Grey Ghost

My rendition of the Grey Ghost… reckon this will be a fine streamer anywhere there is smelt.  I made a few artistic liberties to the original pattern; and, gave it more orange since anadromous fish here seem to like that color.

Grey Ghost
Hook:  Size 2 Mustad 79580
Thread:  6/0 Black
Tag:  Oval silver tinsel
Body:  Orange floss
Ribbing:  Oval silver tinsel
Underwing:  White bucktail, 6 strands peacock herl
Wing:  2 grizzly saddles, 2 white saddles
Shoulder:  Barred wood duck
                (original tie uses silver pheasant)
Eye:  Golden pheasant tippet, stripped down to size
         (original tie uses jungle cock eyes)
Gills:  Hot orange thread
Note:  This is a classic landlocked atlantic salmon fly in Northeastern US.  But, I could see surf casting it with a spey rod and shooting line on Lake Superior during the spring staging period.  Trolling it deep behind a float tube for trophy trout may have potential on inland lakes.


Here's a nice video on how to tie the original:

Thinking and Tying Brook Trout Streamers

From the archives… a 14" NE Minnesota brookie.

My biggest brook trout have always come on streamers.  Specifically olive and black woolly buggers. I'll admit, I never really gave "traditional" wets/streamers a chance for brookies.  I have just habitually tied on a size 8 woolly bugger, cast upstream and across, and stripped it back.  It works.  There really has been no reason to change it.

However, as I get older (it must be the calendar), I am beginning more and more to appreciate the traditions embedded in the sport of fly-fishing.  Sure, innovation has its place and needs to occur to advance the sport.  And, I'm all for that.  But, there is something pretty cool also about catching fish on flies that have been around for awhile and still work.

This recent bout of fly tying once again sources back to some spruce grouse I shot this past fall.  I am a fan of their feathers for fly tying, especially the hens.  And, am always thinking of patterns to tie with them.  Then, I remembered the good old fly the "Spruce".  What better material to use to tie a "Spruce" than Spruce Grouse feathers.  That's when thinking and tying brook trout streamers all started for me, with three variants of the "Spruce" tied as Size 10 wet flies.

The Spruce (naked; with spruce grouse soft-hackle)

Dark Spruce (furnace hackle wing - Spruce Grouse soft-hackle)

Dark Spruce (Red Squirrel hairwing - Spruce Grouse soft-hackle)

A time-honored classic… the Royal Coachman.

Royal Coachman (Kip tail hairwing - Spruce Grouse soft-hackle)

The Pass Lake…. this fly gets a lot of props here in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  

Pass Lake (Kip tail hairwing - Ruffed Grouse soft-hackle and tail)

Click here to view some waaay cool classic wet fly patterns.

Winter's Day Angling the Driftless