Catch More Fish with the Muddler Minnow
Effective, Versatile Fishing Fly Catches Trout, Bass, Panfish, Pike
The Muddler Minnow was created by Don Gapen in 1936. Gapen, along with two guides, was fishing for brook trout in the Nipigon River of northern Ontario. The guides suggested using live minnows from the river as bait. When this proved successful, Gapen, who always brought his vise and fly-tying materials along on fishing trips, fashioned a minnow-like fly out of squirrel tail, gold tinsel, deer hair, and turkey wing. When Gapen pulled in a 5 ½ -pound brook trout on the second cast, he knew he had a winner.
Muddler Minnow Uses Natural Materials
The Muddler Minnow pattern relies on three types of natural materials. The following material descriptions are from The Complete Book of Fly Tying, Eric Leiser (Skyhorse Publishing, 2008).
- Squirrel tail – The long hair fibers from the gray squirrel, approximately 1 ½ inches in length, are speckled gray terminating with a black band and a white tip.
- Deer Hair – This hair is from the back or underside of a deer, usually a whitetail. Color is gray/brown to white. Hair fibers are coarse and hollow.
- Turkey feathers – The inner flight feathers of a brown turkey. Color runs from a light to a rich dark brown and has a speckled, distorted marking throughout. The same feathers from a wild turkey may be used.
All of these materials are commercially available. However, the fly tier who hunts, or who is fortunate to have hunting friends, may acquire these materials from wild sources. Fur and feathers from wild game should be stored separately from materials purchased from shops, to prevent possible contamination. With proper handling though, wild fur and feathers will pose no such problems for the fly tyer. An excellent book on this topic is Fly-Tying Materials, Their Procurement, Use, and Protection, Eric Leiser (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1973).
How to Fish the Muddler Minnow
The Muddler Minnow is effective when fished in a variety of ways. It works in any circumstance where fish respond to streamer patterns. Anglers get satisfying results when fishing this fly with a strip retrieve under the surface. Bass, crappie, and big bluegill will strike. The Muddler works in both lakes and in rivers, where it is used with a traditional cross-stream swing. It can be fished as a dry fly, and even as a nymph when tied suitably small. It is a good wake fly for steelhead when fished in warm weather. The Muddler should be cast a bit upstream from the lie, and allowed to create a small, v-shaped wake when the line goes taut. Large Muddler-style flies with colorful orange or yellow marabou have been known to take pike and salmon as well.
On lakes, streams, rivers, and even in salt-water, the venerable Muddler Minnow has proven itself for decades. It can be fished effectively in just about any situation, in any style that the angler can dream up. The basic squirrel tail, deer hair, and turkey wing pattern can be varied in size and color to suit the imagination of any fly tier. The more time an angler spends on the water, the more opportunities he will find to fish this all-around great fly, and the more variations will suggest themselves. This is definitely a pattern that ranks as an all time favorite, and it should be in every fly box.
Muddler Minnow
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