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Mickey Finn
A streamer, tied #4–10, carried year round. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — all year.
A bucktail attractor in red and yellow with no natural behind it at all, tied on a 4X long streamer hook in sizes 4–10 with black 6/0 thread. The body is flat silver tinsel ribbed with oval silver, and the wing is built in three layers — yellow bucktail, then red bucktail, then yellow bucktail over the top — which gives the fly its banded look and a good deal of movement in current. It imitates nothing in particular; the pattern is tagged for no hatch at all, a searching fly, and there is no pretence of imitation in the colours. Trout, smallmouth bass and steelhead are all targets, and it is carried year-round. The conditions that suit it are stained water and aggressive fish, and it earns its place on dropping water after rain, when visibility is poor and a bright, fast-moving wing gives a fish something to commit to.
- #4–10Hook size
- streamerType
- AllSeason
- 1Hatch matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.
What it imitates
Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.
It is also tagged for no hatch at all — a searching pattern.
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | 4X long streamer hook, sizes 4–10 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black 6/0 |
| Body | Flat silver tinsel, ribbed oval silver |
| Wing | Yellow bucktail, red bucktail, yellow bucktail over |
When to fish it
An attractor bucktail with no natural behind it at all. Stained water and aggressive fish.
Carried all year. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 35°F to 78°F.
Target species
- Trout
- Smallmouth bass
- Steelhead
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Black Ghost streamer · #4–10 — A classic bucktail for stained water and low light.
- Kreelex streamer · #2–8 — All flash. For coloured water where the fish has to find it before it sees it.
- Muddler Minnow streamer · #4–10 — Sculpin sunk, hopper skated. Older than the sport's opinions about it.
- Woolly Bugger (Black) streamer · #2–12 — If you could only own one fly. Leech, sculpin, big nymph, all of it.
- Zonker streamer · #2–8 — Rabbit strip that breathes at rest. Deadly on the pause, not on the strip.