Streamers
Tying a Jeff’s Grizzly Matuka
I love streamer patterns, and I fish them alot,particularly during cold weather, high water, on our tailwaters, our private waters….simply put they are probably the easiest way to get a big fish to eat your fly. This style, the Matuka wing, is well over 120 years old and was first tied and used in New Zealand. They are very effective, they have a ‘tall’ side profile which says ‘big meal’ to a predator fish. Also, it probably doesn’t hurt that the fly profile is much like a crayfish going backwards ….the outline is strikingly similar. In any case, its a great fly for our area….and give this one a try…you won’t regret it.
Hook: Daichii 1270 sizes 4-8
Thread: UTC 70 Red
Weight: 8-10 turns .010 or .015 lead wire
Body: Peacock herl dyed Red
Ribbing: Silver wire small
Wing: 4 grizzly hen hackles, 2 each curving in towards the other 2
Collar: (1) grizzly hen soft hackle, 2-3 turns
Head: same as thread, small and neat
Lay a thread base as shown....
Add lead wire to the hook shank as shown. Trim excess.
Cover over the lead wire as shown with your tying thread. Then wrap thread to the rear.
Tie in a 4-6 inch piece of small silver wire.
Tie in 4-6 strands of peacock herl as shown. Secure, trim excess.
Wrap peacock herl forward and tie off. Trim excess.
Select 4 grizzly hen saddle hackles like these...
Arrange the 4 feathers into 2 groups of 2 each, then strip the bottom of the feathers as shown.
Group 2 feathers together, then the other two. Note the curve as shown. Put all the feathers together with the first two curving toward the other two.
Tie in the four feathers as shown. Secure with several tight turns...
Hold the feathers down on top of the body, then "weave the wire 1 cautious and careful turn at a time, which will secure or 'lash' the feathers to the body. Repeat this step as you inch along up the hook shank.
This is how a completed turn around the feathers and body should look.
Work the wire forward as shown,parting the fibers where the wire will lie, then wrap the wire there....move forward and repeat the process.
Work your way to the end of the fibers as you go forward, securing the wire tightly and then trimming the excess feather butts over the hook eye.
Wrap over the trimmed area to 'tidy' the area in preparation of the final steps.
Tie a hen hackle in by its tip, and secure with several tight turns. Trim excess.
Wrap the feather forward, stroking the fibers back as you go. 2-3 turns is plenty. Tie the hackle off, trim excess, and form a nice, neat, small head with your tying thread.
Whip finish and apply head cement. The finished fly.
Tying A Jeff’s Dead Squirrel
Though certainly not a new pattern totally, it is a very effective one for trout, bass (large and smallmouth), and panfish. Essentially a wooly bugger hybrid that I have used to great success, particularly with large fish, and typically fished dead drift as well. It can be fished dead drift or stripped or a combination of the two, but in my opinion on this one dead drift is king. It is a deadly fly on the larger fish in the private waters I guide folks on. For whatever reason, dead drifting any streamer is a bizarre concept for some, but we catch some of our largest fish this way……fish over 5lbs that won’t move to hit a fly presented any other way. This is especially true on hard fished waters or winter fishing where a large fish isn’t going to move far for anything, and almost never UP to hit something. They feed more on a horizontal plane….laterally I surmise……and that’s another reason I use a tungsten bead on this bug. It gets to the bottom.
This fly was one of our most requested patterns of the entire season last year and Spring 2012.
Made of incredibly tasty components, are those components are….:
MATERIALS
Hook: Daichii 1560 or 1530 sizes 10-14
Thread: UTC 140 Red
Head: 1/8 Tungsten bead, gold
Tail: Pine squirrel strip tied short, natural I like, black is a good #2
Ribbing: Silver wire on natural version, copper wire on black version
Body: Peacock Herl on Natural Version, Black Diamond Braid on Black Version
TYING DIRECTIONS for Jeff’s Dead Squirrel Strymph (Streamer-Nymph)
Install the bead small hole first and push it against hookeye. Then start thread just in back of it.
Wrap about six turns of .010 lead wire and jam the wire forward to fill the backside of the bead hole. Trim the ends. Trim tag engs of lead
Jam the lead wraps up into the hole in the bead, then overwrap with thread, then create a 'cone' of thread as in above. Then lay a thread base all the way back to the end of the hook shank.
Tie in pine squirrel strip just back of the bead and wrap all the way back to the rear, stopping where the hook shank begins to bend down.
Wrap thread back over as shown. Leave thread positioned here.
Tie in two strips of flashabou on each side of tail
Wrap thread back to front and tie in several strands (4-6) of peacock herl as shown.
Wrap back over the squirrel strip to the rear as shown.
Tie in a grizzly hackle by its tip as shown. Secure and then trim the tip off.
Tie in a 3-4 inch piece of silver wire.
Tie down wire , secure , trim excess.
Wrap peacock herl forward to form body. Tie off right at the bead, trim excess.
Wrap hackle forward to bead, tie off, trim.
Now wrap the wire forward going the opposite direction, or backward, spiraling the wire through the hackle fibers...wiggling back and forth as you make wraps will help the wire to navigate between the fibers. Only make 5-7 wraps of wire and evenly space them out. Tie off wire and trim excess.
Make several turns of thread, creating a red line behind the bead....just like an accent wrap. Whip finish and cement.
The finished fly.... To catch fish just add water....
I also frequently tie a few variations of this pattern, one of which is a black version with a diamond braid body. Here’s that fly in a step by step recipe as above:
Since tailing the fly is the same as above, with no variation except changing the tail color to black, we'll start there. Position the thread as shown.
Tie in a 3-4 inch piece of black diamond braid, can also substitute chenille, yarn, or like body materials, secure with several tight turns, then bring thread back to rear as shown.
Tie in a grizzly hackle by its tip, then a piece of wire, and secure both with several tight turns of thread.
Wrap body material forward to the back edge of the bead, then tie off and trim excess.
Wrap hackle forward, tie off. Trim excess.
Reverse wrap the wire as in the last fly, secure with several turns of thread, then trim excess.
Make a few wraps to form a 'band' behind the bead. Whip finish and cement. The finished fly...
A large rainbow that fell for a dead drifted dead squirrel , landed by Randy Harris....
@copyright 2012 Jeff Wilkins Fly Fishing all text and photos by Jeff Wilkins 2012
