Tato Scud

Tied by Gary Meier

Ingredients:

Hook: Your favorite heavy scud hook Size 12 -16

Thread: Orange waxed monocord

Tail, Shell, and Antennae: Pearl Crystal Flash

Body:   Mixture of ginger colored Corgi undercoat and reddish orange guard hair, LaFontaine #24 orange antron, and Ligas orange scud dubbing.

Rib: 4 lb. test Stren Mono

Weight: .015 diameter non-lead wire

Tying Instructions;

Pinch down barb on hook and fix hook in tying vise.  Attach thread and wind down hook to a point 2/3 of the way down the bend.  Wind back to the “straightest” top part of the hook and attach your weighting wire (If you want the weight).  Spiral on 10 or 12 tight turns of the wire, tie off and wind the thread back over the wire and back down the bend to the end point.  Attach a hank of Crystal Flash sufficient to make a substantial tail (I never count the strands, I just do the “Goldilocks eyeball” i.e. what I think is not too chunky, not too sparse, but just right!) at the end point.  Make the tail approximately the length of the hook.  Pull Crystal Flash back out of the way, and tie in a length of mono at the same point.  Wind back to the end point and dub a medium tight body.  Wrap fat scud body to within two hook eyes of the hook eye and tie off.  Twist Crystal Flash into a rope, pull over top of scud body, ala the Black Wet Fly, and tie off.  Spiral mono the opposite direction of your thread wraps up the body firmly securing the Crystal Flash “shell” in 3 or 4 places, tie off, and clip excess mono.  Wind thread in front of Crystal Flash hank, form head and whip finish.  Clip Crystal Flash to leave antennae approximately 1/3 of body length.  Pick out the body dubbing to form legs.  Clip legs to just longer than the hook gap.

Notes:

I have field tested this little guy and it outfished the plain orange scud with just a plastic bag shell back 10 to 1.  It has been absolutely deadly on Trout Run over the 04 season.  For those who don’t have access to a red Corgi, I’d be happy to supply some “brushings”.  Orange tabby fur is a pretty fair substitution, but it lacks the stiffer guard hairs that I think make the Tato Scud look buggier.  By the way, Tato is my red Corgi’s nickname.  I recommend the breed as well as the fly!  Very nice little guy whose coat provides fly tying material.  What more could you want in a dog?!  One final note: Picking out the legs is the most time consuming aspect of tying the fly.  Those of you who excel at using the dubbing loop may wish to give that a try.  My experience with using the dubbing loop is that it results in making it easier to create the legs, but the rest of the body needs to be trimmed and isn’t as neat even when that is done - don’t know if the trout notice or care about the difference.  Guess I should field test that too.

Gary “Grizzled Veteran” Meier