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Squirmy Wormy
A nymph, tied #8–14, carried year round. It is tied against 2 named insects in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — all year.
This is a nymph built around a single silicone strand that moves on its own in the current, the San Juan idea rendered in a material with its own motion. It rides a curved scud hook in sizes 8 through 14, tied with pink or red 6/0 thread, the Squirmy Worm strand lashed in at its midpoint so both ends trail free, and a tungsten bead at the head to carry it down. There is nothing else to it. It imitates no insect in particular — nothing in the book is matched to it — which makes it the fly that goes on when no hatch matches the water. Its water is coloured and pushy: off-colour flows after rain, when visibility is short and a fish is finding food by the movement in front of it rather than by the shape of it. Trout are the quarry, and it is carried in every season.
- #8–14Hook size
- nymphType
- AllSeason
- 2Hatches matched
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.
- Aquatic Worm Oligochaeta · all year · 35–70°F · #10–16
- Fish Eggs Other · October–January and April · 33–60°F · #10–16
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 | Curved scud hook, sizes 8–14 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Pink or red 6/0 |
| Body | Squirmy Worm silicone strand, tied in at the midpoint |
| Head | Tungsten bead |
When to fish it
The same idea in a material that moves on its own. Off-colour water after rain.
Carried all year. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 33°F to 70°F.
Target species
- Trout
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.
- Egg Fly nymph · #10–16 — Behind spawning salmon and steelhead in fall and spring. Not a hatch — a food source.
- Mop Fly nymph · #10–14 — Divisive and effective. Suggests a cranefly larva more than anybody wants to admit.
- San Juan Worm nymph · #8–14 — Aquatic worms wash out in every rise of water. Unfashionable and undefeated.
- Walt's Worm nymph · #12–18 — Dubbing on a hook. Suggests cranefly larvae, sowbugs and everything else pale and wriggling.
- Black Stonefly Nymph nymph · #12–18 — Dead-drifted along the bottom. Stonefly nymphs are always present in rocky water.