Muddler Minnow

Written by DCarp

Muddler Minnow

RWFF Muddler Minnow

• Hook: Wet Fly / Streamer, Size 4-8
• Thread: Brown or Black
• Tail: Molted Turkey Quill
• Body: Flat Gold
• Rib: Oval Gold
• Underwing: Grey Squirrel Tail
• Wing: Turkey
• Head: Spun Deer Hair

RWFF FISHING TIP

The Muddler Minnow can be used for both trout and bass. Small muddlers can also be used for crappies and sunfish. Applying some floatant to the fly on a floating line in a freestone stream and you will have an excellent grasshopper imitation. For bass, you can float it on the surface like an injured baitfish or use a sinking line so that it drifts over the weed bed and rock piles.

HISTORY

Don Gapen designed this fly in 1936 to imitate a sculpin, known as the Cockatush Minnow, to catch large Brook Trout on the Nipigon River in Ontario, Canada. He lived in Orillia, Ontario before moving to Anoka , Minnesota. His inspiration for this pattern came from watching Ojibway Indian guides using dead minnows caught along the river for bait. The combination of high floating deer hair and the mottled colorations gave this fly a unique imitation of many bottom dwelling baitfish. It became one of the most popular flies for imitating sculpin but, today, is also used to imitate minnows, grasshoppers, stoneflies, and crickets.