Klinkhammer Scud

This is a fairly easy scud pattern for winter trout fishing. Trout eat lots of scuds throughout the year, especially on tailwaters like the Muskegon and Manistee. Kileys Scud Skins give this fly a very convincing profile, as well as making it more durable. Here's a step by step to tie this killer bug. 

MATERIALS:
(+) add to cart

Scud Dub - Grey Olive (+)
Kiley's Scud Skin - sz 14 (+)
Daichii 1167 - sz 14 (+)
Ultra Fine Silver Wire (+)
Veevus 6/0 Fl. Orange (+)

--> ADD ALL TO CART <--

Other stuff:
Pabst
Dubbing spinner (+)
Bodkin (+)
Hackle Pliers (+)

Start by wrapping a thread base, and laying the wire down the backside of the hook, well into the bend. 

Then form a dubbing loop, about 4 inches long. Use quite a bit of dubbing, as a lot of it will be picked out later. 

Once you've got the loop ready to go, a pair of hackle pliers is helpful. Clamp it onto the dubbing loop, and palmer it all the way to the eye of the hook. It's going to look messy but it's all good. 

This is the tricky part. We are now going to "tent" the scud skin on the topside of the hook, and run the wire though the notches to form our segmentation. It's difficult to catch the first notch, but once you do, it's not bad. It's also good to wet your fingers and comb the dubbing downwards. 

You'll also notice the scud skin is asymmetrical. You want the wider side to be at the rear of the hook. Should end up with something like this:

Tie off the wire, whip finish the thread, take a bodkin and tease out the dubbing in between the wire wraps.  

Scud dub is fairly long, so go nuts. You will probably lose some fibers, but if your dubbing loop was tight you should be fine.

Now all you have to do is trim the dubbing to get a decent profile. Cut at an angle running from the hook point to the eye.

That's it. Hardest part is running that wire through the shellback. Once you do it a few times, it gets easier. It creates a great silhouette, so I can justify the tedious effort, especially for use in the winter when the water is often gin clear and cold. If you want to put mallard flank off the back and front, knock yourself out. This pattern has served us well.