Why a loop for tail of greenie weenie?

[RLeeP]

>>who the heck came up with this fly any ways?>>

Wasn't the inspiration for the Weenie one of those odd pagan rituals invented by the powerful sorcerer Bob Prince, who in turn loosed it on fans attending Pirates games? I think so..

They had this green weenie thing on a stick that they would wave around in the air. They believed that it possessed heap powerful voodoo and would empower Stargell to bounce frozen-rope doubles off the center field wall or some such.

And then, at some point, there was evidently an overlap and some of the pagan ritual participants also turned out to be fishermen. And the fly was born and named.

That's the way that I recall it at any rate..

 

[flipnfly]

i belive the green weenie is a charles meck pattern but i have been known to be wrong and he was from somewhere out here in western pa so there could be a connection to the pirates

 

[dryflyguy]

I remember the green weenie promotions with the pirates - from the '60's and '70's. Lots of the area businesses used to give out little weenie pins that were about an inch or so long.
Wasn't sure if that's what the fly was named after.

When I took my tying class, we learned to tie what was just called a green inch worm. Consisted simply of light green deer hair tied in behind the eye of the hook, then doubled back over the shank, and into an extended body tail. It wasn't very realistic looking IMO, and I can't remember catching anything on it

 

[McSneek]

I believe credit for the Green Weenie goes to the late Russ Mowry of Latrobe.

 

[midnightangler]

There it is, the answer to your question:

weenie

Apparently the loop was a mistake.

 

[beadhead2]

Introduced in Pennsylvania, the Green Weenie was first tied by Ken Igo and Russ Mowry in the 1950s. Anglers have long been using this fly to catch brown river trout and salmon. There are several variations of the Green Weenie fly, but the original version is simple and has become the favorite of many anglers because of the results it has produced. Tying a Green Weenie fly is simple.

Read more at Trails.com: Green Weenie Fly-Tying Instructions | Trails.com http://www.trails.com/how_40242_green-weenie-flytying-instructions.html#ixzz1mBi5vpEk

 

[Jeep_Angler]

The original tied by Russ Mowry (the man who taught me how to tie by the way) had a ferruled tail, not a loop tail. Charlie Meck basterdized the pattern by adding a loop tail.

As Russ told the story, it was named due to Bob Prince's plastic pickle thing with the Pirates.

 

[sandfly]

what i would like to know is what the original (pre 70's) fly was tied with.chenille was lot different and chartreuse was not around like today. I never heard of it until the late 70's early 80's either..

 

[troutbert]

Tie them either way:

Sinking Inchworm - no tail
Green Weenie - tail

They both catch plenty of trout. If you're interested in the history, the Sinking Inchworm came first. Then someone added the tail to the Sinking Inchworm, and called it the Green Weenie. And that became the more popular name and pattern.

Both work very well. Especially during the summer and early fall, when the major hatches have tapered off and the trout are keyed to terrestrials, and fat, juicy inchworms are dropping from the trees into the water.

 

[Maurice]

I asked someone who knew Russ Mowry pretty well. a week ago and here is his response. I didn't post it before because the Ken Igo part had already been revealed through a link above but here goes.

[from Fred Bridge (brother-in-law of Russ Mowry)]
The Green Weenie without the tail was created by a guy from western PA (Ken Igo) who belonged to a fly tying club (Afloat) that met monthly in Russ' fly shop (Russ owned and ran Mowry's Fly Box out of his basement in Latrobe).

At one of the meetings Russ told the guy the fly would work better with a tail and suggested the 1/4" loop.

They named the fly the Green Weenie based on the then current announced for the Pitts Pirates, Bob Prince, who had a fake 2' long green hotdog. He would wave it to jinx the opposing team. and referred to it as the Green Weenie.

The fly, in fact, worked much better with the tail and shortly after that Russ was fishing with Charlie Meck who saw the fly for the first time and immediately wrote about it.

Fred

 

[1hook]

Great info guys. Gotta love this forum