Techniques for Fishing This Incredible Fly Pattern
Muddler Minnow fishing, when dressed properly, is deadly. If I had to select one fly for a day's fishing, it would be a Muddler Minnow. This bucktail is a drab looking fly, but is the best all-around fly - bar none. It can be fished as a wet fly, dry fly, nymph, or streamer. Fished in the ordinary manner, the Muddler is only slightly better than any other good streamer. But make the fly float by greasing it with a quality floatant so that the hair wing is separated and you have a fly trout fight over.
Grasshoppers are a big item in the diet of Western trout, and the surface scraping Muddler would appear to be a good imitation. Another good spot to use a Muddler in on thin water or over weeds and grass. Even without greasing it, the fly rides high unless you weight it or deliberately work it deep. The Muddler does a good job of minnow imitation, as well.
The Muddler Minnow As A Nymph
The Muddler is also deadly fished as a nymph. Here again, grease it, and begin by casting upstream. Pull it under, keep it going down, and then slack off. Since it's made of hollow deer hair and is greased, the fly is buoyant and starts rising to the top. Sometimes you hold your rod high and wiggle the tip so the Muddler twitches as it rises; other times let it surface naturally, like a stone-fly nymph rising to burst its case. Since the Muddler is so versatile, you can often fish it two different ways on the same cast.
Technique: How To Fish The Muddler
Begin by casting the fly upstream and letting it float dead like a dry fly. Then as it drifts downstream, tighten up on the line and start dancing the fly over the surface. On another upstream cast, make the Muddler act like a surfacing nymph, and when it gets below you, change to a swift darting action to imitate a swimming minnow. Muddlers should be stocked in your fly wallet in sizes 6 to 12, on 3X-long hooks. Sizes 8 and 10 are best.
Use a quality floatant to grease them. Some fishermen believe streamers are useless in lakes and slow-moving rivers. It's true that a streamer is most lifelike in running water, but elongated flies are just as good in lakes and broad, flat rivers if you use them right. Cast toward shore if the fish are there, or over bars and weed beds, and while it's usually best to keep the streamer moving fast, there are times, particularly at dusk or after dark, when a slow, hesitant retrieve works very well.
Fishing Tips
On hot, sultry days trout move out of poorly aerated shallows to hole up under falls where the water is colder and where there's more oxygen. Throw your streamer right into the falls and let the water pull it down as though it were dead. Tighten up just enough so that you can detect a strike. Large streamers, especially those with silver-tinsel bodies, are preferred early in the season when streams are high and discolored.
The sparkle of tinsel attracts trout, and big No.6 flies are easier for them to see. Later you can go down to size 10 and perhaps 12, depending on water conditions. Day in and day out, size 8 on a 3X-Long hook takes the most fish.
