Michigan Muskie Alliance

Anyone have some patterns they want to share. I'm thinking of getting back into fly fishing and I want to tie up some new flies but recipes are hard to find online. I know there are at least a couple of crazy fly fishers here so if you'd care to post some recipes and maybe a pic it'd really help me get going. Thanks

Heiting's book "Musky Mastery" has a chaper on flyfishing with George Langley. There's a pic of a few flys, streamers and bugs and a "Dahlberg Diver". The chapter suggests he mostly uses sinking streamers, stripping them in a foot at a time. Good book.

I wonder what LL Bean has, flywise. Hmmm.....they sell a whole lot of flys.

I'm thinking of trying a flyrod this year, too. I have an old Heddon Pal fly rod, 8 weight. Do you think that's heavy enough for muskies?

The general suggestion for muskies is 10wt and higher. I actually have to buy a new fly rod because mine was stolen in Dewitt 2 years ago. I was thinking of getting a 10wt rod and using 11wt line.

Jon Uhlenhop (jon@chifly.com)
Derek Burzinski (gm@wildeaglelodge.com)
wildeaglelodge.com

Jon Ulenhop was very helpful and was a wealth of knowledge on Muskie flyrods. He was tying flies at the show this year.

Capt. Geoff Kowalczyk ties Muskie flies as well and I caught my PB on one of his flies last year.

Any other info feel free to message me.

I tried out my new rod and line last night...its a st croix scIII 9' 10 wt. with a cortland Precision big fly pike/musky 10 wt line. it casts very nice, now i just have to work on weighting my flies a little better to counter their wind resistance. did you ever get any patterns???

I recall reading somewhere that tying streamers in the colors of local baitfish was a good place to start. Chubs, perch colors, silver/blue for shiners and/or bluegill, etc. I wonder if you could get free feathers for your flys from pet stores that sell birds, maybe even call ahead and the employees might save feathers all day for you. Also, maybe watch for roadkill birds, turkeys, pheasants, runaway chickens, etc.

Wrapping lead thread around the hook shanks, and then painting the thread with a few coats of nail polish in whatever color to seal it all up might help with weighting. I've done that to make suspendo twitch baits hang flat (no nose dive, no tail dive, just sits there).

Good luck!

I use my 10 wt Sage and a 10 wt Scientific Anglers Mastery 10 wt Musky line. Casts very well and I like the red color of the line. My favorite fly is the Dahlberg Diver in white with a red tail. I have tied a few of my own, but they are not as good as professionally tied ones. I have found some good looking baitfish patterns made out of craft fur on ebay. Scott

Have you seen these, JT? I don't know anything about fly-tying, I just Googled "muskie fly patterns".

http://www.hookhack.com/pikeflies.html

http://www.nkyflyfishers.org/index.php? ... &Itemid=19

http://www.lostcreekflies.com/article.php?id=2

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern4552.html

http://www.flytyer.com/index.php?option ... &Itemid=85

http://www.ehow.com/how_5545451_build-muskie-lures.html

'Musky Country: Zero2Hero' earns 'Best DVD' honor at international fly tackle dealers show
http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf ... earns.html

Talk to Jeff (EsoxFly). The guy makes fly's like crazy and is good at it! He's torturing himself right by strictly flyfishing until fall kicks in. Just saw him the other day on the water and he showed me some of his fly's in the water and I was impressed! They look so sweet in the water with the "strip and pause" technique. He's popped a good amount of fish on his flys and you can tell the guy just loves to make them!!

Here are a few pics I have on my computer. I mostly use bucktail, flash n' slinky, hackle, schlappen, and craft fur. Flash n' slinky is light, doesn't really hold water, and durable.

Those look very nice! I like the action shots of the fish too. Nice work.

awesome pics! Have you tried any of those on tubes yet? I've been expirementing with two part tube flies, so the tail section on one, and the head on another, then you can mix and match kind of thing. also it get the hook farther back.

Very nice-looking, Vito!
What weight system are you flinging those with?

Larry Porter wrote:What weight system are you flinging those with?

9 and 10 weights. I like the shorter rods for throwing big flies. Its less work. Like the Redington Predator 8'3" 9wt. Also have a 8'6" 10 wt. Usually with a 300-350 grain line.

Jim tenHaaf wrote:Those look very nice! I like the action shots of the fish too. Nice work.

Thanks. A few more photos...