It’s a cold and snowy day here in Western Montana, which is as it should be. December was a rainy mess with a major spike in our rivers, no snow in the valleys, and a muddy brown Christmas. But now, it seems to be back to normal. The ski hills are open, the valley is mostly white and tan, and the wind chill takes your breath away when you first step outside. It is the time of the Winter Wonderland.
As a fisherman and fly-tyer, my winter wonderings are often internal and look back to the past year. What flies worked for me, what didn’t, and why? Could I do something different to up my game? Can I tie the perfect fly that no fish can resist? Or in this case, will sticking a metal head on a sculpin pattern work better than if I did a more standard muddler minnow type head? The answer…I don’t know.
That’s part of the winter wonder landscape. It’s about hope and hunches and the plots and schemes we can imagine for the new year. Maybe this is the year I will catch an eight pound brown out of the lower Bitterroot. They’re there, though few. Maybe this is the fly that will fool that brown. I wonder.
Metal-head Sculpin
Hook: Size 1 Mustad Bait Holder
Thread: Danville Size A black
Tail: Barred Rabbit Strip Light Olive
Body: Same as tail
Hot Spot: Ice Dub Red
Collar: Elk Hair Dark Olive
Head: Metal Heads Size Large Black Nickel
I added 9 wraps of heavy wire to the hook before covering it with the thread. Make sure and leave enough space in front of the eye. Tie a couple of half hitches at the end so that the thread will stay put when you take the hook out of the vise for the next step.Cut about a four inch strip of rabbit. Take the hook out of the vise and stab it through the rabbit strip. Always stab starting with the leather side first and coming out the fur side. Put the hook back in the vise, but inverted. Tie down the rabbit strip and advance the thread just a bit over half way up the hook. If you are using a longer shanked hook, you may have to advance the thread to more like two thirds of the way.I took the rabbit strip and palmered it forward just like you would a hackle on a wolly bugger. I tied off the rabbit and added a hot spot of red Ice Dub. You can see that I left quite a few long wispy pieces.Tie in a clump of elk hair on each side of the hook and flair the hair to imitate the prominent pectoral fins of the real sculpin. This is a view from the bottom of the fly. Note that the elk hair doesn’t spin around the bottom of the hook. You want the fly to be flat on the bottom.This is the side view. You can see that I didn’t clip the butt ends too closely to the hook. This is to give the glue more material to latch on to when we add the head.I added a couple drops of super glue and stuck the head on. After it dried a bit I went back and tied the thread back on in front of the head and whip finished another knot. Then I put another drop of glue on top of that to make sure the head can’t come off. The stick on eyes came with the heads. I wish they were a bit bigger and next time I will use something different. Good luck, and have fun!
