Sparkle Sculpin Step by Step Fly Tying Tutorial

After I posted a step-by-step for the baby sparkle sculpin, a few of my friends that follow the blog jokingly asked about an adult sparkle sculpin.  At the time, I had to sheepishly admit that I'd never done such a fly, but if I did, it would probably be for bass, not trout.

Well after several months, I've got a basic sparkle sculpin pattern worked out.  While I'm sure it will go through a few changes over the course of it's freshman year in my fly box, I think that it's got the basic elements of a winner.

Sparkle Sculpin

Recipe:

Hook: Mustad 34007 Stainless Steel Saltwater hook (not critical, use your favorite bass fly hook), #2/0

Thread: Uni 6/0 (White)

Tail: Rabbit Zonker (2-tone, hot pink w/ purple tip pictured) with silver flashabou accent

Butt: Temple Dog (white pictured)

Body: UV Polar Chenille (silver pictured)

Collar: Cross-cut Rabbit Zonker (2-tone hot pink w/ purple tip pictured)

Head: Senyo's Laser Dub (pink over purple pictured)

Instructions:

Put the hook in the vise and start the thread at the bend.  I tend to run big hooks for bass, who generally aren't shy or soft on the take.  The wide gap of these stainless salt hooks gets that point out and away from any bulk on the shank of a fly.  That said, your favorite bass fly hook will work just fine, as long as you've got enough shank to work with.

Tie in your zonker strip tail, approximately equal to the overall hook length.  I went color coordinated for these instructions, but you can use any colors you like.  I also tie this fly in olive, orange, blue, and natural...and plan to do them in white, black, and purple as well.

Add a few turns of lead wire just in front of the tail.  This is optional, but I find that even with the heavy hook, this fly has sufficient bulk that it traps enough air so that it affects its sinking and action.  A bit of lead cures this (for me), and in this location, it doesn't affect the tying process or action of the fly when fished.

I've also tied in a few strands of silver flashabou on each side of the tail as well.  This is purely optional as well, but I really like the looks of the fly with it as opposed to without.

Tie in your butt as a sort of veiling for the tail.  This is to make a smooth transition from the tail to the broader body, as well as to provide a background for the flashy body.  Usually, I use three pieces, one on top and one to either side of the tail, but in this fly, I just used the one, mostly because the pink will provide better contrast than the white anyway.

I used temple dog here, but a variety of materials could work here, including marabou, bucktail, or even a few turns of schlappen.

Tie in your UV polar chenille at the bend and wrap forward to completely cover your lead underbody (or to roughly the midpoint of the shank of you didn't use lead).  Tie it off and trim.  You can use other things here, but for my tying, this polar chenille is tough to beat.  It adds profile without bulk, movement without the soggy absorption of marabou or furs, and a lot of flash easily...all while still being mostly transparent.  

I used silver here, but white, pink, purple, or even black would have worked.  If you don't have polar chenille, get some. you can substitute by making a woolly bugger-style body of a long-barbed rooster saddle over estaz, hackle over pearl mylar braid, or whatever else you like, but it will most likely have a different overall effect.

After this, tie in a cross-cut rabbit zonker, and make one or two wraps in front of the chenille, then tie off and trim.  I forgot to stop and take a photo of this step, but it isn't rocket science.  Cross-cut.  1-2 wraps.  Trim.

After your cross-cut is applied and trimmed, the rest of the space (roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the shank) will be used to make your laser dub head.  Now I am a fan of substitutions for materials that you may not have a specific match for, but this, like the polar chenille, is one that will significantly alter the overall pattern if you change it.  Long story short, I won't suggest any subs for this as I haven't tried any.  Some might work, some might not, I don't know.

In any event, the picture above shows one clump of purple laser dub tied in over the cross-cut rabbit.  Before you get to that point, though, you have to prepare the material for this use.  

Senyo's laser dub, like most dubbings, comes in a small package, all mixed up.  For this use, you want the fibers mostly aligned in the same direction as well as having the ends approximately lined up.  To do this, the easiest way is to get a small clump of dubbing (you'll figure out what size as you tie), and pull it apart between your fingers, then put both pieces on top of each other, and pull the reformed clump apart again.  Repeat this about ten times, pulling off the loose fibers on the ends, and you'll have a small pile of laser dub, aligned and ready for tying.

When you're ready, spread the clump out, being careful not to rip it apart, as well as keeping the fibers in alignment, and pull it back over the eye of the hook, allowing the eye to poke through the center of the patch.  

Hold the dubbing at an angle and make 1-2 loops around it (with the portion above the shank leaning back over the fly and the portion below the shank extending out under the eye), then pull the bottom back tightly and make a few wraps in front of them, so that all the fibers are swept back.  Repeat this a few times, occasionally orienting your fibers horizontally, to provide a full head.  Once you've tied in 3-4 clumps, you're ready to switch colors.

Here, I've tied in my first clump of pink laser dub.  You can see how I'm trying to spread it evenly all around the head of the fly, as well as how small a single clump actually is.  You need to make sure to save space by tying your clumps very close to one another.  Again with the pink, I'll tie in two clumps vertically, then one horizontally, then back to vertical to finish up the tie.

And here's the completed fly.  I've tied in my last clump of pink laser dub, and whip finished.  The fibers haven't been primped and primed, but the fly as-is would fish.  Still there's a surprising amount of loose fibers in there, and a bit of hairstyling will really improve the look of the fly.

After some quality time with an old toothbrush, the sparkle sculpin is looking good.  This head is round in cross section, or very slightly oval, due to the vertical clumps outnumbering the horizontal clumps.  The colors blend nicely and the UV fibers in the laser dub give the head a noticeable, but subtle flash.

As an alternate, you can get away from the sculpin profile and get more of a baitfish/shad look, but training the  fibers in the head of the fly up and down, and adding some large, stick-on eyes.  The eyes will keep the fibers vertical, widening and thinning your head, as seen below:

This variant makes the purple laser dub very prominent, as you can see, as well as revealing even more of the flashy body.

Though I've only fished the first variant, I have no doubt that the shad profile will also work  For the shad profile, you could actually substitute a number of things for the laser dub, including another zonker, a pair of zonkers (as a double bunny), EP fibers, or other similar synthetics.

Other variants I'm considering, though I haven't tried yet, include an inverted, Clouser version, a 'low water' version, tied more sparsely, perhaps trading the zonkers out completely, a trout version, with a longer, smaller, light wire hook, and a 'creature' version that, rather than a baitfish, would use rubber legs and other additions to imitate a crawfish or salamander more than a fish.  This fall, I may try a steelhead version, with a trailer hook.

That's where I am with this work-in-progress so far...please leave comments and suggestions to let me know what you think of what I have so far, or to make recommendations for future ties.

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Fly Tying Tutorial Link: CDC & CDL Caddis

Great looking, simple fly that promises to be light, easily floatable, and easy to tie.  I will be tying up some of these to try them out this spring and I'm sure they'll work out.  Check out the full step by step tutorial for tying two variations of this interesting fly on Passion for Fly Fishing.

Please note that the site is written in Spanish.  My browser (Google Chrome), offers to translate the entire page and does a pretty good job, though if your browser doesn't offer this option, the efficient photography should really be all you need.

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Fly Tying Tutorial: Partridge & Olive Soft Hackle Wet Fly

NOTE: This entry is carried over from my old blog.  It has been published before, but its one of the entries that I felt deserved to be brought over and shared on Dharma of the Drift.


The soft hackle is a great example of how a simple fly can be made with an infinite number of variations. It's also a fly that you can ask 5 people to tie it, and see 5 different methods of tying what is essentially the same fly. Here's how I tie the Partridge & Olive, one of the quintessential soft hackle wet flies...

Partridge & Olive



Materials:
Hook: Tiemco 3769, Size 10. Any standard length, or short, straight-shanked nymph hook will work, in any size.
Thread: 8/0 Uni-thread, black
Body: Olive Uni-floss
Rib: Silver Ultra Wire, X-Small
Dubbing: SLF Squirrel
Hackle: Partridge

Instructions:

1. Place hook in vise. Start thread about 1.5 eye lengths behind eye. Advance thread to bend and tie in ribbing wire extending out over the back of the hook.



2. Advance thread to thread tie-in point. Tie in floss, trim tag.



3. Maintaining tension on the floss, wind onto the hook, advancing floss to the bend (where the wire is tied in). Keep the body as flat and smooth as possible, and not overlapping. Basically, you want as thin of a body as possible without having bare spots.



4. While keeping tension on the floss with your left hand, grab the ribbing wire with your right and start to wind it forward, locking the floss in place with your first wrap, which should be made tight. Though you've wrapped both the floss and the wire in the normal direction (away from you, on top of the shank), you'll still be creating a counter-wrap, because the floss was wrapped toward the bend and the rib was wrapped toward the eye.



5. Trim tag ends of both floss and wire, as close to the body as is possible.



6. Prepare a tiny amount of dubbing, and twist tightly onto the thread.



7. Dub a tiny ball of the squirrel dubbing near the head of the fly, about 1 eye length back.



8. Select a speckled partridge feather, from the front of one of the wings.



9. Prepare the feather by stripping away fibers and stroking the rest (save for the tip) back against the grain as shown.



10. Tie in feather by the tip, curvature down, at the front of the hook, just a bit behind the eye.



11. Wind the hackle 1-2 turns tie off and trim feather.



12. Whip finish. Cement if desired.



Fish this fly, really, any way you like. Drift it, weight it, grease it, swing it, strip it...there isnt a wrong way to present a soft hackle, though most agree that some combination of drifting and tight-line swinging will entice the most fish. These elegant, impressionistic flies can imitate everything from emerging mayflies to caddis pupae, to terrestrials.

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Lime Trude Step By Step Fly Tying Tutorial

Lime Trude

The lime trude is a classic attractor pattern that doesn't really imitate and particular stage or insect, but rather just looking like something that fish can't help but to sample.  It incorporates peacock herl, a proven fish catching material, a bright 'hot spot', and a highly visible wing.  It's an excellent choice for pocket water fishing and wild trout.  It's also a pattern that is fairly beginner friendly, allowing for some imperfections in proportion and alignment.  Dry flies tend to be among the trickier flies to proportion exactly right, and even this one won't allow for serious errors, but the fly doesn't use any especially difficult techniques such as upright divided wings or parachute hackle.

Hook: Standard Dry Fly hook, TMC 100 in size 12 shown

Thread: Any lightweight thread.  Benecchi 12/0 in black shown

Tail: Golden Pheasant Tippet

Body: Peacock Herl with a band of green uni-stretch

Wing: Calf Body Hair

Hackle: Brown, standard sizing

Put the hook in the vise and start the thread about 1/3 of the shank back from the eye.  You can place the hook pretty deep in the vise with this pattern, so don't worry about getting it way out there at the tip of the jaws.  You can see in this shot that I have it down in the hook pocket of my Regal.  I like to start the thread at a significan transition point of the fly.  In this case, the point where I started the thread marks the point where I want my body to end, where I want to tie in the wing, and where I want to start wrapping my hackle.  A pretty major transition point of the pattern.

Choose a golden pheasant tippet feather.  Since you're only using a few individual fibers at a time, it's not important to choose a top quality feather.  If you have any with chunks missing, shafts bent, or otherwise slightly mangled, now's a good time to get them out and use them.  Just find a spot on them where the individual fibers are more or less unharmed.

Peel off 5-10 fibers from the feather, making sure to keep them all pinched together so that the black bands stay aligned, and tie them in as a tail, making the tail about as long as the hook shank, or slightly shorter.  Wrap your thread up to bind the fibers to the hook shank, then trim them, at an angle, just behind your transition point and tie down the butts.

Tie in a single long (6-8") peacock herl at the base of the tail.  When I'm tying in herl, or any other feather for that matter, I like to strip the fibers from a small area of the feather where I plan to tie it in.  This reduces bulk at the tie in point, and makes for a stronger tie-in, and by extension, a more durable fly.

Mentally divide the body area of the shank (the part covered by thread) into thirds.  The front and rear thirds will be peacock herl and the middle will be your lime band.  Wrap your herl up to the 1/3 point, them make an additional wrap or two.  When you add the lime band, this will give you a little 'wiggle room' when you wrap the uni-stretch.  After you finish wrapping, tie down the herl, then tie it down to the 2/3 point of the body, as shown.

Tie in your green uni-stretch at the 2/3 point, then tie it back to the 1/3 point, as shown.  Then clip the tag end.

Using tight, overlapping wraps, cover the middle third of the body with lime uni-stretch.  Tie it off at the same point where you tied it in, then trim it.

Continue wrapping the herl, making sure to cover the tie in point of the uni-stretch as well as the tag ends.  Wind it up to your transition point (where you started the thread, 1/3 back from the eye).  Tie off the herl and trim.

Trim off a small bunch of calf body hair to use as a wing.  Pull out the smaller under fibers (calf doesn't really have fuzzy under fur), stack it, and tie it in like a caddis wing.  I like to take one wrap around just the hair, then use my second wrap to bind it to the hook.  If it is lying too flat against the body, take another wrap around just the hair, at the base of the wing to lift it up.

The traditional recipe calls of calf tail here.  While you can certainly use it, I generally prefer the body hair because it is straighter, and stacks easier.  It also allows you to use more hair, to make a denser, more visible wing, and is highly visible, even in low light conditions.  The downside of calf body hair is that it is more of a pain to work with, as it is much shorter, and I've often lost it in the bottom of my hair stacker, only to have it dump out in a useless pile.  It takes some getting used to, and it is kind of a pain to work with, but for me, the increased visibility and better stacking properties are work the extra fuss at the vise.

Trim the butt ends of the calf hair off just behind the eye, at an angle to avoid any abrupt step-down effect.  Build a tapered, smooth thread body as a platform for you hackle.

Tie in a single brown saddle hackle, sized appropriately for your hook at the base of the wing, wrap forward in close turns, taking care not to trap the hackle fibers under the stem, then tie off and trim, leaving a little room (about the length of the eye) for a nice small head.  Whip finish and trim the thread and you're done!

Fishing the fly: Fish the lime trude just like you would any other typical dry fly: upstream and drift.  This is an attractor, not meant to imitate any insect, so it's a good choice when there's no obvious hatch for the fish to key on.  I suppose it could function as a darker colored mayfly dun (in small sizes a BWO, in larger sizes, maybe an iso) or a caddis emerger.  It's also a good fly to use on very shady streams, slightly stained water, or in choppier riffles and pocket water, where it's colorful iridescent body and bright white wing make it highly visible to both fish and angler.  When I see this fly, I immediately imagine a small high-gradient stream full of hungry brookies, lined with big hemlocks that keep the stream cool and dark even at noon on a sunny day in July.

As you can see, like i said at the beginning, this pattern uses fairly straightforward technique to create a nice, all purpose dry fly.  No tricky wings to divide, no winding hackle at odd angles or around a wing, and no fussy body materials.  For an extra touch of durability, you could even coat the thread base of the body and hackle with a very light coating of head cement or CA glue, then wrap the herl, uni-stretch, and hackle on top of it.  I generally avoid glues unless absolutely necessary, though, seeing a torn and tattered fly as a sign of good fishing, rather than poor tying.  As long as it doesn't unravel without help from fish teeth, it's done its job.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  If you have any suggestions for future tutorials, feel free to voice them in the comments!

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Baby Sparkle Sculpin Fly Tying Tutorial

Baby Sparkle Sculpin

Recipe

Hook: Mustad 36890, Size 10

Thread: 8/0, Black

Wing: Pine Squirrel Zonker Strip, Natural

Body: Dubbing (any bright, flashy dubbing, SLF Prism in Olive shown)

Collar: Pine Squirrel Zonker Strip, Natural (same strip used in wing)

Instructions

As always, begin by placing the hook in the vise.  I prefer the looped, up-eye salmon hooks for all my streamers, but, as usual, any long shank streamer hook will work.  This pattern is also limited in its size by the natural length of the squirrel fur, meaning that it will begin to lose proportion in sizes much bigger than #8, and the hide itself will make it too bulky to be practical much smaller than #12.

Wrap an underbody of .025 lead, proportioned as shown.  With the loop eye hooks, I tend to use the end of the wire as my transition point, wrapping the lead up to it, and using it as a sort of fixed 'landmark' for other proportioning purposes on a variety of ties, but you can tie it just fine on a ring-eye, just be sure to leave space for the collar.

Tie in the pine squirrel zonker at the back of the lead underbody, extending just past the back of the bend, but not long enough to foul, with the natural grain of the hair sweeping back.  Be sure to separate the hair at the tie in point so that you don't bind any of it down.  This will no only make for a neater appearance and maximum movement in the water, but binding down the hair will make the tie in point much weaker.

After making about 3 wraps binding the strip down, pull the front end back and make 2-3 more wraps tight against the tie in point to lock it in, then tie in a thread loop about 6" long, and advance your thread to the front of your lead underbody.  Then get your dubbing loop tool into the loop you created.

Wax the loop if you like, then fill it with your dubbing of choice.  Literally any dubbing will work here, though, in the interests of keeping it a "Sparkle Sculpin", bright, flashy dubbings are given the nod at my tying bench.  In this case, I'm using SLF Prism dubbing in Olive.

Twist up your dubbing loop.  For a loop this big, twist it up a lot.  You won't ahve to worry about twisting it too tightly, and twisting too loose might allow some of the dubbing to get pulled out by fish.

Wind the dubbing loop onto the lead underbody.  On a size 10 hook, that 6" loop will allow you to wrap it on pretty tightly, so try not to leave any bare spots.  Tie it off and trim any excess at the front of the lead underbody.  If you like, tease out the dubbed body with a toothbrush.

Pull the zonker strip forward, over the body.  There should be a little tension in the strip to keep it upright, but not so much tension that its going to pull itself out of place.  Tie the strip down at the front of the dubbed body, again taking care not to bind down the fur.  Also like last time, pull the strip back, and make a few locking wraps immediately in front of the tie in point.

Pull the strip to the side and make one wrap around the hook shank, making sure it lays with the hide side against the hook, with the hair standing out much like hackle.  After that one wrap, tie off and trim.  Leave room for the head, but if your tie off point is almost to the eye, don't worry about it, just snip it as close as you possibly can, to make for a smaller, neater head.

The finished fly.

A stringer of sculpins, tied with a variety of dubbings and colors.  From left to right: pink and red antron, olive, orange, and caddis green SLF Prism, blue ice dub, purple polar dub, and blue laser dub.

This is an evolution of a pattern that worked well for me over the 2010 season on both trout and steelhead as well as  warmwater bass who may have taken it for a small tadpole.  The old pattern used a body first of tinsel, then mylar braid (used on crystal meth)...this dubbed body version adds a lot of ability to customize the look for different tastes and conditions.  It may be my reason to try out some shaggy dub next spring.

Fish this pattern like any streamer pattern, drift, swing, strip as needed.  The fairly heavy gauge lead on such a small hook makes it ideal for probing those hard to reach areas like deep pools, exposed root balls, and undercuts, that the larger trout in a small stream usually claim as their own (and aggressively defend), and the small size makes it manageable for even a 3wt rod to throw at the distances usually necessary for small stream angling.  Toss upstream allowing it to tumble across the bottom into the lie, then after giving it a little time to sink, but not enough time to drift out of the lie, swing or strip it away quickly.  Usually for me, the strike will come just a few moments after the swing begins.

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Sparkle Minnow Tutorial

Sparkle Minnow
Hook: Mustad 36890, Size 6
Thread: Black 8/0
Weight: .015 lead wire
Body: Polar Chenille (UV Pearl)
Collar: Crosscut Rabbit Zonker (Blue w/ purple tip)
Topping: Polar Fiber, Icelandic Sheep, Cashmere Goat, or similar (Cashmere goat shown)

Instructions

Place hook in vise.  I use up-eye salmon hooks for my streamers, but any long shank streamer hook will do.

Wrap an underbody of .015 lead wire to sink the minnow.  This pattern has a lot of bulk, so a bit of weight really helps to get it below the surface.  Using heavier gauge lead would help improve the sink rate.  Push the lead up against the end of the loop eye, or, if you aren't using a loop eye hook, leave some space behind the eye equal to the width of your rabbit strip plus room for a head.

Build a thread dam at the rear of the lead body to prevent it from sliding back, then tie in a piece of polar chenille at the back of the body, then advance your thread to the front of the lead underbody.

Wrap the polar chenille forward in touching turns to completely cover the lead underbody.  Be sure to sweep the fibers back after each turn to avoid trapping the fibers under the next wrap.  Tie off and trim.

Tie in your crosscut rabbit strip.  I'm using blue here, but nearly any color could work, I just associate white, blue, green, and silver with minnows.

Make one wrap of the crosscut, then tie off and trim.  Any more than one wrap will overcrowd the head of the fly, and will also tend to dominate the polar chenille.  One wrap will allow the polar chenille to deliver a subtle flash from below the rabbit, and also allow for the fibers of both materials to move freely in the water.

Tie in your topping.  Any long, supple material will work here.  I normally use polar fiber in olive or black, but here I've used chartreuse cashmere goat.  Other possibilities would include any hair you'd normally use on a streamer, bucktail, yak, peacock herl, etc.  You just want a material that will add a little contrast to the fly while again allowing for maximum movement.

The completed fly.

The fly wet.


You fish the sparkle minnow just like any other streamer.  Drift, swing, strip.  I've only ever used it in moving water, but I'd imagine bass and panfish would like it in stillwaters as well.

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