Silver Muddler

June has been a tough month so far with the trout firmly on the bottom, gorging on coarse fry. It used to be just baby perch they feasted on but these days it is the hoards of roach fry which keep the fish from showing on the surface. Dry fly anglers may not like to hear this, but using a sinking line and a reasonable representation of small fry will tempt the occasional fish, and for that job I like to use a basic muddler pattern.

Why a muddler you might ask? I like the outline with a large head which looks very like the wee fry to me. A silver dabbler, silver invicta or many other silver/pearl body patterns do work too, but this muddler has been a reliable fly for me, so here is how I dress it.

Hook choice is dependant on how big the natural fry are. At the smaller end of the scale I have tied it on a normal shank size 12, then I go all the way up to a size 6 long shank. For tying silk I use brown 6/0, but black will do at a pinch. Start the tying silk far back from the eye so you are leaving the bare metal of the hook exposed. Tie in a tail made from a length of GloBrite no.4 yarn or floss. The body is flat silver tinsel ribbed with fine oval silver tinsel, wound in the normal fashion. A wing of dark brown squirrel hair is tied in around the hook and I like this to be long, extending well past the bend of the hook. Sometimes I add a few fibres of bronze mallard to the wing too. Now spin two bunches of deer hair and trim the head to a taper before whip finishing and adding a drop of varnish.

Some strands of pearl krystal flash can be added to the wing if you want to give it some bling, but I think the important factors with this pattern when fishing it are the size of the fly and the depth you fish it at. I see a lot of anglers using various sink tip lines and they do well with them, but I like a full sinker when after fry feeders (unless I see them chasing fry near the surface).