I am hoping that the wealth of knowledge here on FAOL will continue to show forth it’s asset to fly angling.
What is the easiest sculpin pattern to tie? What is the most productive pattern you use for fishing sculpins? How does the time-to-tie versus fish-producer ratio factor in? What style do you prefer? Woolhead? Spun hair? Zonker? Pictures are very beneficial to this visual learner.
Your help is much appreciated! Hopefully this thread will come to fruition and I can show some evidence of sculpin taking fish as I return from a week of trout fishing out west.
Easiest, maybe not the best or most realistic, would be a Wooly Booger in the appropriate size and color. Maybe add some additional material to the tail along with the marabou to give it more bulk.
You can’t tell from the pic, but the tail is brown over tan marabou with copper flash. Body is tan/brown brindle chenille with a grizzly palmer. Neck is 2-3 turns of pheasant church window.
I second Lew’s suggestion with John Scott’s “Pine Squirrel Cheater”. This has been a very good pattern for me and has caught many species of fish. Very easy tie with only one material plus the tying thread. It may not be what you are looking for, but, you can’t go wrong with it and I feel it will catch fish where ever you fish.
There are plenty of good sculpin patterns, but there are none that are easier to tie and few that also work just as well as a small minnow / baitfish pattern.
John
P.S. And, no, I am not biased or partial !! Here’s a link to the FOTW article.
This is a sculpin pattern that I like to fish downstream on the surface through the pocket waters. The body is trimmed chinchilla, pectorals 'chilla, and McFlyfoam head.
I agree that a Muddler is great but it is certainly not the easiest to tie.
My latest vote would be for a Pine Squirrel Zonker that would require only a single material.
Since alot of sculpins here are olive in color, i tie it in olive. Sorry, no pics but I’ll give you a quick recipe and steps:
Mustad R74 (or any 3X or 4X long streamer/nymph hook) sz 10-6
Place a black cone head (small for 10, med for 8/6) on hook
run some 3/0 olive or black thread down the hook shank but DO NOT jam up a ball of thread behind the Cone head
tie in an olive dyed grizzly hackle 2 sizes bigger than hook (fluff stripped off) concave side facing up directly on top of hook shank
Lash the prepped hackle stem down and up against cone head
wrap thread back to bend of hook
tie in clump of marabou in olive or barred olive (just as you would a bugger)
lash down the excess marabou and/or stem on top of hook shank to build up a body; right up to your hackle feather; tie off and clip excess
return thread to tie-in piont for tail
tie in olive and black barred Krystal chennile by its core
wrap with tight touching wraps toward the front of the fly and hard up against the hackle feather, tie off and clip tag
Make a few wraps of thread behind and in front of feather and let bobbin hang
Make about (5) wraps of hackle tight together then tie of feather
Clip excess feather tip and lash dwon enough thread to make the dense collar flair back toward the tail of the fly and whip finnish
Apply head cement to thread wraps
Go fish your simple sculpin in quick, jerky stripps and pauses
Wrap lead wraps from slightly in front of the end of the shank up til the 1/3 point.
Cover wraps with thread to secure
Tie on Zonker strip at the end of the shank - just after the weight.
Wrap/Palmer Zonker stip forward to 1/3 mark and tie off.
Spin the wool or stack wool up to the ey of the hook. Tie off and clip thread.
Shape the head to your liking. I shape the bottom of the head flat and cut off the zonker strip hair on the bottom of the hook get that flat sculpin shape.
One trick I’ve used (I think I got it off Charlie Craven’s website) with tying muddler type flies is to tie in the collar and then to cut off all the butts. Then tie off the thread and cut it.
Next take a small piece of plastic from a baggie, poke a hole in it, and slide it down the shank to the collar. Cover the collar with the plastic and hold it with a piece of lead wire wrapped around the baggie which is wrapped around the collar.
Then re-attach the thread and spin and pack (not too tightly) hair up the eye.
Leave the plastic baggie on until you’re done shaping the head. That way you don’t mess up and inadvertently chop off the collar.
