This week is our first Fly Tying Video Week (FTVW for short): each day we’ll be posting 4-5 videos of fly patterns to help get your creativity flowing at the vise. Day 2 is all about streamers (the slightly more “traditional” ones).

Cohen’s Sulking Sculpin (Pat Cohen)

This is a pretty sweet-looking sculpin pattern. There’s a lot of stacked deer hair on that head, which helps to neutralize the weight of the large dumbbell eyes. If you’d rather not go through a lot of deer hair for a fly or two, buy some directly from Pat at rusuperfly.com. (We bought some at the Lancaster Fly Fishing Show – sweet flies!)

Martinez’s Frankenstein Sculpin (Indigo Guide Service, Steve Martinez)

This is a great all-around sculpin pattern. You can tie them in smaller sizes (I like to tie them on a size 4, 2xl regular or curved nymph hook) for the streams in Central PA. I like to fish it casting upstream and twitching it back to me like a sculpin moving along the stream bottom.

Clouser Minnow (Bob Clouser)

What better way to learn how to tie this pattern than learning from the man himself? This fly really needs no introduction – it’s an effective pattern that has worked on a wide variety of freshwater and saltwater species around the globe.

Near ‘Nuff Crayfish (In the Riffle)

This Dave Whitlock pattern is a classic for trout and bass. Tying it is a bit of a process, but it’s a great smaller-scale crayfish fly. One of the things that I like to do is leave out the mono eyes and replace the hen feathers with pine squirrel zonker strips. Get creative!

Backstabber Carp Fly (Jay Zimmerman)

Don’t let the word “carp” turn you away from this pattern – it’s a great pattern that can imitate a variety of forage depending on the color combo you use (crayfish, minnows, leeches, clumps of weeds, etc.) While Zimmerman uses brass eyes in the video, you might want to use small dumbbell eyes if fishing it in moving water. It’s a great all-around pattern for a variety of species.