Most Difficult Fly

[Byron haugh]

Thanks Allan.

[kglissmeyer]

Byron, a Muddler is a great hopper imitation when greased up and fished dry. A great fly during hopper season.

[Byron haugh]

Kelly,
I am sure that it might work with lots of grease. However, when I want a hopper pattern, I use a hopper pattern like Lawson's or Whitlock's, etc., etc.
I know that Gapin(sp?) believes it can be used as such. I visited with his son not many years ago and discussed the Muddler. He said it was used primarily as a sculpin pattern and not as much for trout as for other species.

I wonder if folks who use it during a hopper fishing opportunity are really fishing it as much as a sculpin. When you fish it, do you strip it in like fishing a streamer?

[hap]

My father taught me at a very young age that a muddler was exactly the right fly for a hopper imitation... I used it dapping for big browns in tiny creeks in Eastern Washington when hoppers were thick and the takes were often spectacular. It was 100% floating...

And I tied them weighted for those same creeks and dredging those same big browns during those crepuscular times...

And for many years a yellow marabou muddler was my favorite fly for huge winter rainbows on the Kenai River... Three very different ways of fishing virtually the same fly...

[kglissmeyer]

Not to grind the point, but I just read this upon receiving my Blue Ribbon Flies Newsletter today:

Cliff Lake presents challenges in late September as fish cruise the shoreline off the closed road along the western shore. I remember September afternoons walking the old road stalking the shore in search of patrolling fish often only a few inches off the shore. The can be taken with dry muddlers and hoppers or a #16 Mahogany Sparkle Dun.

Kelly

[Byron haugh]

Tight lines Kelly. I will continue using hopper patterns when fishing for trout taking hoppers.

By the way, the BRF note about Cliff Lake mentioned the "Dry" muddler. LadyFisher has a little story and tying instructions of the Dry Muddler on this site. It is a fly popularized by Joe Brooks. It is a bit different from the Muddler Minnow - IMHO.

Do you fish a regular Muddler Minnow or a Dry Muddler as a hopper pattern?

[Allan]

There are specific differences between the way a dry MM is tied versus a streamer. I won't list them but you can think about what they are. Even without any 'floatant additives', the dry pattern floats and imitates hoppers probably better then most specific hopper patterns, although I concede not trying them all. Allan

[Byron haugh]

The "Dry Muddler" is the fly cited by Kelly above from Craig Mathews' newsletter - not the "Muddler Minnow"

Allan,
I take it from that above, that you fish Humphrey's Dry Muddler as a hopper rather than the Muddler Minnow?

[Allan]

Actually, I've always tied the 'Muddler Minnow' as it appears in the Family Circle Guide(wherein it states that it can be fished as a dry, wet or streamer, unweighted or weighted) and in the Pattern Guide by Eric Leiser. I'm not familiar the patterns by Mathews, Humphries or any other published author. And I am talking about the 'Muddler Minnow', not a 'dry muddler' or a 'muddler anything else'.