Tie a muddler

These step-by-step pictures show you how to tie a nice muddler

By Martin Joergensen

	I was tying...  Henning Eskol

One evening when I was tying flies with a couple of friends, one of them, Nils, asked me to tie a muddler, just as a demo. And so I did. Luckily the other friend, Henning, was quick on the camera and caught these great pictures of the process.

The pictures actually came out so good that we decided to boil them down to a small article on tying a muddler. The process is not that difficult to do, but actually pretty difficult to describe in words. Pictures do a much better job.

This is just a generic muddler, but I will list the pattern in the end of this article anyway.
A notice on the deer hair, though: get good hair - the best you can find, and ask for hair for muddlers or deer hair bugs. Make sure it has as little underfur as possible, and get some natural (undyed) first. Dyed hair can be fine, but chances are the dying process has ruined its ability to flare and spin. Some dyed hair is great. Some is useless for this purpose.

And now: the picture sequence.

Ready for the deer hair  Henning Eskol	Stacked deer hair  Henning Eskol	Changing hands  Henning Eskol

The first two turns  Henning Eskol	Pull!  Henning Eskol	The result  Henning Eskol

Flat underside  Henning Eskol	Second bunch  Henning Eskol	Press back  Henning Eskol

Whip finish  Henning Eskol	Ready to trim  Henning Eskol	Trimming  Henning Eskol

Behind the head  Henning Eskol	Front checkup  Henning Eskol	Removing stray hairs  Henning Eskol

Smooth the head  Henning Eskol	Done!  Henning Eskol

Happy muddler face  Henning Eskol

Go to article start ^ User comments

From: Martin Joergensen · martin·at·globalflyfisher.com Submitted May 3rd 2008 David, Fret not. The muddler thing will come, and suddenly they're as easy as anything. And yes, the trout do love them. Martin From: david etienne · amyandrew42·at·blueyonder.co.uk Submitted May 3rd 2008 this one almost had me beat but lots o deer later got it now i hope the trout like it .. From: Martin Joergensen · martin·at·globalflyfisher.com Submitted December 3rd 2007 Daniel, I tie muddlers for volume. The fatter the better - almost... Martin From: Daniel Klonoski · klonoski·at·aol.com Submitted December 3rd 2007 I like to tie my muddlers with a much smaller head and longer, sparser body to pulsate when retrieved. From: John Kelly · j0hnkelly24·at·hotmail.co.uk Submitted September 10th 2007 Very good :) From: horacio m. villanueva · villanuevaflyfish·at·yahoo.com.ar Submitted August 12th 2007 very nice and very effective in little streams or spring creek, for little and distrustful and astute rainbows.Size 10 to 12 long shank hook, weighted with few turns of lead 15 mm.

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