My Version of the Mop Fly

Tom Rosenbauer coined the phrase “slutty flies” on one of his Orvis podcasts. He also has been posting on Instagram with it as a hashtag. I think it’s pretty funny.

Otherwise known as “junk” flies, these are flies that some consider non-traditional. A few won’t fish them.

As I’ve written before, I will not fish a pellet fly. It isn’t something for me. (I also fish only flies that I’ve made.) But, I will fish Squirmies, eggs and Mops when other flies aren’t working.

Noel wrote a fantastic blog post on the Mop a bit ago (here), and it has generated a huge number of hits. There’s so much great information in that one blog post.

I have different Mop fly colors and tie them both with weight and without, as Noel suggested. One version I tie is cream-colored, with a thorax of black UV ice dub in a dubbing loop and a chartreuse thread collar. I pick at the ice dub to make it spiky.

Some days the Mops don’t work for me. But, there have been a few outings when those flies are the only producers. Floated up top or below the surface, these flies offer seductive movement to trout.

Whether they’re junk, slutty or non-starters, that is up to the angler to decide. But, these flies can work and work well.

 

#sluttyflies (hashtag cred.: @rosenbauert) #orvis #barbless #flytying #euronymphing #cantstopthemop

A post shared by BlogFlyFish (@blogflyfish) on

1,112 views

4 thoughts on “My Version of the Mop Fly

  1. Not sure what all the hate on mop-flies is for… I mean, in technicality all they are, are a funky streamer pattern. Like Steve said, it could be used as a hellgrammite imitation this thing probably would slay fish, from trout to smallies!
    Love the jig-hooks on these, they give the fly a meal-wormy movement in the water.

    1. I’ve been digging into crane flies a fair amount lately and have gotten it stuck in my head that mop flies are likely imitating crane fly larvae. These are ubiquitous on all the rivers I fish.

Leave a Reply to Michael Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *