and settle in the still water behind the island. Hang and twitch it in the calm “V” for an extended period. If nothing strikes, try slow, smooth strips or a hand-twist retrieve with twitches back toward your feet.
Slow, calm pools.
While not traditional night fishing water, I’ve had nights where creating a wake on the surface of these still pools with an unweighted Pusher has been dynamite. The slow water allows the distress signals from the fly to travel a long way. A strike in the middle of the pool might have come from a fish that was originally tight to the bank 10 feet away. These calm zones allow wide broadcasting of your fly’s presence and forgive imperfect fly placement.
Tying Pusher Flies
I prefer heavy wire hooks for tying Harvey Pushers. After losing a monster fish to a bent-out light-wire Gamakatsu B10S, I’ve avoided lighter hooks for night fishing. I tie Pushers in sizes ranging from #8 to 2/0.
There are great instructional videos on how to tie this fly. But one critical point to understand is the importance of the “joint”—formed by elastic ringneck pheasant quill wings and supported by the fly’s wide body and dense hackle. If the wings are tied too far forward on the hook shank without the supporting structure of the body and hackles, the fly won’t push nearly as much water.
Storing Pusher Flies
One issue with the Pusher is maintaining the correct orientation of the forward-facing, cupping ringneck pheasant wings. Storing them in cramped boxes or letting them dry with bent wings can deform the quills, ruining the fly’s function. To prevent this, I store Pushers in a separate box with plenty of space—only about six flies per box—to protect the feathers.
Pusher Flies for More Than Trout
Lastly, the Harvey Pusher isn’t just effective for trout.
I’ve had native fallfish, smallmouth bass, rock bass, and even tiger musky attack it after dark. Mice are often the gateway into night fishing, and while they work, they’re not always the best option. Don’t become one-dimensional. Learn to tie and fish big nighttime wet flies—and don’t overlook the king of them all: the Harvey Pusher.
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