Equipment Outfitters

Most South African anglers consider the Woolly Bugger to be a stillwater pattern. My confidence in this pattern as a producer of trout in stillwaters is such that I reserve an entire fly-box exclusively for Woolly Buggers in various colour and size combinations. While I suspect that the Woolly Bugger is also capable of producing some very large trout from the slower-moving pools on the lower sections of many of our rivers, I prefer fishing in the riffles, glides and runs and so cannot testify to the pattern’s effectiveness in these waters.

The Woolly Bugger is extremely versatile and can be used as both a suggestive and an attractor pattern. I fish it as a suggestive imitation in subdued tones during most of the year (alongside other great producers such as dragonfly and damselfly nymph imitations) and as a streamer pattern tied in bright colours during the winter months‘ spawning season, when trout often aggressively attack the pattern. Read the rest of this entry »

The muddler minnow, or ‘Muddler‘ as it is usually called, is justifiably famous and is used throughout theworld with great success. It has its origins on the Nipigon River — famous for its large brook trout — in Canada, where it was developed during a fishing trip by the late Don Gapen, a well-known Canadian angler whose ambition it was to catch a world-record brook trout. After clamping his vice to a boat beached on the banks of the river, Gapen set about tying flies for the following day’s fishing. Little did he know that the pattern he was about to tie would become legendary.

The q was known as Gapen’s Special Fly or simply Gapen’s Fly. Gapen tied these flies by the dozen and sold them at his fishing lodge (called the Chateau Bungalow). Because of the pattern’s incredible popularity, his friends urged him to give it a name. He decided to call the pattern the Muddler Minnow in memory of the small sculpin minnows that lived in the Wisconsin streams and rivers he fished in his boyhood. These small fish were commonly called muddler sculpins or muddler minnows by the locals, and they produced large brown trout when fished as bait. Read the rest of this entry »

How to make one:

1. Tie in two uneven strands of Flashabou halfway along the hook shank. The longer of the strands should be at least the length of the hook shank.
2. Select a marabou plume and tie it in by the butt, halfway along the hook shank.
3. Wind the plume forward in open turns, tie it off and trim the excess.
4. Tie a mallard flank or similar feather in by the butt directly in front of the marabou plume. The concave side of the feather should face the hook shank.
5. Take two or three turns of the feather around the hook shank in front of the marabou, tie off the feather and trim the excess.
6. Form a small, neat thread head, half- hitch and trim the thread. Apply head cement to the thread wraps.

The names pheasant hopper, Sparrow and Evening, Star may not mean much to most South African fly-tiersand fly-fishers, but these patterns are well known in the United States. Created by Jack Gartside, an angler whose reputation as an innovative fly-tier has spread, not because he has published any books or magazine articles but simply by word of mouth, the patterns are all extremely effective and, most importantly, are very easy to tie, making use of materials which are cheap and freely available. Read the rest of this entry »