There are a few flies that I routinely fish, the first being my muddler pattern. The second pattern is slowly becoming a fall favorite for my waters. Swinging flies for fish can be a challenging game, and it helps to have mentors show you the way and confirm that you are on the right track while waiting patiently for those first grabs. Mike Papais (Gr8lakes Flyer on speypages) was one of those people for me. He freely shared patterns that he was having success on with a dry line and became an invaluable source of information when I began this journey.
I had previous success with General Practitioner variations on light sink tips and knew the fish responded. The issue when fishing those on a dry line is they are overdressed when following the traditional recipe. Easily my favorite tyer out of the Great Lakes, Mike has a knack for taking an effective pattern and reducing it to improve its ability to catch fish. I add slight variations to each one that I tie, but a few general aspects of the fly stay the same. I reached out to him for more information on the background of the fly.
“I actually came up with the name first and then started developing the fly. I wanted something that would swing low and slow in cold water, mainly in the slick glide-style runs. It is not necessarily “frog water” but that type of water. The fly needed to look like river fauna and look like it’s living and breathing all the time. Hence, the long hackles and pheasant over shell make the fly look like it’s just creeping along, minding its own business. Though it was not developed for the rocky boulder runs I like to fish, it also does exceptionally well in those areas. The offering looks like it’s supposed to be in the river and something the steelhead may be looking for. Some nymph creature hanging around stumps and rocks, moving from deep water into shallow water.
– Mike Papais
Everything is sparse about the fly. There is a small bunch of arctic fox for the tail with a bit of flash (sometimes), thin body, 1/3 tinsel, 2/3 thin seal, slightly picked out. Single oval rib followed with long heron. Thin V’d GP tippets nice and long not to hinder any descent of the fly. I always add flash and try to choose something contrasting. Now, the shellback is special. I prefer the longest feathers from the GP skin. Nice and wispy and once striped to size, the feather has little “webby” properties. One is set to just past the hook bend, and the top feather is 3/4 length of the first. The idea is to have a “wispy” wing for the illusion of coverage and will compress to a thin strip over the body, like a shellback.”
Mike mentions fishing this pattern in slower glides. I haven’t fished it in those waters myself, but it has accounted for a large number of the fish that I have caught in the fall into the winter. It would probably also be very effective in the spring, but I get bored quickly while fishing the same patterns repeatedly. I target broken, faster riffles while casting at steep angles to swing the fly as slowly as possible. Because of its construction, it isn’t the fastest sinking fly in my wallet, but the combination of editing the correct water and swinging it slowly is effective enough that I am not concerned with depth.
Materials
Tip/Tag: Small flat silver tinsel
Tail: Sparse bucktail or arctic fox (in shallow flows, I omit the tail altogether)
Body: Hot orange floss
Rib: Medium oval silver
Hackle: Any long flowing hackle starting from the 3rd rib and one side of the feather stripped.
Throat: A contrasting hackle stripped on one side and two wraps max
Underwing: One piece of pearl flashabou, one GP feather v cut to extend to the hook bend
Wing: Burnt orange pheasant rump (can also use red GP breast feathers)
Step 1: Start your thread just shy of the hook point and tie in the small flat tinsel on the far side of the hook with 2-3 wraps forward toward the hook eye. Spiral the thread forward to the eye to keep it out of the way.
Step 2: Make 5-6 touching turns of tinsel back to the hook point and then forward again to the tie-in. Unspiral the thread and then tie the tinsel off on the near side of the hook.
Step 3 (optional): Prepare a small clump of bucktail (or whatever soft material) and measure it to just past the bend of the hook. Tie in with three wraps, keeping the material from rolling off the far side of the hook. Do not cut the butt ends of the material.
Step 4: Tie in the rib on the far side of the hook and then make touching wraps to halfway up the hook shank. At this point, collect the butts of the bucktail and trim them so they meet the return eye to reduce the step. Continue wrapping the thread to the midpoint of the return eye.
Step 5: Prepare the hackle by stripping the left side (when holding the feather with the good side facing you).
Step 6: Tie in a length of floss and make touching wraps down to the tail and back up. At roughly 1/2 the length of the body, tie in the hackle on the far side with the floss and continue wrapping forward. Tie off the floss and trim the loose ends.
Step 7: Wrap the tinsel rib with five open turns and tie off underneath the shank if possible
Step 8: Wrap the hackle, keeping the stem as close as possible to the rib, and tie it off. Prepare the teal throat hackle by stripping off the left side of the feather the same way as the hackle. Tie in on the far side of the hook, make one or two wraps, and tie off.
Step 9: Prepare a golden pheasant tippet by cutting a “V” out of the center of the feather. Tie in the feather so that the tips of the V are just short of the bend of the hook. (If adding flashabou I tie in one strand doubled over itself and trip to the end of the tail)
Step 10: I select the longest pheasant rump feathers for the main wing. Measure out the first feather so at the tie in point it extends to the bend of the hook. I sweep the rest of the barbules out of the way rather than trim them because the stem is very weak. Tie in with three tight wraps and check to see the feather is laying flat and centered.
Step 11: Repeat the process with the next feather but measure its length to be roughly 3/4 of the first feather. Trim the excess and whip finish the fly. Add cement and fish these slowly.
