Outdoors
The BDN outdoors section brings readers into the woods, waters and wild places of Maine. It features stories on hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation and recreation, told by people who live these experiences. This section emphasizes hands-on knowledge, field reports, issues, trends and the traditions that define life outside in Maine. Read more Outdoors stories here.
A few years back, Larry Keef and I did a fly-in trout fishing weekend to one of his favorite remote ponds. It was my first visit to this particular trout water. We hadn’t been on the pond five minutes when my fishing partner began having some luck. In fact, it was more than “some luck.” He was hooking trout on the surface one right after another.
He must have been holding his mouth right. Thirty minutes went by. Bang, bang, bang for him; crickets for me. I tried an assortment of dries, even a Parachute Adams. Nothing, nada.
“Say, Larry,” I said casually. “Whatcha got on there, bud?”
“Oh, I dunno,” he shrugged. “Just some little tattered old muddler thing, I think.”
“Show me,” I insisted.
It was a grayish-brown muddler loaded with deer hair. It didn’t look very tattered to me.
“Huh,” I said. “You got any more of those?” I asked with a slight supplication in my tone.
“Yeah, I got a bunch of ’em here in my vest,” he said, pointing to a vest pocket.
Like a dog begging for a bone, I said softly, “Can I try one?”
“Cost you five bucks,” he offered with a smirk.
You guessed it. After he let me squirm a minute or so, he dug out a couple of muddlers and handed them over. They worked for me as well as they worked for him. From that moment on, he was no longer Larry, at least not to me. I call him “Muddler Man.”
All of us who trout fish with artificial flies have our favorites, our so-called go-to flies. What are yours?
A recent survey by the Northwoods Sporting Journal of a dozen seasoned Maine trout fishermen produced some common denominators worth mentioning.
The top three dry flies were Hornberg, Muddler and Parachute Adams. The top three wet flies that got the nod were Black Ghost, Mickey Finn and Hornberg.
Several anglers said they fish both the Muddler and the Hornberg either wet or dry, depending on conditions.
There were also a couple of wild cards in the fly lineup that I had never heard of. Surprisingly, one very effective wet fly got only one mention: the Maple Syrup, which was late Millinocket guide Wiggie Robinson’s everyday go-to fly.
Bob Mallard, who has literally written books on trout fishing, cites the “Killer Emerger” as his favorite wet fly, though he would not reveal a photo of it. Tim Pond Camps touts the “Tim Fly” as a favorite dry fly.
What’s the takeaway? Next trout trip, make sure your fly wallet includes Hornbergs, Muddlers and Adams in various sizes. For good measure, throw in a Mickey Finn, a Black Ghost and some Maple Syrups tied by Patten fly tier Alvin Terriault.
Come June, when the hatch is on, I can’t wait to tie on a promising creation given to me at the Orono Sportsman’s Show by a member of the Penobscot Fly Fishers. He calls it the Trout Muddler.