Streamers We Love:
Midwest Anglers Pick Their Favorites
You’ll know them by the flies they keep.

The dry-fliers are easy to spot. A bit aloof, secretive even. When they make their pick of flies from superneat boxes, they turn their bodies coyly away from possible interlopers. An emerger today? They cast crisply, look straight ahead, stay on task. They’re the ones who wash their waders when they get home. Boring.

Streamer fishers head for pay dirt. They don’t shave every day and they disdain complex relationships. They’re in the water and on target in an instant. They tied THE FLY on at the car. No subtleties here. Get in the water and get the damn fly to the fish. Cast, drill the sucker, a slight upstream mend … ride it downstream, keep your eye on the bouncing fly.

Here are four Midwest streamer fly fishermen and the flies they love to fish. The text is their own. The exaggerations, too.
 RAY LARSON’S Fuzzy Piker

I have found this fly to be one of a few patterns that are extremely effective when you’re fishing weedy cover. I fish this fly with a five-foot leader and an intermediate sink tip line. I cast it to the weed line and bring it back using a pause/strip, pause/strip, pause/strip action, and then a faster retrieve. Some strikes will come close to the end of the stripping and just before the fly is to be picked up; often they’re surprising. Remember, most strikes are fast and hard, but the mouth of a pike is toothy — you do need to set the hook. Use a steel leader or bite tippet. American Wire makes a plastic-coated wire leader material you can tie knots in.

THE FUZZY PIKER

Hook: #2-#4/0X Point Daiichi
Thread: Gudebrod GX2 or other strong thread
Tail support and/or weed guard: 30-lb. monofilament
Tail: Rabbit strip
Body: SAAP Body Fur
Glue: Zap-a-Gap or other glue
Eyes: Doll eyes or 3-D Prisms

Directions:
1. Secure hook in vise
2. Wrap of thread from just behind the eye of the hook to the barb.
3. Prepare a length of 30-lb. monofilament
4. Form a loop of mono for the tail support, allowing the loop to extend
back past the bend in the hook, 1 to 1 1/2 inches
5. Tie down with the thread wraps moving forward about half the length of the hook shank.
6. Wrap back, placing a second layer of thread over the monofilament. Cut off excess monofilament.

Prepare to tie in the rabbit strip tail. 1. Cut rabbit strip to desired length and place a light coating of Zap-a- Gap over thread wraps.
2. Tie the end of the rabbit strip down firmly and wrap thread forward to
just behind the eye of the hook.
3. Wrap the thread back to tail and tie-in point.

To build the body:
1. Cut a piece of SAAP body fur 6 to 8 inches long, depending on hook size.
2. Pull 2 or 3 bunches of body fibers off base to form tag end; tie in at
point where tail is secured.

As you start body wraps, make sure to turn body wrap base thread as you work forward. This will help in brushing body fibers to the back and keep them lying flat.
1. Complete wraps to within 1/8 inch of the eye of the hook.
2. Tie off and form head, then whip finish.
3. Using Zap-a-Gap, glue the eyes on the right and left sides just behind
the finished head.

Ray Larson is a veteran teacher of fly fishing and fly tying and lives in east-central Wisconsin.
The White Muddler Minnow is a classic streamer fly. The only reason that I would change it would be to try a different color. White is my go-to color but I must admit a fondness for yellow and black. Some rivers are just yellow fly rivers. I suspect that all rivers might experience a yellow streak from time to time. I fish black at night or any other time I can’t watch them swim. High off-color water and extreme glare also make it difficult to track the fly throughout its swing. You develop a feel for fishing the black flies. The rod leads the line and the line leads the fly. It is a subtle technique and it takes practice but it is great to be totally in tune and feel the take of an unseen fish.

Properly tied and fished, the White Muddler Minnow is a deadly fly for big predator fish. Big trout are especially susceptible to the muddler’s charms. The fly’s large profile and easy-to-see white marabou wing produces powerful takes and aggressive responses from trophy trout. Fishing the Muddler is a very visual sport.

In Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout, Kelly Galloup and Bob Linsenman trace the history of streamer fishing and streamer fly development. They present great information on techniques and equipment for this style of fishing. Midwest super trout hunter Rich Osthoff likes to fish muddlers in sizes #6 and #12 and gives good argument for fishing an unweighted, buoyant muddler in his book No Hatch to Match.

I love to fish a new piece of water with a muddler. I fish fast and I fish downstream, covering all likely looking holding water, and I do mean all water. Check the shallows and water right along the bank. I can still feel the throb of my first big trout taking a muddler at the end of the swing. That was almost 25 years ago.

MARABOU MUDDLER MINNOW

Hook: Size 2, Mustad 79580 or similar heavy, long shank streamer-style hook (TMC 300)
Thread: 3/0 Black monocord for body and wing, Danville plus for collar & head
Tail: Red saddle hackle fibers
Underbody: Lead wire (.030)
Body: Silver, gold or copper metallic braid
Underwing: White kip tail
Wing: White marabou
Overwing: Peacock herl
Collar: Flared deer-body hair
Head: Spun and trimmed deer body hair

Brad Bohen is a fly fishing guide and a freelance writer. He lives in Minnesota, near the St. Croix River.
JOHN GULLEY’S Llama Fly

This pattern is an “oldie but goodie” and there are probably many
variations. I have caught several species of fish on it and use different
body colors. And I mean many species — trout, bass, salmon, steelhead, crappie, white bass and even one carp.

It seems today to be one of those forgotten patterns, but it’s extremely effective. For body color, pick from black, purple, chartreuse, green, gold and silver.
DAVID LUCCA’S Coleman Special

I was introduced to the Coleman Special, an undistinguished looking fly as far as streamers go, 30 years ago on my first trip to Wisconsin’s Brule River. I recently had set aside my spinning tackle and replaced it with my grandfather’s Heddon fly rod. My casting skills were poor and my knowledge of flies was almost nonexistent. So It was with much excitement and some trepidation that I entered the Brule River Tackle Supply.

John Rogers, the owner, quickly put me at ease. He was a tall, lanky man with a red beard and a sunburned, peeling nose. He was also a guide on the Brule. Rogers had just finished lashing an Old Town canoe to the shop’s rough pine rafters. "I’ll be with you in a moment."

He tested the knot and snugged it a bit tighter. "What can I help you with?" he said, stepping down from the ladder.
THE ILLAMA FLY

Thread: 6/0 black
Hook: Any streamer hook
Tail: Red fox squirrel body fur
Rib: Gold tinsel, flat or oval
Body: Four-strand floss, any color
Wing: Groundhog, coyote or badger
Hackle: Grizzly

John Gulley is an Orvis-endorsed guide, 1703 River Ridge Rd, Norfork, AR.
www.flyguide.com

DON BEANS’ Olive Woolly Bugger

It was hard to choose a favorite fly. A Clouser Minnow or an Olive Woolly Bugger. I guess I’ll go with the latter. The Woolly Bugger is to fly fishing what the lead-head jig is to conventional fishing. The Bugger catches smallmouth bass in just about all conditions when those fire-eyed bruisers are hitting. Even when fishing is tough, this is the fly I have my clients tie on.

Fished slow and shallow against a boulder strewn and timbered shoreline, it entices those ol’ fish to strike with fury. With faster stripping near weed beds and over shallow reefs, the Bugger becomes an escaping minnow, drawing lots of attention. During mid-summer, we fish the Bugger' slow and deep with a sink-tip line, “crawling” it on the bottom like a crayfish. Both smallmouth and walleyes find the Woolly Bugger a tasty morsel.
"I need a few flies," I said."I’ve never fished the Brule.?

"There’s a first time for everything. We’ll get you fixed up. Dries or wets?"

"Wets," I answered. "I’m not a good enough caster for dry flies."

Rogers smiled. "It’ll come," he said, walking over to a heavy oak fly cabinet and sliding open one of its many drawers.

"These are the ones I would suggest," he said, selecting some flies and placing them on the counter. There were two streamers, a few nymphs, and a couple of Arrowheads, a popular Brule fly that could be fished wet or dry.

He pointed to each fly, and told me how to fish it. " And this streamer is the Coleman Special." Rogers held it up.

"The more chewed up this fly gets, the better, and don’t throw it away when it finally loses its hair topping. The body is a blend of muskrat, beaver and rabbit fur, so it becomes an excellent nymph."

I paid for the flies and a few leaders.

"Let me know how you did," Rogers said.

"I will, and thanks for the help."

That morning, switching from a nymph to the Coleman Special, I caught my first trout on the Brule — a 10-inch rainbow. An hour or so later, a 17-inch brown darted from under the cedar sweepers, grabbed the gray-bodied fly and threatened to put a set in the old Heddon. From he moment I removed the Coleman Special from that trout and slipped him back into the river, it became my favorite streamer.

THE COLEMAN SPECIAL

Hook: Mustad #9672, sizes #12 - #8
Body: Blend of muskrat, beaver, rabbit fur roughly dubbed
Tail: Wood duck barred flank.
Topping: Calf tail or calf body hair
Throat: Brown hackle
Thread: Black

David Lucca is a commercial fly tier and freelance writer from Hayward, Wis.
OLIVE WOOLLY BUGGER

Thread: Olive or black, monocord
Hook: Mustad 9672 or equivalent, sizes # 8, # 6 or even a # 4.
Weight: Lead wire, medium (depending on task), wrapped
Tail: Olive marabou plume slightly longer than hook length; tie in 3 – 4 strands of green Flashabou
Hackle: Olive saddle hackle, wrapped from tail forward and tied off
Body: Medium or large (depending on hook size) chenille, olive or black.
Option: Use barbell weight tied in behind hook eye instead of wrapping
shank.

Don Beans operates the Jasper Creek Guide Service out of Ely, Minn.
www.jaspercreek.com

This article appeared in the November 2003 edition of Midwest Fly™ Fishing magazine.
copyright Midwest Fly Fishing™ Magazine 2003