Scud Fly Tying Instructions

Scud patterns are easy to tie and extremely effective flies on most tailwater fisheries. They provide a protein-packed meal for fish to key in on all year long. They can be tied in a psychedelic array of colors, ranging from pink and violet to hot orange and chartreuse, and their extra weight will get them to the bottom of the river quickly.

  1. Initial Steps

    • Place your size 10-4 scud hook in a vise and wrap a lead wire base along the top two-thirds of the hook. Using between six and 14 wraps of lead wire will increase the weight of the fly as well as add thickness to it. Tie on your 70 denier thread, color to match body, and wrap it several times around the lead wire to lock it down. Leave your thread just behind the wire, over the hook barb, in anticipation of the next step.

    Adding a Tail

    • Tie in a piece of Krystal Flash or a couple of hackle barbs in the color to match the body for a tail and trim to equal the length of the body of the fly. Tie in a small piece of gold wire to be used as the ribbing, on top of which you should tie a piece of transparent nymph skin in the color of the body. Before you tie in the nymph skin, trim the end you intend to tie in to a point in order to avoid excessive thread wraps. With your wire wrapped, and your tail, ribbing and shell back all tied in, you are now ready to tie the body and finish the fly.

    Tying the Body

    • Add a small amount of dubbing wax to your thread and twist your dubbing on. There are several different varieties of scud dubbing in many colors available, in addition to which Antron and Hare's Ear dubbing is also preferable for this application. After you've made a dubbing strand onto your thread, wrap it forward to create a body that tapers in each direction, with its thickest portion in the middle. Finish wrapping your dubbing directly in front of the wire, with enough room in front of the hook eye to make a head and tie in the remaining materials.

    Finishing the Fly

    • With your body dubbed, tie in a tail going the opposite direction with the same material you used before. Next, stretch the nymph skin over the fly so that it lays tight and flush on top of the body and tie it off with your thread. Wrap the wire four to six times around the fly to create segmentation and add durability to the fly. Tie the wire off with your thread and tie your thread off by adding a couple of half hitches or whip finishes to the fly to create a head and lock the thread in place. You can create a half hitch without a tool by wrapping the thread around your finger and sliding the thread loop off of your finger and onto the fly. Cutt off your thread and add a drop of head cement for durability. Remove your fly from the vise and begin fishing.