Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Description

I learned about this pattern from my dad. He learned how to tie it from his friend Chuck Stranahan that lives in Montana and has guided for many years on the Bitterroot River. One of my first trout I caught was on this pattern. I use it anywhere in Colorado that has sculpins in the water and the trout love it. They even love it in the rivers and streams that do not have sculpins. Try some in black or brown the next time you go fly fishing for bass. They like this fly too!

Materials

Hook: Tiemco 9395, Size 2-10. Thread: Ultra Thread 140 Denier on larger sizes and 70 Denier on smaller sizes, color to match the deer hair head. Weight: Medium lead wire wrapped on the hook shank. Body: Beige or Off White Aunt Lydia's Antron Rug Yarn. Underwing: Krystal flash to match wing color. Wing: Rabbit Zonker Strip. Head: Deer hair clipped to shape.

Step 1

Place the hook in the vise.

Step 2

Begin wrapping the lead wire around the hook shank. Start this directly above the hook point and wrap it forward towards the hook eye.

Step 3

Stop wrapping whey you are about two thirds of the way up the hook shank.

Step 4

Twist off the tag ends of the lead wire and push the wraps of wire together with your finger tips.

Step 5

Start your tying thread on the hook and make a few wraps in front of the lead wire wraps. They wrap back over the wire and make a few turns of thread at the back of the lead wire wraps. This will help lock it to the hook shank.

Step 6

Cut a piece of yarn for the body.

Step 7

Tie the tip of the yarn to the hook shank behind the wire. It should be tied in directly above the barb on the hook when you have completed tying it in. They wrap your thread forward and stop in front of the lead wire wraps.

Step 8

Begin wrapping the yarn forward to form the body.

Step 9

Continue to wrap the yarn forward and tie it off directly in front of the lead wire wraps.

Step 10

Trim off the tag end of the yarn and the body is completed.

Step 11

Select three strands of Krystal Flash that matches the color of the wing. In this example it is Root Beer colored Krystal Flash which is a nice olive/brown color.

Step 12

Fold the Krystal Flash around the tying thread to double it. This will keep it from pulling out from under the thread wraps once it is tied in.

Step 13

Now tie the doubled Krystal Flash in on top of the hook shank to form the underwing.

Step 14

Select a rabbit zonker strip for the wing. For this tutorial I am using a dyed gold rabbit strip.

Step 15

Trip the front end of the rabbit strip to a point. This is the part of the strip that you will tie to the hook.

Step 16

Tie the rabbit strip in on top of the hook shank right on top of the Krystal Flash. Make sure these are both tied onto the hook right in front of the yarn body.

Step 17

Lift the rabbit strip wing up and trim the Krystal Flash underwing about one hook gap behind the hook bend. The rabbit strip wing can be trimmed just slightly longer than the underwing.

Step 18

Select the color of deer hair you want to use to make the head of the fly. For this tutorial I am using a golden brown colored deer hair. This has been my best all round color for this pattern.

Step 19

Cut off a clump of hair that is about the same diameter as a pencil and comb through it with a comb to remove the under fur. If this not removed the hair will not flair very well and it will be more difficult to trim it to shape.

Step 20

Once all the under fur is removed, put the hook eye into the middle of the clump of hair and push the tips of the deer hair back over the hook shank.

Step 21

Now hold the tips of the hair in the opposite hand you use to wrap thread with the bobbin.

Step 22

Make two loose wraps of thread over the deer hair. These wraps need to be right on top of where the wing is tied in (directly in front of the yarn body).

Step 23

Pull the two wraps of thread tight to make the deer hair flair up away from the hook. Remember to not let go of the tips of the hair while making the thread wraps. We do not need for the hair to spin.

Step 24

Make four or five more tight wraps of thread and then you can let go of the hair tips. This is what it should look like.

Step 25

Now pull all the hair back towards the bend of the hook and hold it there so you move the tying thread in front of the hair.

Step 26

After making a few wraps of thread in front the hair you can let go of it.

Step 27

Now take another clump of deer hair about the same size as the first one and comb out the under fur. Then hold the clump of hair right in front of the hair you have already tied onto the hook.

Step 28

Make two loose turns of thread over the clump of deer hair and then start to pull the thread tight. The hair should start to flair. Once it starts to flair let go of it.

Step 29

Take several tight wraps of thread and allow the clump of hair to spin around the hook and flair even more to from the rest of the fly head. Your thread wraps should be going towards the hook eye while the hair is spinning.

Step 30

Pull all the hair back towards the hook bend and make several tight wraps of thread to from the head. These wraps of thread will help push the hair back away from the hook eye.

Step 31

The tying is now complete and we need to whip finish the head next.

Step 32

Pull all the hair back away from the eye so you can make a god whip finish knot and not plug the hook eye with the deer hair.

Step 33

Clip off the tying thread and now the fun begins! It is time to trip the deer hair to shape the head of our sculpin.

Step 34

I like to pull all the deer hair forward except for the tips of the first clump we tied onto the hook (the tips form the collar of the fly). The tips will blend the head into the wing so the fly has a good shape that looks like a real sculpin when we fish it.

Step 35

I use my scissors to make my first cut right along the bottom of the hook shank so it is flat like a real sculpin.

Step 36

This is what the first cut looks like after I have completed it.

Step 37

The next cut is an angled cut on the top of the head. You can use the hook eye to guide your scissors. The cut should be close the hook eye and tapering away from the hook as you cut towards the collar or tips of the hair.

Step 38

This shows the completed second cut. You can see how it is a tapered cut.

Step 39

Next we will trim the sides of the head. The sides should be trimmed so they taper from close the hook eye going farther from the hook.

Step 40

This shows the first side cut completed.

Step 41

Now trip the second side just like you did the first one.

Step 42

This shows our nearly finished sculpin.

Step 43

Make a few quick cuts to clean up any crazy deer hair that you do not like.

Step 44

Great job! You just finished tying a Chuck’s Sculpin.

Step 45

Angled view of the finished fly.

Step 46

Front view of the finished fly.

Step 47

This rainbow liked my Chuck’s Sculpin. I hope you tie some up and catch a bunch of fish on them.