Sculpin / Baitfish patterns - preferred materials?

[earlsmith]

Anyone have any suggestions and comments about these patterns and what you would tie the head portion with, Elk hair vs wool? Is the choice based on the sinking properties of the material?? And while we are on the subject, any thoughts on what trout are more apt to takwe this fly ( Dolllies and Browns ? )
Respectfully

Earl

[Ringlee]

I use wool or glo bug yarn to tie sculpins. I like how you can trim the head just how you want it to look. It is also really easy. I am ok at spinning deer hair but the disadvantage with tying them on sculpins is the hair tend to float. I like my sculpins deep.
As for fish you name it and it will probably eat a sculpin. I have caught steelhead, Dollies, rainbows and even a grayling on a sculpin pattern.
They are also a great pattern in saltwater for SRC's.
Hope this helps
Chris
P.S. I am in a sculpin swap right now and hoepfully some pictures of the swap get put up on the board.

[crobarr]

depends on: where your going to fish it -fast or slow water, what your going to fish it with- floating line or sinking/sink tip and rod weight, what you the tyer/fish finds appealing- if it doesn't look good to you, then you will have no confidence.

i like wool head sculpins because they look better to me. i fish a 7 or 8 wt. rod with them with either tips or full sinking line. sometimes with brass eyes or cones. my flies are big, bulky and hold alot of water. they would probably snap a 5 wt. in half when trying to cast 1. i use them to catch browns and bass.

i'm no expert, except at combing my hair and that seems to be abandoning me now, so take my ramblings as you will. ;)

[cabezon]

Because wool absorbs water, a woolhead sculpin or baitfish tends to sink under the weight of negatively bouyant hook + materials. That can be the effect that you want, especially if you are using a floating flyline. Of course, if it sinks too much, it may get hung up on the bottom, unless you weight it so that the hook rides up or you use a hook guard of some type.

The hollow core of deer/elk hair traps air and adds flotation to a fly. If you fish it with a floating line, it will stay at the surface and act like a slider/popper. Interestingly, if you fish it with a sinking line or a sink tip, the fly will float off the bottom. This can be a very effective method of fishing near, but not on, the bottom, especially if the fly is just off the tops of submerged weeds.

Short answer. Wool vs. elk/deer hair depends on how you intend to fish. Both present opportunities for creativity and fun. I started out with deerhair because I wanted to tie deerhair poppers for bass; because bass often aren't as picky for exact imitations, you can go a bit wilder with patterns and colors. After becoming comfortable with spinning and trimming deerhair, I moved on to wool. Buy a patch of brown, dark olive, white, and black in each material and you'll have a great place to start. Of course, I'm a packrat for materials - just gotta have more stuff...

Sculpins/baitfish/wooly buggers are great searching patterns when you're prospecting for trout or targetting larger individuals. Large trout of any species tend to be piscivorous if given the opportunity. Some species, like bull trout and browns, are especially noted for specializing on ambushing other fishes. But brookies, rainbows, and cutties (especially in the salt) will all take a shot at such a big bundle of protein as represented in a baitfish or sculpin. I have heard (no personal success) that steelhead muddlers can be quite effective when fished either at the surface or on a sink-tip line for summer steelies. After all, which would you rather eat, some tiny BWO or a fat sculpin?

Steve

[earlsmith]

Thank ypu all for your input, I have Never tied with wool, so any advice in that arena in terms of buidling the sculpin head and shaping it would be appreciated, and I think my beard trimmer is gonna live with my fly tying stuff for awhile LOL

[ibn]

Though not a sculpin pattern, I use olive rabbit strip clousers for areas where I know there are a lot of sculpin, they seem to work just fine.

[chadk]

Though not a sculpin pattern, I use olive rabbit strip clousers for areas where I know there are a lot of sculpin, they seem to work just fine.


I like that approach too. Olive rabbit strip leech with lots of wiggle and a stinger hook. Dumbell eyes (or heavy bead or conehead) to keep it deep. Those sculpins tend to hug bottom and dart around pretty fast. So I try to fish them that way. Fishing them on the swing works well too in rivers - pause for several seconds as it dangles down stream. :thumb:

Oh, you can do some simple things with colors to get that bigger head and prodruding fin look.

Smallies and large mouth love them as well as browns, bows, cutties, steelies, bulls, ... you get the idea :beer2:

[Willie Bodger]

I have used wool and deer hair. I have tied them as flatwing streamers and muddler like flies, but I have done best with simple rabbit strip flies. A strip and then crosscut palmered up around the eyes. I think general shape and coloration is what you are looking for with these type of flies, so if you can make a big looking head and then taper toward the tail...

Willie

[Dan Soltau]

Hey, I am sure all of you kow my veiws on wool vs. deer hair, I prefer deer hair if you didnt know. Wool holds to much water, it is a nuetral density material, a pain in the ass to cast, not much fun to tie wuth. DEER hair is where it is at in my book. Here is some patterns. It is true that deer hair floats, but will sink much faster than wool with the same amount of weight, it is lighter, doesnt abosorb water, easy to cast, better diving action, gives the look of a scu;in try ing to right itself in the current, shapes better than wool, more fun to work with... I could go on and on. I would post pictures but this site doesnt like my new computer and how stores images as i cant post them or insert them into a post. It keeps telling me there is a prolem with the washington fly fishing database? chris? Thanks