Flies that Linger in the Box

[GeneBeam]

When I first started fly fishing in the mid 1970s up in Marquette, MI the muddler minnow was a big deal there at the time. I fished it both as a streamer and as a dry fly as a hopper. I also fished it that way in the late 1980s in Colorado and the early 1990s when fishing in southwest Utah. I still have a bunch of them but haven’t fished them in about 7 years. I never thought about using them when I was working up in Hummels Wharf and fishing a lot at Penns and Middle Creek. Maybe I should give them a try this year.

 

[redietz]

It may just be a question of confidence. I've caught quite a few trout on muddlers, but none on woolly buggers. That's partly a self fulfilling prophecy; usually the only time I've used WB's for trout is when I already haven't caught on flies that I like better. I've caught enough warm water species species on WB's that I know they work, just not in the situations that I'm likely to tie one on when I'm trout fishing.

I haven't fished a MM in a decade or so, but when I did they'd be the first fly I'd tie on, and so I was more likely to fish them under favorable conditions. I only stopped fishing because they make too much of a mess to tie.

 

[tomgamber]

Caught a walleye in maiden creek below the dam on a muddler back in the late 80's. Muddler won a "one fly" contest in Eastern Idaho back in the 90's. Kind of the predecessor of the zoo cougar. People were all fired up about that fly a few years ago on here. Last time I think i used one was as a hopper substitute on a farm pond. Found it in my box. Worked.

 

[Paul Barci]

When was the last time anyone fished a muddler minnow?

That's what I thought.

I have enough of them over the years that I think they just might be a different look than woolybuggers.

Caught my first fly fishing trout on a muddler somewhere back in the 70's
A native brook on Mud Run

 

[bigjohn358]

Unused flies become bluegill flies

When I was a teen I used to collect flies I found in trees and stuff just to use for panfish on the fly. I wasn't going to ruin the ones I tied and panfish just aren't that picky. As long as its buggy looking they will hit!

 

[bigjohn358]

When was the last time anyone fished a muddler minnow?

That's what I thought.

I have enough of them over the years that I think they just might be a different look than woolybuggers.

Muddler minnows got removed from my box years ago! If you fish a sink tip line I guess they could still be useful but there are just so many other option out there these days.

 

[JoeE]

I have not had a Mickey Finn in my fly box for 20 years and never caught a trout on one, but I only carry a couple types of streamers unless I'm going to just fish streamers for the day or night. But I'm thinking of tying a couple and try to catch a trout on a Mickey Finn.

 

[JeffK]

I remember when muddler minnow was very popular and led to plenty of deer hair head sculpin streamers - like Shenks sculpin. The MM was originally a sculpin pattern from the Midwest by Don Gapen and it really opened up many people's eyes about large trout and sculpins. Word used to be pack the head tight if you wanted to float it now and again, but leave it loose if mainly used as a streamer. Supposedly a loose deer hair head makes an attractive sound when stripped through the water. Don't really use them anymore since I have better (and easier to tie options) like Don Douple sculpin and wool head sculpins, but my one buddy still uses them to good affect.

However, the Mickey Finn never left my box. Was a good streamer 55 years ago when I started fly fishing and still works for me, even on the Upper Delaware. Tie craft hair/marabou variants for more slow subtle action and fox fur variants for a bigger gaudy version as well. There is a deadly Maine variant called the Shufelt Special that replaces the top bunch of yellow bucktail with white marabou. It's worth a try.

 

[wgmiller]

It's often said that we wear 10% of our clothes 90% of the time. I'm also convinced we fish 10% of our flies 90% of the time. It's easy to see why so many "must have" fly patterns remain parked, in favor of "go-to" patterns!

One of the best things I did recently was switch over to all "Euro style" flies, which are largely attractor patterns instead of realistic ones (as mentioned by Tigereye). It's helped to trim down my working boxes and teach me to have confidence in a few basic patterns.

 

[Bamboozle]

I never caught anything with it, butt I've been carrying it around for decades waiting for the day I see a fish grab a discarded Marlboro:

Remind me to tell y'all about my French Fry Fly some day... I caught a duck on that at the Run...

 

[DomR]

It may just be a question of confidence. I've caught quite a few trout on muddlers, but none on woolly buggers.

Totally a confidence thing. I catch plenty of trout and smallmouth on wb's of various colors except white. For whatever reason I can't catch anything on white wb's, I might as well be casting to semi's on rt 80.

 

[DomR]

I never caught anything with it, butt I've been carrying it around for decades waiting for the day I see a fish grab a discarded Marlboro:

View attachment 1641224587
Remind me to tell y'all about my French Fry Fly some day... I caught a duck on that at the Run...

Back in my youth I caught a stocker that had one of my dad's Marlboro red butts in its stomach when I gutted it. He took a good ribbing from us hence forth until he quit smoking.

 

[JeffK]

A cigarette butt led to my first decent dry flyfish - a 16" brown. One popular spot I fished as a kid was in the pool below a dam from a mill that was gone. One had to cross the dilapidated head race on a ricketty board to get to the pool. Near the board crossing was a spot where all the regulars got together and told fishing lies. This being the 60's everybody smoked. As I was listening in to the adults chatting one guy pitched his butt into the race and a nice brown came out of a horizontal crack in the concrete wall of the raceway and took the butt. No one else noticed it so I quickly tied on a dry fly, drifted it past the crack and soon had a 16" brown in the net. Sure made my day.