Tie a muddler
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. I did. Luckily the other friend, Henning, was quick and caught these great pictures of the process.
I was tying...
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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
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Stacked deer hair
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Changing hands
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The first two turns
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Pull!
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The result
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Flat underside
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Second bunch
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Press back
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Whip finish
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Ready to trim
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Trimming
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Behind the head
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Front checkup
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Removing stray hairs
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Smooth the head
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Done!
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Happy muddler face
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Comments
bookmarked, gonna tr
bookmarked, gonna try this out tommorow after i get some good deer hair! been trying a muddler for so long with crappy deer hair so ima get some good stuff, and the pictures help a bunch! ive always let my deer hair spin around the hook and it never looked good at all
very good will try a
very good will try and tie a mudlar from your pics.thanks john.from the UK.
Dale, Most muddle
Dale,
Most muddlers are excellent sculpin imitations, and this one will be fine for your purpose. But you might also consider a more elongated and maybe weighted pattern such as the FMJNM, the Zuddler or a tube tied muddler or a pattern such as The Bow River Bugger. Another option is a large zonker streamer, which is a bit easier to tie.
Martin
ok i have a question
ok i have a question i live in montana in the usa... and i am going to float the yellowstone river where the shields river dumps into the yellowstone and in that are there are scuplins galor and in the fall when brown trout go up to the shields river to spawn and they eat scuplins and scuplins so i was wondering what patterns you would reckamend
Make my day! Last ni
Make my day! Last night was my first real attempt at tying a Muddler and only had some natural bucktail. After a few false starts I ended up with a "2 clumper" that actually resembled a muddler with room for improvement but it was for sure a keeper.
I fish small creeks in Middle Tn for smallmouth (and Bass in general) and have been tying a lot of Closure Minnows. I went to a favorite Greenie creek this afternoon just to get out. It gives up some of both Large and Smallies. With not much happening with my Closures I tied on my Muddler. Within 30 minutes I had released 6 Largemouth 13"-15". They took it off the top with great vigor.
I didn't know what to expect and really thought that it would sink like a rock (not sure why) but it floated better than I ever imagined. (Are they suppose to float?)
Im sure I'll be tying a bunch of these and thanks for the great tying instructions. Once I saw it spin it comes together pretty quick. I can imagine lots of variation coming. Had a blast.
Tom
David, Fret not.
David,
Fret not. The muddler thing will come, and suddenly they're as easy as anything. And yes, the trout do love them.
Martin
this one almost had
this one almost had me beat but lots o deer later got it now i hope the trout like it ..
Daniel, I tie mud
Daniel,
I tie muddlers for volume. The fatter the better - almost...
Martin
I like to tie my mud
I like to tie my muddlers with a much smaller head and longer, sparser body to pulsate when retrieved.
Very good :)
Very good :)
very nice and very e
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.