	THE AUTOMATIC SCULPIN Courtesy of Max AKA FlashBackMax I thought I'd better give this guy a catchy name. Killer sculpin, devilfish; you know it had to sound nasty. Kinda like putting the wrong end of a lit cigarette in your mouth. Then I got thinking about how it fished. It reminded me a lot of my truck. Put it in drive and off you go. You put this guy in the water and it catches fish. Seems pretty automatic to me. There are flies that look good in hand and those that look good in the water. This guy would defiantly be the latter. Between the rubber legs and that wavy, undulating rabbit tail this thing literally comes alive when it‘s in the current. If you look at how a sculpin is built, they‘re flat and very 'aqua-diamic"(is that a word?). They sit on the bottom waiting for bits of food to sweep by. When it sees some, they zip up, seize the food, and then quickly swim back down to the bottom. Luckily for us the lead eye underneath not only gives the fly weight and keeps it swimming the right way, it also causes it to dive and dip just like the natural. Give this fly a try. It looks kind of involved but when you've tied a few and fished them you'll never fish one of those muddler things again! Materials List: Hook: You want a decent sized straight eye hook. I like them in size #4-#1. Thread: Personal preference on color, 6/0 or 3/0 Barbell: Lead eye sized to the hook. If it seems a little big, that's good, more weight isn't necessarily a bad thing. These guys live on the bottom and that's where they should be mostly fished Legs: 4 Rubber legs matched to the top of the body Under-fur: I used coyote tail. However you could use bucktail, foxtail, synthetic fiber, just about anything that's creamy white in color. Tail: Magnum Rabbit Strip(more below) Head: Sculpin wool(more below) Eyes: Black nymph beads(1/8" in this case) with the tops painted white(instructions below) TYING INSTRUCTIONS Step 1 - Clamp the hook in and wrap the first half of the shank with thread Step 2 - Tie in the lead eye. Now be careful to leave yourself room. You want it at I'd say about the 1/3 point of the shank. Step 3 - Tie in the under fur. Tie it in with the tips facing back like you're making a clouser minnow. Step 4 - Tie in the rubber legs. Place them at 90 degrees to the hook shank and use a figure 8 wrap to secure them in place. I just buy the skirting material for spinner baits. It comes in just about any color you want. For a little added pizzazz you could take a marker and draw bars on the legs. That just gives it a little more mottling and looks kind of neat Step 5 - Flip the hook over in the vise or rotate it so the hook is pointing up and tie in the rabbit strip right at the middle point of the lead eyes. You want the length of the rabbit fur to be a little less than twice the length of the hook. Be careful trimming it. Look when you do because trimming the strip and the length of the hair on the strip are two different things. Give yourself some leeway and trim it long. Then you can work it down. Measure twice, cut twice…er something. NOTES Flip the hook over in the vise or rotate it so the hook is pointing up and tie in the rabbit strip right at the middle point of the lead eyes. You want the length of the rabbit fur to be a little less than twice the length of the hook. Be careful trimming it. Look when you do because trimming the strip and the length of the hair on the strip are two different things. Give yourself some leeway and trim it long. Then you can work it down. Measure twice, cut twice…er something. When selecting colors for the rabbit strip think of the natural. I like the lighter colored strips cause they have a white hide. This is of course the same as the belly of the sculpin. If you can find cream white magnum strips buy them. Then get yourself a bunch of sharpie or chart markers. They come in all sorts of colors and you can get some really cool patterns. Hareline dubbin stocks a bunch of natural colors The pattern pictured is my favorite for around my area(central upstate, NY). It also worked very well for me in AK. It has also worked well for some people I've given them to that live there. An all black one works well during high water. The dark shadow helps the fish to see it better against the stained water. But just experiment, I'd love to see what you guys come up with. Something I forgot to do when taking the pictures was to cut the rabbit strip off at a point on the rear. You don't have to do it. However it gives a more tapered look to the tail. Step 6 - Take the fly out of the vice and prick the hook through the rabbit strip so that it comes through. Give yourself a little slack with the strip when you poke it through. Step 7 - This isn't really a step but it helps keep things out of the way. Grab a piece of copper wire, string, thread, whatever and tie the rubber legs and the under fur up out of the way. They often can become a problem trying to tie the wool in. Step 8 & Step 9 - Now I know this looks like a mess, however trust me. There are only two pencil sized pieces of wool on that head. If you've never used the stuff for flies it is really great. It's ten times easier to use than deer hair ever though it could be. Hold your piece on the hook, take two or three good wraps, then take a couple of tight wraps. Then pull up the wool and wrap a couple times under it to get a good hold back on the hook. Then just tie in the second clump just the same. You can shove and spread it around once your done to some extent to get it to go exactly where you want it. The tying parts are done. Whip-finish the fly off and give it a little shot of head cement. Step 10 - Pull the fly out of the vice and imagine how you want this gob of wool to look when you're done. What you want is a nice smooth delta shaped head that pokes up slightly higher on top(top being the opposite side from where the legs are tied). When you figure out exactly how you want it go ahead and clip it. See pictures 10a 10b 10c Step 11 - Trim the rubber legs to size. I usually like them so they extend to just beyond the bend of the hook when they‘re pulled back. However you can make them any size you want. Step 12 - Now here's the reason I like tying with light colors. I just gave the top of this guy a marker bath. You have total freedom to make them however you want. Make them brown and then put a bunch of black lines on top. Make them olive black. Make them any color you want. It's that easy. However the bottom stays nice and light just like the natural Step 13 - Now it's time to add the eyes. I use fletch-tite to put the eyes on. It's the best stuff you can buy for this and for regular stick on reflective eyes. It soaks into the wool a little bit and then dries like a rubber rock. That's the only way I can describe it. They're nice and flexible, but you'd half rip the fly apart to get them back off. First look at your beads. They have one hole drilled in them that's bigger than the other. You want that bigger hole to stick out. When you've got them sited, you need to decide where you want the eyes placed on the fly. A sculpins eyes are situated on top of it's head. Try to imitate that. You can use Google to look at pictures of them and get the eyes just so. When you're sure where you want them use the nozzle of the fletch-tite and put down a pretty good drop, don't go overboard, but use enough to not let the wool soak it all up. Step 14 - Wait a couple of seconds and stick the beads, big hole out onto the glue spots. Wait another few seconds and press down firmly driving the beads down into the wool. This also moves some of the glue up into the holes of the beads. Step 15 - Let the glue dry for a while then grab a finishing nail that's a little bigger than the diameter of the bead. Dip the head of the nail into some white, yellow, olive, or red acrylic paint. Gently touch the head of the nail onto the bead being careful not to get any of it on the wool. Don't panic when the paint covers the bead hole. It's just a bubble. Take the other end of the nail and pop it. Paint the other bead and the fly is done. BOTTOM VIEW FRONT VIEW MOUTH VIEW REAR VIEW I'd love to see how you guys do with this fly. Send me a PM or e-mail. Tutorial Courtesy of Max AKA FlashBackMax

THE AUTOMATIC SCULPIN

Courtesy of Max

AKA

FlashBackMax

I thought I'd better give this guy a catchy name. Killer sculpin, devilfish; you know it had to sound nasty. Kinda like putting the wrong end of a lit cigarette in your mouth. Then I got thinking about how it fished. It reminded me a lot of my truck. Put it in drive and off you go. You put this guy in the water and it catches fish. Seems pretty automatic to me.

There are flies that look good in hand and those that look good in the water. This guy would defiantly be the latter. Between the rubber legs and that wavy, undulating rabbit tail this thing literally comes alive when it‘s in the current. If you look at how a sculpin is built, they‘re flat and very 'aqua-diamic"(is that a word?). They sit on the bottom waiting for bits of food to sweep by. When it sees some, they zip up, seize the food, and then quickly swim back down to the bottom. Luckily for us the lead eye underneath not only gives the fly weight and keeps it swimming the right way, it also causes it to dive and dip just like the natural. Give this fly a try. It looks kind of involved but when you've tied a few and fished them you'll never fish one of those muddler things again!

Materials List:

Hook: You want a decent sized straight eye hook. I like them in size #4-#1.

Thread: Personal preference on color, 6/0 or 3/0

Barbell: Lead eye sized to the hook. If it seems a little big, that's good, more weight isn't necessarily a bad thing. These guys live on the bottom and that's where they should be mostly fished

Legs: 4 Rubber legs matched to the top of the body

Under-fur: I used coyote tail. However you could use bucktail, foxtail, synthetic fiber, just about anything that's creamy white in color.

Tail: Magnum Rabbit Strip(more below)

Head: Sculpin wool(more below)

Eyes: Black nymph beads(1/8" in this case) with the tops painted white(instructions below)

TYING INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1 - Clamp the hook in and wrap the first half of the shank with thread

Step 2 - Tie in the lead eye. Now be careful to leave yourself room. You want it at I'd say about the 1/3 point of the shank.

Step 3 - Tie in the under fur. Tie it in with the tips facing back like you're making a clouser minnow.

Step 4 - Tie in the rubber legs. Place them at 90 degrees to the hook shank and use a figure 8 wrap to secure them in place. I just buy the skirting material for spinner baits. It comes in just about any color you want. For a little added pizzazz you could take a marker and draw bars on the legs. That just gives it a little more mottling and looks kind of neat

Step 5 - Flip the hook over in the vise or rotate it so the hook is pointing up and tie in the rabbit strip right at the middle point of the lead eyes. You want the length of the rabbit fur to be a little less than twice the length of the hook. Be careful trimming it. Look when you do because trimming the strip and the length of the hair on the strip are two different things. Give yourself some leeway and trim it long. Then you can work it down. Measure twice, cut twice…er something.

NOTES

Flip the hook over in the vise or rotate it so the hook is pointing up and tie in the rabbit strip right at the middle point of the lead eyes. You want the length of the rabbit fur to be a little less than twice the length of the hook. Be careful trimming it. Look when you do because trimming the strip and the length of the hair on the strip are two different things. Give yourself some leeway and trim it long. Then you can work it down. Measure twice, cut twice…er something.

When selecting colors for the rabbit strip think of the natural. I like the lighter colored strips cause they have a white hide. This is of course the same as the belly of the sculpin. If you can find cream white magnum strips buy them. Then get yourself a bunch of sharpie or chart markers. They come in all sorts of colors and you can get some really cool patterns. Hareline dubbin stocks a bunch of natural colors The pattern pictured is my favorite for around my area(central upstate, NY). It also worked very well for me in AK. It has also worked well for some people I've given them to that live there. An all black one works well during high water. The dark shadow helps the fish to see it better against the stained water. But just experiment, I'd love to see what you guys come up with.

Something I forgot to do when taking the pictures was to cut the rabbit strip off at a point
on the rear. You don't have to do it. However it gives a more tapered look to the tail.

Step 6 - Take the fly out of the vice and prick the hook through the rabbit strip so that it comes through. Give yourself a little slack with the strip when you poke it through.

Step 7 - This isn't really a step but it helps keep things out of the way. Grab a piece of copper wire, string, thread, whatever and tie the rubber legs and the under fur up out of the way. They often can become a problem trying to tie the wool in.

Step 8 & Step 9 - Now I know this looks like a mess, however trust me. There are only two pencil sized pieces of wool on that head. If you've never used the stuff for flies it is really great. It's ten times easier to use than deer hair ever though it could be. Hold your piece on the hook, take two or three good wraps, then take a couple of tight wraps. Then pull up the wool and wrap a couple times under it to get a good hold back on the hook. Then just tie in the second clump just the same. You can shove and spread it around once your done to some extent to get it to go exactly where you want it.

The tying parts are done. Whip-finish the fly off and give it a little shot of head cement.

Step 10 - Pull the fly out of the vice and imagine how you want this gob of wool to look when you're done. What you want is a nice smooth delta shaped head that pokes up slightly higher on top(top being the opposite side from where the legs are tied). When you figure out exactly how you want it go ahead and clip it.

See pictures 10a 10b 10c

Step 11 - Trim the rubber legs to size. I usually like them so they extend to just beyond the bend of the hook when they‘re pulled back. However you can make them any size you want.

Step 12 - Now here's the reason I like tying with light colors. I just gave the top of this guy a marker bath. You have total freedom to make them however you want. Make them brown and then put a bunch of black lines on top. Make them olive black. Make them any color you want. It's that easy. However the bottom stays nice and light just like the natural

Step 13 - Now it's time to add the eyes. I use fletch-tite to put the eyes on. It's the best stuff you can buy for this and for regular stick on reflective eyes. It soaks into the wool a little bit and then dries like a rubber rock. That's the only way I can describe it. They're nice and flexible, but you'd half rip the fly apart to get them back off.

First look at your beads. They have one hole drilled in them that's bigger than the other. You want that bigger hole to stick out. When you've got them sited, you need to decide where you want the eyes placed on the fly. A sculpins eyes are situated on top of it's head. Try to imitate that. You can use Google to look at pictures of them and get the eyes just so. When you're sure where you want them use the nozzle of the fletch-tite and put down a pretty good drop, don't go overboard, but use enough to not let the wool soak it all up.

Step 14 - Wait a couple of seconds and stick the beads, big hole out onto the glue spots. Wait another few seconds and press down firmly driving the beads down into the wool. This also moves some of the glue up into the holes of the beads.

Step 15 - Let the glue dry for a while then grab a finishing nail that's a little bigger than the diameter of the bead. Dip the head of the nail into some white, yellow, olive, or red acrylic paint. Gently touch the head of the nail onto the bead being careful not to get any of it on the wool. Don't panic when the paint covers the bead hole. It's just a bubble. Take the other end of the nail and pop it. Paint the other bead and the fly is done.

BOTTOM VIEW

FRONT VIEW

MOUTH VIEW

REAR VIEW

I'd love to see how you guys do with this fly. Send me a PM or e-mail.

Courtesy of Max

AKA

FlashBackMax

Tutorial Courtesy of Max

AKA

FlashBackMax