CrustaceanbeginnerMidwest & Driftless
$4.95
Iowa's Driftless Area is one of fly fishing's best-kept secrets, which is exactly how the locals prefer it. These spring creeks run cold and clear through limestone bluffs, producing scuds in numbers that would make a shrimp boat captain envious. This curved-hook pattern sits in the drift like the real thing -- olive when alive, pink when recently deceased -- and trout eat both with the mechanical regularity of a factory assembly line. The fish in Trout Run Creek have PhDs in scud identification, having examined roughly ten million of them, and they still eat this one. That is either a compliment to the fly or an indictment of the trout's judgment, depending on your philosophical leanings.
Driftless Angler
Viroqua, WI
Twenty-plus years as the Driftless region's authority. Featured in The Drake and Chicago Magazine. Mat's patterns are as quietly effective as the spring creeks they're designed for.
Trout Run Creek
IA · Spring Creek
Yellow River
IA · Spring Creek
Map unavailable. Locations for Driftless Scud: Trout Run Creek, IA; Yellow River, IA
CrustaceanintermediateMidwest & Driftless
#4 - #8
Weighted crayfish pattern with rubber legs and dumbbell eyes designed for Oklahoma's Blue River and Lower Mountain Fork tailwaters. Olive/orange coloration matches the native crawdads that trout and bass feed on heavily.
Brown Trout · Rainbow Trout · Smallmouth Bass
CrustaceanintermediateMidwest & Driftless
#4 - #8
Weighted crayfish pattern with rubber legs and dumbell eyes. Imitates the crawdads that are the number-one forage for Ozark smallmouth.
Smallmouth Bass · Largemouth Bass · Channel Catfish
NymphbeginnerMidwest & Driftless
#14 - #18
Tied by Mat Wagner
Curved-hook scud pattern for spring creek trout. Olive or pink. The daily bread of Driftless brown trout.
Brown Trout · Brook Trout · Rainbow Trout
Dry FlybeginnerMidwest & Driftless
#16 - #22
Tiny peacock herl and grizzly hackle pattern imitating midge clusters. Essential when nothing visible is hatching but trout are rising.
Brown Trout · Brook Trout · Rainbow Trout
NymphbeginnerMidwest & Driftless
#14 - #18
Isopod imitation for spring creek trout. Flat, segmented body with antennae. A staple food source in limestone-rich waters.
Brown Trout · Brook Trout · Rainbow Trout
NymphbeginnerMidwest & Driftless
#18 - #22
Simple thread-body midge pupa with a bead head. Deadly in winter and early spring when midges dominate the drift.
Brown Trout · Brook Trout · Rainbow Trout