Muddler Minnow

Streamer imitating baitfish and land insects, for trout, salmon, sea trout, bass and char. Intermediate. Don Gapen, 1937.

Turkey quill tail, a flat gold tinsel body, a squirrel tail underwing under matched turkey slips, and a spun deer-hair collar and clipped head.

Materials

Steps

  1. Attach thread Attach the thread at 75% of the way along the shank with a few turns and trim the tag end. A quarter of the shank behind the eye: the front is kept bare for the hair.
  2. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to the start of the bend in touching turns.
  3. Tie in: mottled turkey quill slips Pick a feather about 0.35× the gape wide. Tie in the mottled turkey quill slips so the tips reach well past the bend (1.3× the gape from the tie-in point), angled about 6° up from the shank. Matched slips, concave sides together, on top with a pinch wrap.
  4. Tie in: gold flat tinsel Tie in the gold flat tinsel with a few firm thread turns.
  5. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to 75% of the way along the shank in touching turns.
  6. Wind: gold flat tinsel Wind the gold flat tinsel forward to 75% of the way along the shank in 18 turns. Touching turns.
  7. Tie off: gold flat tinsel Tie off the gold flat tinsel with a few thread turns and trim the excess.
  8. Tie in: grey squirrel tail Tie in a bunch of grey squirrel tail so the tips reach well past the bend (4× the gape from the tie-in point), angled about 8° up from the shank. A sparse, cleaned bunch, about a shank long.
  9. Tie in: mottled turkey quill slips Pick a feather about three quarters of the gape wide. Tie in the mottled turkey quill slips so the tips reach well past the bend (4.3× the gape from the tie-in point), angled about 5° up from the shank. One slip each side, concave in, the tips reaching the end of the tail.
  10. Spin: deer hair Spin clumps of deer hair round the shank, packing each one back against the last, up to just behind the eye. A large stacked clump, tips back, then butts-only clumps packed hard in front.
  11. Whip finish Form a small head, whip finish with 5 turns and cut the thread.
  12. Trim: deer hair Trim the spun deer hair to shape, leaving a head about 0.8× the gape thick on each side. Clip the butts to a cone tapering to the eye; leave the tips as a collar.

History

Don Gapen of Anoka, Minnesota, made it on the Nipigon River in Ontario in 1936 or 1937 to imitate the sculpins the big brook trout fed on, after watching First Nations guides catch them. His head and collar were one sparse, ragged clump of deer hair. The dense, neatly clipped head most tyers make today was Dan Bailey's, of Livingston, Montana, around 1950, and Joe Brooks made the fly famous in Field & Stream.

Fishing it

As a sculpin it is fished slowly along the bottom, with an occasional fast strip. Unweighted, the deer-hair head floats it: stripped, it wakes on the surface, or it drifts like a hopper. For salmon it is swung like a wet fly or waked in the film; for sea trout at night it is fished in the surface, where it makes a commotion. Before recasting, let it hang and wobble in the current for a moment.

Sources