SBS - Bead Head Mirage Back Scud

Materials

Hook: Size 14 Scud Hook

Head: 3/32nd Brass Bead 

Rib: Small Copper Wire

Shell Back: Opal Mirage Tinsel (Medium or Large)

Body: Custom Scud Dubbing (Made from Australian opossum, brown, grey, orange antron fibers and a pinch or two of rust ice dub)

 I created the bead head mirage back scud when I was looking for a very simple and quick to tie scud pattern. It is nothing new or innovative but I have found it to be very deadly for both pan fish and trout. Tied from sizes 8-16 I never leave home without these flies. When I fish these for pan fish I find that the slow rate of descent caused by the brass bead is a big trigger for the fish to strike. When I tied this fly with a tungstun bead the rate of descent seemed a little to fast for the pan fish I was targeting but they worked great for trout.

 

Special Dubbing Notes: The dubbing used for this fly is a custom blend that I put together to try and match local sow bugs. The main component is both underfur and guard hairs from an Australian opossum pelt. To this I add a few pinches of brown, tan and white antron fibers and a few pinches of rust ice dub. This create a very nice buggy blend.

Step 1: Secure your hook into the vise with a properly sized bead. Here we have a size 14 scud hook matched with a 3/32nd brass bead.

Step 2: Start your tying thread on the hook and work your way down to the bend. Snip off the tag end and then return your thread to just behind the bead. Tie in some small copper wire on the near side of the hook and wrap back to the bend.

Optional Step: Before tying in the copper wire sometimes I will tie in a tuft of dubbing as a tail after wrapping my thread back to the hook bend.

Step 3: Take a piece of either medium or large opal mirage tinsel and tie it in starting behind the bead. Try to keep the tinsel centered on the top of the hook, when you reach the bend you can bring the tinsel forward to make sure things are centered and lined up.

 Step 4: Make a tapered dubbing noodle and start at the bend of the hook wrapping forward and creating a nicely tapered body.

Step 5:Pull your tinsel forward over the top of the dubbing and make sure it is centered. Take a loose wrap behind the bead and when you are happy with the placement of the tinsel pull it forward and make a few tight wraps. Once secured I like to pull the tinsel back and make a few more wraps in front of it before clipping off the excess tinsel.

 Step 6: With your copper wire start wrapping over the dubbing to create a segmented body on the fly. I find if you go slow and carefully wrap forward most of the time you will not disturb the tinsel along the top. If you find it moves a slight bit and is aligned on the far side of the hook this is still ok as you can always move it back while brushing out the dubbing. Once you have the body ribbed take a few tight wraps to secure the copper and helicopter off the remaining wire.

 Step 7: Make a very sparse dubbing noodle, just enough to color the thread really and whip finish with the dubbing noodle to cover your thread wraps.

Step 8: With a dubbing brush tease out the fibers on both sides of the fly downwards. If a lot of fibers extend down past the hook point you can trim them off. Also at this time if your tinsel has migrated from the top of the fly you can gently use your brush to realign it even under the copper rib.

The top row is an assortment of bead head mirage back scuds tied with tails on sizes 14, 12, and 10 scud hooks.

 This pattern when used for gills can be fished in a variety of ways, dead drifted, left alone to sink, stripped in, jigged, as mentioned before the slow descent rate caused by the size of the fly and the smaller brass bead seems to be crappie and blue gill crack. You will watch as the fly slowly sinks only to be devoured from below by a ravenous mouth. The pattern is very durable often able to catch 50-100 fish on a single fly, and it seems the rattier and more torn up the fly becomes, the more the fish will love it.

I would be very interested to hear how this pattern works for other anglers on panfish, if you tie a few up please do let me know how it goes.

Tight Lines!