Darter
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Olive Matuka
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Dark Matuka
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Fly of the Month 07.20
A unique streamer style from the land of the Kiwi is the Matuka. For durability and to create a firm, wide looking girth on a streamer, the wing feather is partly striped as a half-feather and attached directly to the hook shank (quill against shank) with a wire or thread ribbing. The Matuka began as a lake fly in New Zealand in 1883. It soon became well known and used as a western streamer in the United States.
While tying a Matuka fly pattern, the idea expanding on the technique of attaching the “fish fin” to the hook shank lead to two new fly patterns that Tom and I are introducing for the first time in this article:
Arrow
Darter
The muddler minnow is a well-known bottom bouncing fly pattern that basically represent a sculpin or other bottom feeding forage fish which trout readily eat given the opportunity. However, many of the Southeastern and in particular the Southern Appalachian streams have a bottom dwelling forage fish, the darter. Darters come in a variety of brightly mixed colors, especially the males during the spawn. Bright green, bright orange, bright yellow and bright red in particular provide a mosaic of colors on the darter’s fins depending on the species. By using bantam sized feather on a given color such as white or one of the aforementioned colors and using a marker pen to add additional color, it is simple to create darter fins that are fairly realistic.
The new twist to the Darter fly pattern is to tie in the dorsal fin along with two pectoral fins on each side of the fly pattern using the Matuka technique. Thus, the Darter has three colored feathers attached in Matuka style with the pectoral fins pointing slightly downward, forming equally spaced fins in three directions. For the Darter, the dorsal and pectoral fins are brief rather than extending beyond the tail giving a realistic fin appearance. The aft portion of the hook shank is tied with a marabou tail for motion, a tinsel body for flash and a palmered overbody for color and motion.
The Arrow fly pattern is tied in the same manner, but all three feathers are attached and allowed to extend beyond the tail, providing a general attractor streamer fly pattern that looks much like the three feather on an arrow. The body is a simple tinsel wrap for flash.
For both fly patterns, the feathers used should be proportionally tall to keep the overall streamer appearing somewhat stubby with flaring fins. The fly pattern will be a bit more wind resistant and present some difficulty in a long cast. Otherwise, the fly patterns will be fishy underwater where it counts!
Matuka
Arrow
Darter
Fly of the Month 07.20
Tom Adams and Alen Baker
A unique streamer style from the land of the Kiwi is the Matuka. For durability and to create a firm, wide looking girth on a streamer, the wing feather is partly striped as a half-feather and attached directly to the hook shank (quill against shank) with a wire or thread ribbing. The Matuka began as a lake fly in New Zealand in 1883. It soon became well known and used as a western streamer in the United States.
While tying a Matuka fly pattern, the idea expanding on the technique of attaching the “fish fin” to the hook shank lead to two new fly patterns that Tom and I are introducing for the first time in this article:
Arrow
Darter
The muddler minnow is a well-known bottom bouncing fly pattern that basically represent a sculpin or other bottom feeding forage fish which trout readily eat given the opportunity. However, many of the Southeastern and in particular the Southern Appalachian streams have a bottom dwelling forage fish, the darter. Darters come in a variety of brightly mixed colors, especially the males during the spawn. Bright green, bright orange, bright yellow and bright red in particular provide a mosaic of colors on the darter’s fins depending on the species. By using bantam sized feather on a given color such as white or one of the aforementioned colors and using a marker pen to add additional color, it is simple to create darter fins that are fairly realistic.
The new twist to the Darter fly pattern is to tie in the dorsal fin along with two pectoral fins on each side of the fly pattern using the Matuka technique. Thus, the Darter has three colored feathers attached in Matuka style with the pectoral fins pointing slightly downward, forming equally spaced fins in three directions. For the Darter, the dorsal and pectoral fins are brief rather than extending beyond the tail giving a realistic fin appearance. The aft portion of the hook shank is tied with a marabou tail for motion, a tinsel body for flash and a palmered overbody for color and motion.
The Arrow fly pattern is tied in the same manner, but all three feathers are attached and allowed to extend beyond the tail, providing a general attractor streamer fly pattern that looks much like the three feather on an arrow. The body is a simple tinsel wrap for flash.
For both fly patterns, the feathers used should be proportionally tall to keep the overall streamer appearing somewhat stubby with flaring fins. The fly pattern will be a bit more wind resistant and present some difficulty in a long cast. Otherwise, the fly patterns will be fishy underwater where it counts!
Matuka
Arrow
Darter
Fly of the Month 07.20
Tom Adams and Alen Baker