PuckerbrushFlies

This fly is an old favorite that seems to surface every few years and then disappear for awhile. Part of the reason is that wet flies have fallen out of fashion and the Grizzly King is an old wet fly. I remember this seeing this fly in my father’s pattern book 40 years ago and it was considered old, then. The original dressing is attributed to a Professor John Wilson of Edinburgh University, Scotland. Colonel Bates credits the streamer version of this fly to Gardner Percy of Portland, Maine. The fly is supposed to represent a form of caddis fly and that explains why it works so well here.

I use this fly in both wet and streamer versions and I pretty much tie it in size 12. Ray Bergman’s classic Trout goes into great detail about different sizes depending on which species of trout you’re fishing over. Size 12 works best for me, although I think this fly in smaller sizes would fish well. If you’ve got the eyes for it, downsize to a 14 or 16 and let me know how it works for you.

Recipe for the Grizzly King

Thread – Black
Hook –8-12 wet (4x hook for streamer)
Tail –Red duck quill or hackle fibers
Body – Green floss
Rib – Thin gold Mylar
Throat – Grizzly hackle fibers (hen if possible)
Wing – Rolled mallard flank, for streamer use grizzly

While the old version called for red duck quill angled upward for a tail, I think red hackle fibers work fine. The Mylar should be very fine; I use size 16/18. The throat hackle is tied in beard style and will have better movement if you use soft hen grizzly hackle. It is a good technique to use white thread on the hook shank under the floss. Wet floss over dark thread can become too dark. That is especially true of yellow or gold floss but the green floss seems to do fine with dark thread under it. If you are inclined, using white thread for the first part of this fly is a good habit. The old recipes speak of “rolled” mallard flank as opposed to the highly stylistic swept and pointed wings you see on other wet flies in old color plates. I think that is a concession to the fact that after several fish chewing on those wings, they become shredded anyway so why not roll them to begin with. You have to admit, when the old writers recommend fish proofing the wings, that’s a sign of a good fly. Just cut a small bunch of mallard flank fibers, roll them between your thumb and forefinger, and then tie them in. A rolled wing can make for a lot of bulk and a huge head. Use as fine a thread as you can to avoid that. As for the streamer, keep the hook as small as you can and use grizzly hackles for your wing. Percy’s recipe calls for four hackles, two on each side. I use two hackles and I let the wings angle up a bit. I think it has better action tied that way. I’m sure it all depends on how you fish the fly, so keep in mind that you may want to stick with the tried and true recipe.

This is a venerable old pattern that deserves more use than it gets. Ask the oldest, best, fly fisherman you know about the Grizzly King. Watch his eyes when you ask. If they look away quickly and he tells you he doesn’t think much of it, check the side pocket of his fly wallet. I bet he has a few.

This set of streamers is a companion set created in 1929, coincidently the year of another stock market crash. The light and dark versions of these old bucktail streamers are found in most recipe books, better stocked fly shops and your grandfather’s fly wallet. Bill Edson originally tied these with gold metal cheeks instead of Jungle Cock eyes. His mail order catalog developed quite a following and the once optional gold cheeks were so much in demand that they became his standard. When you can find these streamers today, they are tied with a Jungle Cock cheek tied short, or with no cheek at all to save cost. If you want to try these streamers with the metal cheeks, you can get them from theriaultflies.com.

The Dark Tiger has a dark wing and a light body while the Light Tiger has a dark body and a light wing. There are old theories that you should select your fly color in accordance with the sunshine. Dark streamers for dark days-light streamers for light days. I’ve used that method and it works but to be honest, I’ve switched colors and had good results too. Bill used yellow chenille for the Dark Tiger and peacock herl for the Light Tiger. The length of the yellow chenille body is a good approximation of a mayfly nymph and I’ve lost track of the number of fish I catch on flies tied with peacock herl. This tells me that these streamers imitate multiple food sources and will fish well under varying conditions.

The Edson Dark Tiger wing is made with the brown hair off a buck tail dyed yellow. If you select the hair from the base of the tail, the wing will flare and you’ll quit in disgust. Try the yellow tinged brown hair near the tip of the tail. It isn’t as hollow and the hair around the base and lays down a great wing.

Recipe for the Edson Dark Tiger
Thread – Yellow (or yellow lacquer over black)
Tag- Several turns of gold tinsel
Hook – 4x shank
Tail –Two yellow hackle feather tips, small, tied back to back
Body – Fine yellow chenille
Throat – Two small red hackle tips (or hackle fibers)
Wing – Brown hair from yellow dyed bucktail, as long as the tail
Cheeks- Jungle Cock tied short

Recipe for the Edson Light Tiger
Thread – Black
Tag- Several turns of gold tinsel
Hook – 4x shank
Tail –Barred wood duck, showing two black bars
Body – Peacock herl, tied full
Wing – Yellow buck tail, as long as the tail
Topping- Short red neck hackles, 1/3 length of wing
Cheeks- Jungle Cock tied short

The tails on both streamers are distinctive and I recommend you tie them as the recipe describes, I think they’re important. The red feathers are something I feel free substituting fibers for hackle tips because they are small and seem to be there for color rather than movement. I use Jungle Cock for the cheeks because when my streamers have eyes or cheeks they catch more fish. Jungle Cock is getting cheaper in small bunches if you shop around.

There are a lot of flies to tie and to fish with, and almost all of them catch fish one day or another. As more and more new patterns appear on the scene, we forget the old standbys. Then, if you’re lucky, you stumble onto a recipe of an almost forgotten fly that had its hey day long ago. You tie it, cast it, and then you’re mesmerized by the intensity of the strike. It turns out that the fish never forgot the fly, we did.

Don’t forget these old flies; some of them were bringing big fish to old nets long before you and I were born.

The Black Ghost Marabou streamer, great fly! Herb Welch created the original Black Ghost in the 1920’s. Herb is considered to be the inventor of the streamer fly by some people and while his designs may have originated in the Rangeley region, they became famous all over the world. The streamer that Herb developed was tied had a white saddle hackle wing. The marabou version is a favorite in Maine for some very good reasons. They are easier to tie once you learn how and the marabou catches fish so well it should be outlawed. This is a great streamer to cast after ice out and it continues to produce as a trolled smelt imitation all through the summer.

Recipe for the Black Ghost Marabou Streamer

Eyes – optional
Start with a streamer hook. I prefer 8x but you can use a 6x if you like. Tie on a small clump of yellow hackle barbules. Out west the fly is tied with a huge bunch of hackle for the tail and a big black chenille body. That won’t work here so if you see a pattern like that on the Internet you should know that you are looking at a fly intended for west coast fish. In Maine, this fly should have a somewhat sparse tail. The tail should be as long as the hook gap. Tie on some silver Mylar. At this point you should tie in your body material. I love a product called Uni-Stretch. I think is ties better than floss for some flies but you can use floss if you prefer it-the original was tied with black floss. Choose your weapon, floss or Uni-Stretch and tie it in. Now form a black body up to a point just before the hook eye. If you tie too close to the hook eye, you will have no room for a properly sized head. The correct distance to stop short of the eye is the width of the eye itself, not quite an eighth of an inch. Clip off the excess floss and wrap the silver Mylar rib up to the eye and trim off. Now tie in a yellow throat, beard style. Again, don’t go bushy here. The length of the throat should be about same length as the tail hackle fibers.

Now it is time to tie on a white marabou wing. Anyone looking into my streamer box will notice that I have a lot of soft hackle and marabou wing streamers. I love to tie the old fashioned streamers with feather wings and I love to fish them but marabou is easier to tie with and many times will out fish a feather wing streamer. There is a time and a place for everything, and there is always a place for a marabou wing streamer. I tie some with thin sparse wings and some with thick heavy wings. They look ridiculous when dry but when marabou gets wet the fly takes on a life of its own. I’ve never been able to tell if the sparse wings out fish the heavy wings or vice versa, they both work. Your wing should be as long as the tail of this streamer. If you want eyes, the original pattern used Jungle Cock nails.

That’s it! The Black Ghost Marabou Streamer is my first choice at ice out and is a “go to” fly all summer. If you take the time to learn to tie marabou wing streamers, you’ll be glad you did. I can’t think of a better fly to tie while learning to use this fish getting material.

When I called Bob Shufelt of Greenville, Maine to ask him about his famous creation, he was friendly and willing to tell me that he designed the fly almost 40 years ago and kept it a secret for over a decade.  Gradually the word got out and knowledgeable guides and fly fishers began to add this remarkable streamer to their boxes.

During the fall, togue move out of deep water and into shallow water to spawn. They will attack anything that they perceive to be a threat to the nest. This is the time to use large, colorful flies. But it is more than just a fall togue fly; it is a great streamer all season long.  A friend of mine, Bob Ganem of Bangor, uses it to pull more salmon out of Grand Lake Stream than anyone I know and I’ve watched him break one off on a striped bass at the Eddington boat landing on the Penobscot River. My friend winters in Florida and he has caught snapper, tarpon and a 47 inch barracuda with the Shufelt Special. This streamer does it all and it’s easy to tie, so let’s get started.
 

Recipe for the Shufelt Special

Thread – Black

Hook – Size 2-8 streamer hook, 8X long

Tail – Golden Pheasant crest tippets

Body – Silver Mylar

Wing –White marabou over red bucktail, over yellow bucktail

Eyes – White with black center

Super glue

There are some things to know about this fly. Most of the time I like a sparse streamer but not so here; I tie this fly bushy and it works better that way.  And big!  I currently tie them on size 2 or 4 hooks that are 8x long.  Don’t skip the eyes; they’re more important than you think. Bob Ganem has tested both and claims that a Shufelt Special with eyes works better by a factor of 2 to 1. Bob Shufelt heartily agreed with me; he didn’t put eyes on his early versions but added them later and feels that the fly works better with eyes. Paint eyes on this fly.

Start with a good bunch of golden pheasant crest tippets. Be sure to use your thread to smooth the tie and put a good thread base for the Mylar body that is coming up. A good trick here is to start the fly with white thread. If there is a gap in your Mylar body, black thread can be seen through the gap but white thread seems to hide the gap better. Tie the Mylar on at the head and wind it back to the tail and then wind it forward to where you tied it on. Two layers make a big difference in Mylar bodies.

The first part of the wing is yellow bucktail. Use the long hairs from the top third of the bucktail and they will flare less. The wing should be longer than the hook shank but not as long as the end of the tail. I touch some super glue to the base of the bunch of bucktail before I tie it on the hook. This allows me to tie it on more gently and not pull on the thread so hard that I flare the wing. The fly survives striped bass and togue better as well. Tie a similar bunch of red bucktail over the yellow; each wing should be the same size. My yellow bucktail wings lay close to the hook shank and I like that, the red stays on top and forms a nice silhouette. Finally, tie on a good bunch of white marabou.  Getting marabou long enough for a hook with an 8x shank is difficult, but you can find it in the fly shops if you look. Ask the owner for help.

I paint the eyes on with lacquer. Use a bodkin to put a drop of white on the side of the head. Wait a minute for the surface of the white drop to harden a bit and touch it with a small drop of black lacquer. Hang the fly allowing the eye to dry and then use head cement to finish it. The chemicals of lacquer are different than most head cements and if you put head cement over a still wet lacquer eye, the eye may never dry.

The Shufelt Special is a great streamer with a lot of uses. I’m sure that this fly would work well in Canada and I know it works well here. I’m not surprised to hear it works well in salt water as far south as Florida. It is an easy streamer to tie. You should tie it and you should fish it.