In the late 1880′s a Bavarian immigrant to America tied a fly because worsening arthritis meant that he could no longer collect live minnows for bait. The fly was a Muddler Minnow and its variants are as relevant today as when it was first tied. Whilst the original and many of the variants continue to be great bait fish imitations many of the variants also have other applications. My variant works well as a hopper imitation and carp imitation when dressed in natural with a yellow tail and works well as a mudeye when dressed in black / dark brown with a red tail.

In the late 1880′s a Bavarian immigrant to America tied the for runner of  fly because worsening arthritis meant that he could no longer collect live minnows for bait. The fly and its variants is a relevant today as it was then and whilst it remains a great bait fish imitation in natural colours it is a great grass hoppers imitation and dressed in black it is a good dusk and dawn fly used to represent crickets, mudeyes and other trout fare.

The original has a folded turkey feather slip as a tail and wing whereas this marabou mudler has a marabou tail and wing giving it much more movement in the water.

Materials

Process

A	Starting at the 2/3 position wind the thread to the bend of the hook and return the thread to the 2/3 position. Tie in a bunch of marabou at the 2/3 position and lock it in along the top of the hook shank with turns of thread leaving about the same length as the lent of the hook sticking out the back as a tail. Tie in a length of copper wire and a length of holographic tinsel. Take the thread forward to the 2/3 position.

B	Wind the tinsel forward in touching turns to the 2/3 position. Tie the tinsel off and trim the excess. Wind the wire forward to the 2/3 position forming 5 or 6 body segments. Body segments on flies Tie the wire off and worry off the excess.

C	Tie in a wing of marabou with the tips sitting directly above the tip of the tails.

D	Tie in a collar of deer hair. In lighter versions its nice to make this a contrasting colours in the black version all the deer hair is black. Spinning deer hair Spin the collar creating a uniform collar around the fly at the 2/3 position.

E	Tie a number of bunches of deer hair in front of the collar spinning each bunch as it is tied in. Whip finish in front of the spun deer hair and add a few drops of head cement to the whip finish to ensure it wont come undone. Whip finishing with a biro

F	Trim the spun deer hair in front of the collar forming a neet deer hair head.