Since that time this little fly has been the cause of some severe dental
configuration on an abnormal amount of trout. Primarily a lake pattern
and I only say that as that is where I have spent most of the time fishing
with this little critter.
When writing this article I had to break away to do a couple of days at a
Mustad Workshop with the South Gippsland Fly Fishers. Now these guys
have a shack right on the edge of a private lake almost right in the town of
Leongatha and it was there that we conducted the workshop. As you can
imagine there was ample time to get out and cast a few flies around.
Well the bottom line is that the Scruffy caught ten of the thirteen trout
caught over the period that I was there. Of the other three trout two
were caught on gold bead-head Tom Jones by Fred Kellow and the third was
caught by Shane Mostart on a damsel fly pattern.
The rig that I used was a seven weight rod, intermediate sinking line with a
fluorocarbon leader about two and a half metres long. Two Scruffies
about a metre and a bit apart did the trick, fished slow to medium with the
odd hanging of the fly to try and catch their attention. What was
interesting is that I also caught an eel about a couple of pounds and it
fought like a monster. In fact that is what I first thought I had on;
I was told there were some very large trout in the lake and I really thought
that is what I had got into. And so did young nine-year-old Nicholas
Thorne, who was more than keen to give a hand in pulling in this brute; as a
matter of fact I don’t think I would have been able to land the beast
without his help.
So what is the attraction of Mick’s Scruffy? I would say the
chartreuse bead and a close to natural drift-type retrieve. Stick
Caddis come in many different forms; some build their cases from reed tips
to leaf or weed matter, including just about anything they want. To
get around from place to place they need to swim or use a controlled drift.
They do this by sticking their heads, legs and part of their bodies out of
their protective cover and use a sort of dog paddle swimming technique to
get around. The colour of their bodies can range from a dull yellow to
bright chartreuse. As you can imagine this activity is a bit of a giveaway
and it gives Old Speckles and many other species the opportunity of easily
identifying that piece of floating stick as a food form. Chartreuse is a
colour that for some reason is highly attractive to fish. Saltwater
flyflickers swear by it and the guys up at Bronte swear by it also.
Fished as I did at Leongatha it becomes a great working-the-water
combination. It has also produced trout that are smelting, tailing, or
simply mooching around weed beds or shallows.
SCRUFFY UPDATE
This above article was written in 2004 and since that period the scruffy has
travelled around a bit. It has worked well in a number of English waters as
well as in New Zealand.
The pattern is simple and very quick to tie; however the beads that I used to use are very difficult to get but I have found another that is so close a blind man would like to see the difference. The beads are from Maria George P/L of Melbourne, they are very cheap, around $1.50 a pack and places like Spotlight can get them for you. The code number is S/Bead 8/0 16, Code 527. The bead is almost chartreuse but has a touch more olive in the colour, which looks very effective.
MICK’S SCRUFFY
HOOK: Mustad Signature Series R50
SIZE: 12 or 10
BEAD: Maria George chartreuse bead
THREAD: Black or dark green 8/0
TAIL: A fine bunch of Black Squirrel tail fibres
BODY: An equal mix of black and olive green rabbit’s fur, ideally from a
Zonker strip and blended together
RIBBING: Optional fine green wire.
The first Mick’s Scruffy was tied during that Bronte Tie-In. After the event was over I headed back down to the lowlands to fish some private lakes which held a lot of very good fish in the five to seven pound mark. The fly was highly successful, taking a lot of great trout over the next couple of days.