Description
Muddler Minnow — Don Gapen's 1936 classic, tied fresh at FINATICS.
The Muddler Minnow is the fly that started it all. Don Gapen tied the first one in 1936 to imitate the sculpin minnow on Ontario's Nipigon River, and nearly a century later it's still on nearly every serious streamer angler's short list. Deer hair head that pushes water and rides high or low depending on how you fish it, mottled turkey wing that reads as a sculpin or dace or fry — it works because it looks like all of them at once.
Fish it dead-drift as a hopper, swing it wet across current for trout, or strip it fast as a streamer. Dropped off a bigger fly it becomes a stunned baitfish. Salt-tied variants have taken redfish and specks — this is not just a trout fly.
Specs
- Hook: Daiichi 1710 (2XL streamer)
- Sizes: #4, #6, #8, #10
- Head: Spun and clipped natural deer hair
- Wing: Mottled turkey quill with grey squirrel underwing
- Body: Gold flat tinsel
- Tied by: FINATICS Fly Company
Fishes well for: Brown trout, brook trout, rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, redfish, speckled trout, and any predator that eats sculpin, dace, or small baitfish.
Round out the streamer box. Fish this with the rest of the FINATICS classic streamer collection:
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