One of my go-to flies in the winter is a simple Scud fly. With fewer eggs in the drift and nearly all hatches done, the scud is an important food source at spring creeks and tailwaters. There have been winter outings when I find trout with big bellies that are jammed full with scuds.
I like the simple version shown in the video up top, but modify it to incorporate materials I already have. For example, I don’t have possum fur, but I find that squirrel works just as well. I don’t have mottled Thin Skin, but I do have the clear version and just use a Sharpie to darken it. I experiment with different colored hot spots.
My other tweaks? I don’t use the gold wire and instead use some mono tippet, as I don’t want too much shine. I also tie it small, in sizes 18 and 20.
Such a fly duped an 18″ rainbow. As they say, elephants eat peanuts.
So, give the Scud a whirl and add it to your winter fly box. Team it with a larger anchor fly, and, if cleanly drifted along the bottom, should elicit some takes.
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Love those scuds. I use a strip of plastic sandwich bag for the scud back and put some Sally Hansen's on it to give it a shell like quality.
I like it!
It looks real good, especially when segmented with 5X mono then Velcro out the fibers underneath for legs. It is a very good sub surface fly.
I usually pair it with a weighted fly. Do you fish it solo? I've always wondered how it would do "freestyle" on its own.
I have always fished it on its own, and done pretty well with it. Most times with a small split shot to get it down.