The Mysid

Small and plentyfull sea trout food item

By Martin Joergensen

This is one of the few real imitations to be found in my boxes. The Mysids (Mysidae) are a group of marine crustaceans, that are especially abundant in the spring. They grow quote large - almost 2 cm or 3/4" - and are seen in meny colors. my favourite is a light olive one, but I've also fished a dark brown variation with some luck.

Hook	6-10, straight eye streamer hook. Best are of course stainless hooks for salt water resistance
Thread	To suit color of materials
Body	Hares ear dubbing, natural, olive or brown dyed
Tail	Extended body made with a dubbing loop.
Hackle	Hair hackle, palmer wise on front half of body. Made with a dubing loop from guard hair of hares mask natural, olive or brown dyed
Eyes	Burnt monofilament
Back	Scud back or any kind of elastic back material
Head	Small, Color of thread

1. Start by preparing the eyes
2. Burn a lenght of heavy monofilament in one end
3. Cut and burn the other end
4. You should end up with a connected pair of eyes the right lenght. It might take a few tries.
5. When the eyes are good, color the red with a marker or varnish
6. Tie in the thread over the barb and form a dubbing loop
7. Secure the thread, and dub one strand of the loop to a length of double the hook length.
8. Spin the loop with
9. Fold it over behind the hook and let it onwind to form a twined, extended body
10. Tie it down, and cut off rest of loop.
11. Dub the body in a light taper to just after middle of hook
12. Tien in a narrow piece of back material
13. Form an other dubbing loop.
14. Tie in eyes perpendicular to the hook shank
15. Dub the front part of the body, covering the eye stalks with figure-of-eights
16. Make a hair hackle from guard hairs from the hares mask
17. Spin it
18. Wind it over the thick front part of the body behind the ears.
19. Pull the back material over the body and tie down
20. Form head over the eyes, whip finish and varnish.

This will do fine as a Damsel fly nymph too, actually. A bit longer and maybe another color, and there you are.

Did you find the above interesting?

This other story related to "imitations" might also interest you: Imitative Fly Tying New book from Ian Moutter: Ian Moutter is back with a followup to "Tying Flies the Paraloop Way". Consider this an applied fly tying book, as you not only learn how to tie the flies, but also how they were designed, why they were designed, and how they may be fished. Click here to read Bob's review. Click to see other stories with the keyword "imitations"

A few random articles for your entertainment Fishy art: Yoshikazu Fujioka Ever since GFF partner Martin Joergensen first discovered Yoshikazu Fujioka's Japanese web site, which was amongst the first fishing related pages he ever found on the web, he was fascinated with Fujioka's art. Now GFF can present images from "Trouts and Seasons of the Mountain Streams". August 10th 2007 The Pink Pig or Pattegrisen You have probably heard about and maybe even watched The Pink Panther. If so, you also know the soundtrack. Put that on and take a look to see what a Pink Pig is, and if it has anything in common with the panther or if there is more Miss Piggy in this fly tied for tarpon, bonefish and trout. January 5th 2008 Monster's Bug The tendency is, that flies become smaller and smaller trying to fool the fish. We end up using 7X, size 24 hooks and stealth moves on the river banks. Sometimes you need to go the opposite way, if you want a big fish at end of your tippet. May 9th 2007 Innovative Saltwater Flies US based master fly tyer Bob Veverka has gathered together a whole bunch of very creative fly tyers to create a book that will appeal to all fly tyers, not just those who want to chase salty fish. November 15th 2004