Pattern Database

Bob Clouser's dumbbell-eyed minnow pattern may be the most versatile streamer ever invented. The inverted hook rides point-up, reducing snags. Chartreuse/white is the go-to for most freshwater conditions; olive/white on overcast days; pink/white for stained water.

When cicadas are singing — annual dog-day cicadas every summer, periodical broods in their unforgettable years — trout and smallmouth alike lose all caution. A black foam body with an orange underside, splayed rubber legs, and a dark wing: cast it hard against the bank and hang on.

Bob Clouser and Lefty Kreh's hybrid — a Clouser Minnow up front, a Deceiver behind. The dumbbell eyes jig, the saddle-hackle tail swims, and together they move more water than either parent. The big-fish fly for smallmouth rivers, and it crosses to trout, stripers, and anything else that eats minnows.

Don Gapen's Muddler Minnow is the prototype of the sculpin-imitating streamer. The spun deer hair head creates a large profile and a subtle wobble, making it one of the most versatile streamers ever tied.

Dave Whitlock's impressionistic crayfish — 'near enough' to fool everything that eats them, which on smallmouth rivers is everything with fins. Painted dumbbell eyes flip it claws-up to crawl the bottom, soft hen-feather pincers wave in the current, and a palmered rusty body does the rest.

The Woolly Bugger is one of the most versatile streamers in freshwater fishing. It suggests a leech, sculpin, hellgrammite, baitfish, or simply something alive and edible. Olive and brown match sculpin and leech; black provides maximum silhouette in off-color or low-light water; white imitates baitfish such as shiners and dace.

Dan Byford's rabbit-strip baitfish — the fly that made the zonker strip a category. A pearl mylar body flashes like a minnow's flank while the fur strip swims over the top with an action no feather can match. Natural for sculpin-brown, white or olive for baitfish; it all works.