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Muddler Minnow
A streamer, tied #4–10, carried year round. It is tied against 3 named insects in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — all year. Don Gapen, Nipigon River, 1937.
A deer-hair-headed streamer that reads as a sculpin when sunk and a grasshopper when skated, originated by Don Gapen on the Nipigon River in 1937. It is tied on a 3X long streamer hook in sizes 4–10 with brown 6/0 thread: a mottled turkey quill slip for the tail, flat gold tinsel for the body, grey squirrel tail under mottled turkey quill for the wing, and a spun deer hair head clipped to a bullet with the collar left long. It is tied here against the grasshopper, Acrididae, July through September in 60 to 80 degree water, and the sculpin, Cottus spp., available all year from 33 to 72 degrees. It also goes on when no hatch matches the water at all. Fished dead-drift, swung, or skated on the surface, it is one of the few flies that is honestly all three. Carried all season, for trout and smallmouth bass.
- #4–10Hook size
- streamerType
- AllSeason
- 3Hatches 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.
- Minnows + Dace Notropis / Rhinichthys spp. · all year · 35–78°F · #2–10
- Grasshopper Acrididae · July–September · 60–80°F · #8–12
- Sculpin Cottus spp. · all year · 33–72°F · #2–8
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; Don Gapen, Nipigon River, 1937. — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | 3X long streamer hook, sizes 4–10 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Brown 6/0 |
| Tail | Mottled turkey quill slip |
| Body | Flat gold tinsel |
| Wing | Grey squirrel tail under mottled turkey quill |
| Head | Spun deer hair, clipped to a bullet, collar left long |
When to fish it
A sculpin, a grasshopper, or a minnow. Fished dead-drift, swung, or skated on the surface — one of the few flies that is honestly all three.
Carried all year. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 33°F to 80°F.
Target species
- Trout
- Smallmouth bass
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.
- 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.
- Black Ghost streamer · #4–10 — A classic bucktail for stained water and low light.
- Circus Peanut streamer · #2–6 — Articulated, rubber-legged, unapologetic. A Michigan big-brown fly.
- Game Changer streamer · #2–6 — Segmented and it swims on its own. Slow water, big fish, a lot of patience.