Published Sep 10. 1995 - 28 years ago
Updated or edited Mar 11. 2023

Full Metal Jacket Nutria Muddler, variations

This fly is in a way my 'signature fly'. It's a beautiful fly (in my own humble opinion), and even though it's heavy - very heavy, actually - it's a good fishing fly, that dives deep and overcomes current and turbulence.

Signature

This fly is in a way my 'signature fly'. It's a beautiful fly (in my own humble opinion), and even though it's heavy -- very heavy -- it's a good fishing fly, that dives deep and overcomes current and turbulence.

Characteristic

The prime characteristic is the brass bead, which is not round as these beads usually are. It's bullet or cone shaped and the source of inspiration for the name of the fly. The muddler head has been cut to form a smooth surface that follows the shape of the bead.

The fly can be tied with round beads too, and I have made two variations on that theme: the one- and the two-bead version. But it sure does look best with the cone.

Tying

The fly is tied much in the same way as the Nutria Muddler, except for the addittion of the bead. The special slender, bulletshaped bead comes from Roman Moser in Austria and can be very hard to find as Roman has discontinued that particular model.
See the full pattern description here.


Generally I'm not hysterical about the proportions of my flies.
I like them to be harmonic, but I'm shure that most fish don't care whether the hackle i 1 or 1.2 times the hook gap.
But with my Full Metal Jacket Nutria Muddler I've tried to describe how the ideal fly should look. This fly is quite nice looking as it is, so why not try to make it look even nicer?
The drawing shows the suggested proportions of this fly. Even my own flies don't always look like that, but I'm trying...


With the bullet shaped bead.


With one normal large bead with a large countersunk hole.


With two beads: one small and one large, both with large countersunk holes.

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