Adirondack Muddler

By Zak, standing on the shoulders of giants, submitted by Zak.

Description

The Adirondack Muddler is a great little fly that fishes equally well dry or wet (or both, drift it downstream dry and then pull it under and strip it back in wet). It is a variant of the venerable Muddler Minnow created by Don Gapen in 1936. The Adirondack variant uses a color combination and materials popularized by Adirondack fly tyer Fran Betters, creator of The Usual, Haystack, and many other flies.

Tying Process

Long dry fly hook (Daiichi 1280 size 14, usually). Thread strong enough to spin hair, started 1/4 to 1/3 way back from eye. Snowshoe foot tail, pull out fluff first and leave butt ends long. Tie in tail and wrap butts down to thread starting point. The excess butts will be the wing. Dub abdomen with burnt orange dubbing of choice. Spin small clump of deer hair, pushing back tail butts at same time. Add more spun hair to make muddler head. Tie off and catch fish!

Materials

• Body: burnt orange dubbing
• Head: spun deer hair
• Tag/Tail: natural snowshoe rabbit foot
• Thread: Orange thread strong enough to spin deer hair
• Wing: butts of snowshoe tail

Hooks

• Daiichi 1280 size 14

Fly types: Dry Fly, Wet Fly