Thoughts on a killer patter February 21 2024, 0 Comments

Anyone ever fished in a lake full of scuds and the trout are keyed in on them? I have, and it can be tough to stand out from the millions swimming about in the water. With that in mind, here's a pattern I've come up with to accomplish three things:

- Create a largely imitative pattern

- Stand out from the naturals

- Provide numerous feeding triggers

Most prominently, we've got an orange glass bead to indicate an egg sack, something that trout often choose over scuds without eggs. We've included rubber "legs" at the front and back of the fly for extra movement and because I have a thing for rubber legs... The dubbing is a blend of three of the most common colours we see scuds in locally (choose your own as appropriate) and some added UV ice dubbing for extra visibility. Note that scuds will adapt their colour to that of their environment. An exact match makes it much harder for the trout to find your pattern, so don't drive yourself crazy with colour - near enough is good enough.

The final two points are a pearl strip for a little flash, and a strip of orange stretch floss running the length of the body. This extra orange strip probably isn't necessary, but probably doesn't hurt either. Scuds often carry parasites that cause the digestive track to appear orange. This gives the scud away to the trout (the parasite's definitive host), and in turn the trout look for this orange when searching out scuds. Here's the "final" product.

We haven't had the chance to take this for a test drive, but we're already looking forward to lake season! We'd love to hear your thoughts on this pattern, or if you have any questions on how to make it yourself. If so, please leave a comment, visit us at Facebook or email us at info@twiggnbarry.com.