Dual Threat Sculpin

I really like sculpins - We're talking about how much Curtis likes computers, so it's kind of a big deal. It's true that they are the bottom dwelling slimy creatures that scour the bottoms of most western trout streams, but big trout love to eat them. I have played with a lot of different sculpin variations through the years, and there are two things that I have decided I like in a sculpin - they need to ride close to the bottom, and they need to have a fat head with a skinny body, tapering of course . This being said, an inverted hook, and proper material selection are critical to achieve maximum bottom hugging and tapered slithering ability. My best sculpins have been the El Sculpito and the Belly Scratcher Sculpin because they both have these characteristics of having good taper and riding low in the water column. I usually fish those flies with a slight cast upstream, dead drift for a little bit, and then start to strip once it's directly across to slightly downstream from me. Swinging them has been really good as well. After fishing these for years, I realized that I'd love a bug that looked more natural in the water on the dead drift part of my presentation. OR... Maybe make a bug that I could dead drift all the time and have it ride horizontally. Even more, I had thoughts of fishing a big nasty sculpin on the bottom of a tight line nymph rig with 2x tippet and hanging a pink squirmy wormy about 20" above it. THAT - is the definition of a filthy nymph rig. I went through lots of hooks and styles before it hit me like a ton of bricks on day while I was tying balanced damsels for high mountain lakes. I needed to tie it "balanced" style. As I searched for the proper extension pin, I realized that I could just cut a shank, lash it on there really tight, and then I'd still be able to fish it non-balanced style as well. Kind of a dual threat! If you are thoroughly confused what all this "balanced" stuff means, the video below will clear all that up.

Tips for tying - This bug really isn't super complicated at all, just a bit time consuming. Make sure to pay attention on the part of the video where the hook is lashed to the shank. If it's not done properly the shank will pull off of the hook. Also with the zonker strip, I feel that tapering the magnum strip is critical to this fly because if you don't, you will be missing out on taper and movement in the back section of the fly. Also, there have been some minor changes to the pattern that I prefer. I have been using black and orange double pupil eyes instead of yellow, and I officially upgraded to a size 2 hook for this one to increase the hook gap. The overall length of the fly is the same, just bigger gap.

Lastly... I had been battling a cold, so please forgive all the coughing in the video;)

Happy drifting with the dirty bird rig.