Muddler Minnow

Materials

Hook

3X-long streamer hook (Mustad 38941, which Gapen used; Dai-Riki 710; TMC 300 for a longer tie), sizes 2-12

Thread

Dark brown UTC 70 denier for the body, switching to 140 denier or GSP for the deer hair

Tail

Matched slips of mottled turkey wing quill, about half a shank long

Body

Flat gold tinsel or gold Sparkle Braid (Gapen used embossed gold metal tinsel)Silver on the White variant.

Riboptional

Fine copper wire or oval gold tinselNot on Gapen's original; added later to protect Mylar tinsel.

Underwing

Gray squirrel tail, a pencil-thin bunch reaching the tail tipBlack squirrel on the Black variant; white calf tail on the White and on Dan Bailey's Marabou Muddler.

Wing

Matched slips of mottled turkey wing quill, one each side, tips even with the tailMarabou Muddler: replace the turkey with a marabou plume (white, yellow, black, olive or brown) over the calf tail.

Collar

Tips of the first bunch of natural deer body hair, reaching about the hook pointBlack or white deer hair on those variants.

Head

Natural deer body hair, spun, packed and clipped to a bullet; Gapen's own was sparse and shaggy, Dan Bailey's dense and tight

Steps

1. 1.Clamp the hook, start the thread about a third of the way back from the eye and wind it back to a point above the barb.
2. 2.Cut a matched pair of slips about a quarter inch wide from a left and a right turkey quill. Put them together with the curves opposing so the tips flare slightly upward, measure a tail about half a shank long, and set them on top of the shank with two soft loops before pulling tight so the slips compress straight up rather than rolling round the hook.
3. 3.Wind a smooth thread base forward over the butts to about two-thirds up the shank. Tie in the tinsel (and rib wire if you use one) there, wind the tinsel back to the tail in touching turns and forward again over itself, then tie off and trim. If you added wire, spiral it forward now.
4. 4.Cut a pencil-thin bunch of gray squirrel tail, comb out the underfur, and tie it in on top so the tips reach the end of the tail. Trim the butts on a slant and cover them with thread; a drop of cement here keeps the slippery hair in.
5. 5.Cut two matched wing slips a little wider than the tail slips. Set one on each side of the squirrel with the tips even with the tail and the curve sweeping up slightly, pinch them in place with loose turns, then tighten so they stand upright. Trim the butts and bind them down.
6. 6.Switch to the stronger thread right in front of the wing, leaving the front third of the shank bare for the head.
7. 7.Cut a bunch of deer body hair about the thickness of a pencil, comb out the underfur and even the tips in a stacker (Gapen did not stack; Flagler does). Measure so the tips reach about the hook point, hold the bunch on top with the tips to the rear, take two loose turns and then pull tight so the hair flares and spins round the shank. Those tips are the collar.
8. 8.Push the spun hair back, then add one or two more bunches in front of it, spinning each and packing it back hard against the last, until the hair reaches just behind the eye. Trim the tips off these later bunches before spinning if you want a cleaner head.
9. 9.Push the hair back with a straw or your fingers, take a few tight turns of thread against the eye, whip finish and cement.
10. 10.Trim the head: take the underside flat close to the shank first, then taper the top and sides into a bullet shape, leaving the collar tips untouched. Let a drop of varnish soak into the base of the hair to lock it.

From the tier

• Martin Joergensen examined an original Gapen Muddler and found it a rough, sparse fly with untrimmed hair; he thinks Gapen fished it as a bottom-hugging sculpin, swung down and across, and that the tight bullet head is Dan Bailey's 1950s refinement.
• Tim Flagler cuts the turkey slips with half a razor blade so the edges stay straight, and uses a plastic straw to push the spun hair back over the eye when whip-finishing.
• Fish the natural down and across on the swing or dead-drifted deep on a sink-tip as a sculpin; a lightly dressed one greased and twitched is a grasshopper. The Marabou Muddler is weighted and stripped for big browns.

Hook and hardware

• 3X-long streamer hook1

  size 2-12 · Mustad 38941 or Dai-Riki 710

  Hook

  1

Feathers and fur

• Mottled turkey wing quills1 matched pair

  natural

  TailWing

  1 matched pair

• Gray squirrel taila pinch

  natural gray

  Underwing

  a pinch

• Deer body hair3 pencil-thick bunches

  natural (black or white for variants)

  CollarHead

  3 pencil-thick bunches

• Marabou plumeoptional1 plume

  white, yellow, black or olive

  Wing

  Marabou Muddler variant only.

  1 plume

Synthetics, flash and legs

• Flat gold tinsel or Sparkle Braidabout 8 in

  gold (silver for the White variant)

  Body

  about 8 in

Thread and finish

• Tying thread, fine1 spool

  dark brown, 70 denier · UTC

  Thread

  1 spool

• Tying thread, strong1 spool

  140 denier or GSP

  ThreadHead

  1 spool

• Head cement or varnisha few drops

  UnderwingHead

  a few drops

Other

• Copper wireoptionalabout 6 in

  fine

  Rib

  about 6 in