Michigan Flies

Flies / Wet fly

Wet Skunk

A

Michigan classic

A weighted, rubber-legged Michigan classic that Hawkins fishes 'on a floating line near the structure' and says 'can produce at times when nothing else will.' Current Works lists Skunks among its terrestrials. Twitch it along banks and through log jams from late May through September as a cross between a drowned hopper and a small sculpin.

#6–10Black and white with rubber legs
What the pattern looks like
Reference photos of the Wet Skunk tied by others, shared by their photographers. Not our flies; our own product photos replace these as they are shot.

Photo © the photographer, used with permission

Season
Months this pattern is in play across Michigan, derived from what it imitates.
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Imitates

Forage

  • Grasshopper
  • Sculpin (slimy and mottled)
Fish it for
Brown troutBrook troutRainbow trout (resident)

Setups

  • Streamers
  • Indicator nymphing
How it's tied
A
Wet Skunk (Madsen's Skunk fished sunk). The Au Sable's black-and-white rubber-legged Skunk tied to fish under the surface: calf-tail tail, black chenille body, white rubber legs and a deer-hair wing laid back over the body, twitched along drop-offs and logs for trout and swung for steelhead. Our own write-up of the standard tie, checked against the sources below. Recipe by Tom Deschaine, FlyAnglers Online (2014).

Materials

Hook
Standard wet-fly or streamer hook, sizes 6-12Deschaine lists 6-16; 8-10 is the common trout size, 6 for steelhead.
Thread
6/0, black
Tail
White calf (kip) tailThe original used gray squirrel tail; white calf is the modern standard.
Legs
White round rubber, two strands tied in an X at the middle of the shankAbout 1.5 in long before trimming; barred rubber on some modern ties.
Body
Black chenille, mediumWoven through the legs so they keep their X.
Wing
Natural or white deer body hairOn the wet version tied down over the back as a low wing or shellback rather than flared upright.
Head
Thread, built into a small knob and well cemented

Steps

  1. 1.Lay a thread base from behind the eye to the bend.
  2. 2.Stack a small bunch of white calf tail and tie it in at the bend as a tail about one shank length long. Bind the butts forward to keep the body smooth.
  3. 3.Tie two strands of white rubber across the top of the shank just ahead of the middle with figure-eight wraps so they form an X with a leg on each corner.
  4. 4.Tie in the chenille at the bend and wrap it forward, passing it around the legs so they stay separated in their X, to a short distance behind the eye. Tie off and trim.
  5. 5.Cut and stack a bunch of deer body hair. Tie it in behind the eye with the tips pointing back over the body so it lies flat as a low wing or shellback reaching to about the tail; take the wraps firm but not so tight the hair flares upright.
  6. 6.Cross the thread over the hair butts in an X to pin the wing down and shape the small shellback, then trim the butts.
  7. 7.Build a tidy knob of a head, whip finish, and give it a generous coat of cement.
  8. 8.Trim the legs to about the length of the body so they kick when the fly is twitched.

From the tier

  • Earl Madsen tied his Skunks with white rubber strands cut from truck seats, golf balls or whatever he could find, which is why Fly Tyer's Jerry Darkes calls it probably the first rubber-legged fly.
  • Brian Kozminski (Woods-N-Water) fishes the same fly both ways, as a terrestrial on top and dunked and worked as a wet fly; Michigan anglers treat the sunk version as a stonefly searching pattern for cloudy days, twitched near structure on a floating line.
  • Keep the deer hair sparse on the wet tie; a big flared wing wants to float, and the point of the Wet Skunk is that it does not.

MADSEN'S SKUNK - Fly Pattern - FlyAnglers Online Materials and step order follow Tom Deschaine's FAOL pattern sheet for Madsen's Skunk, adapted to the sunk version (calf tail, wing laid back) that Michigan anglers call the Wet Skunk; the Michigan Sportsman forum recipe was seen only in search snippets because the thread is paywalled. Unconfirmed: Michigan sources disagree on whether Madsen or Webber devised it; and there is no single canonical 'Wet Skunk' sheet, so the wing-laid-back detail is the common Michigan practice rather than one tier's published recipe. Also checked against Jerry Darkes, Fly Tyer magazine, Tie One On-Grayling, Michigan Style | Fly Tyer, Patrick Bevier, Woods-N-Water News (2018), The Essential...Six Fly Patterns! | Woods N Water News and Ken McBroom, Rambling Angler Outdoors, Tying Flies - FLY FISHING - Rambling Angler Outdoors (Earl Madsen Dry Skunk).

Materials to buy
Everything one Wet Skunk takes, each item once: 7 items. Quantities are for a single fly. We do not sell components yet; when we do, these will link to them.

Hook and hardware

  • Wet-fly or streamer hook1

    size 6-12

    Hook

Feathers and fur

  • Calf (kip) tail1 tail

    white

    Tail

  • Deer body hair1 patch

    natural or white

    Wing

Synthetics, flash and legs

  • Round rubber legs2 strands

    white, medium

    Legs

  • Chenilleabout 6 in

    medium black

    Body

Thread and finish

  • Tying thread1 spool

    6/0 black

    ThreadHead

  • Head cement1

    Head

Sources