On my way home from Newark I stopped in the rest stop on the Turnpike in Woodbridge. The gazebo and information stanchion caught my eye so I went over. Its nice how the public treats the Woodbridge Creek mitigation zone, garbage everywhere, stickers on things, and broken tails. But as I read I looked at the fishes that live in the marches, and one jumped out.....mumichogs. Now every
kid that has went fluke or snapper fishing has lugged around a bucket full of these, collectible;y known as killies. They are great for bait, not only tasty I am sure, but they survive in tough conditions, like a pail on the dock in hot weather. Well some of the rivers I am going to explore this year, remember,
for me, its the "Year of the River", are loaded with these and I must come up with a fly to imitate one. Yes, a Clouser would work, and I might to that, but I need to tie up a 3-5 inch fly that is small, kinda yellow to gray to brown, dark to light, and a little chunky compared to its length. So I went home and grabbed some material and went to well, try. I think this works best for me, throw some material on a hook, see what works and doesn't and improve from there. Well I did just that. Now if you have a few beers and look at it and away really quickly you may be fooled that this is a killie imitation, but
maybe not. Dumbell eyes to get down, gonna loose those, deer belly hair for the front, maybe, and the mix of stuff in the back, gonna try a different approach. After I marveled at the mess I went online and snooped around for a pattern. I Don't know NMurray on Stripers Online, but I like the pattern he came up with and post about over 10 years ago. I think his looks a little better. More to come. Match the hatch.
