It is nearly time for the annual mullet run in my part of Florida (Treasure Coast)- I was wondering what patterns people are using to imitate finger mullet. Prior to this time of
year, smaller patterns are better for imitating the predominant glass minnows, sardines, anchovies, and the like.
All I have tied so far are big deceivers in a few different colors, but I would like to have a little better imitation of that fat-head look that mullet have.
Any ideas/suggestions?
Thanks!
All I have tied so far are big deceivers in a few different colors, but I would like to have a little better imitation of that fat-head look that mullet have.
Rich Murphy originated a fly using a E-Z Body spreader
Here’s the recipe for Jeff Smith’s “Buffy” The Striper Slayer that shows the technique clearly
what about this one?
can anyone explain to me how you get that head-shape? It looks like a bunch of hair is laid in there somehow and then sculpted with scissors.
starting to answer some of my own questions:
http://www.aswf.org/saltwater_flies_for_web/bob_popovics/saltwater_flies_bob_silicl.html
http://www.aswf.org/saltwater_flies_for_web/steve_farrar/saltwater_flies_steve_mullet.html
It’s dyed & spun deer hair usually rough trimed with scissors and finished w/ razor blades
EP flys with materials tied on the sides of the hook in addition to the top & bottom of the hook. 
Spoonser:
It’s getting to be mullet time up here too. Hopefully the next cold front will move them out of the bays.
Plain ol’ Deceivers actually work very well. White, or blue over white. You can also jazz it up to look a little more mullet-ey by tying a deceiver as you would normally, but with a white marabou collar in front of the normal bucktail collar (in front of peacock herl if you use it for topping). This gives it a more round shape and pushes more water.
Snake flies are a bit harder to tie, but are a lot of fun to fish. They make a ?V? wake across the surface, just like the real thing. Here?s a step by step for one version, though I tie it a bit differently.
http://www.stripersonline.com/surftalk/showthread.php?t=453432
Use heavy thread, 3/0 or flat waxed for spinning deer body hair, you’ll need to really torque it… Don?t try to spin too much at once, keep each bundle less than the diameter of a pencil, and use as many bundles as you need to fill up the shank, packing each bundle (use an empty bic pen if you don’t have a hair packer). Hair will spin best on a bare shank, so don’t lay a thread under body.
I don’t typically have ostrich or webby hackles on hand, so I use a short, thin collar of bucktail (in place of webby hackle) and marabou (instead of ostrich). This provides the same sort of construction, with the bucktail providing a ?cage? for the marabou to form around, which is the same function the webby hackle provides for the ostrich. Similar to the front of the September Night flatwing, (see below), except tied further back on the hook (to leave room for the spun deer body hair).
All white, and all yellow work well, as does all black if you fish nights.
For a more natural looking mullet version:
Hook: 34007 or similar, 2/0 or whatever
Tail: white saddles tied in deceiver style. Optional add 2 strands of pearl Krystal Flash
Collar: very sparse 360 deceiver collar tied in at rear 1/3 of shank. White bucktail, (or blend of white, pink, gray, olive, yellow and light blue if you have abunch of different colors lying around). Optional, pearl krystal flash. The hairs on the collar should be measured to reach to the front 1/3 of the saddle tail, from the tie in point, so they’ll be a bit shorter than normal since they’re tied in further back than on a normal deceiver. This will give it the fish shape in the water.
Immediately in front of collar: white or light pink marabou
Immediately in front of that: peacock herl topping to imitate the dark back of the mullet
Head: Spun natural grayish-tan deer body hair, tied in a clump at a time until you reach the front. Trim into bullet shape, flat on bottom close to shank.
Here?s another option that has a great action in the water, and it works especially well dead drifting in current:
September Night (flat wing)
http://www.stripermoon.com/flyarch/soft6.html
Good luck!
peregrines
Here’s a couple that I tie up. Most of the finger mullet we see up here are in the 3 to 5 inch range.
First one is a modified siliclone using Polar Plus for the body rather than wool.
Two different slider patterns
If there were bigger ones around I’d use this which is a full blown siliclone also tied with Polar Plus rather than wool
ya take a section of deer body hair & place it on top of the hook’s shank. take 2 or 3 turns of #4 or #6 tying thread around the hair & shank. pull the thread in a downward & slightly back & forth motion letting the hair spin around the shank until it flares out. pull all the hair towards the back and make a turn of thread in front of the base of the hair. keep repeating the previous stepps till you fill the head up with hair just behind the eye, whip finnish & tie off then add the head cement. now ya just gota trim the hair to the shape you want… i use a double edge razor blade to trim spun hair. the safest way to trim without cutting yourself is to put a split in the end of a bamboo kibob stick. flex the blade to the diamater ya want & hold the flex in place with a strip of packing tape, the tape that has string looking stuff in it. now ya can just use the kibob stick as a handle & dont have to handle the blade with ya fingers. you can shape with scisors but takes a while & results are not as good as it is using the razor blade method. it you decide to use scisors, use the ones that has curved blades.
Click here and check out the bottom right fly in the first set of pics. That is a Tom’s Mullet. Change the color to suit yourself.
Good luck!!!
thanks for the advice!!
Great patterns to work on- great thread…thanks again.
