Inside The Box: Sucker Spawn

Arguably the most effective fly an angler can carry and my most successful steelhead fly. Its ohhh so simple, a shear novice can begin tying it. I use it any time of the year in almost every permutation of conditions. It even gets tossed in the back yard bass pond. I like using the egg yarn for the sucker spawn in conjunction with a bead head because I think it mimics the drift of natural spawn quite well. The pattern was originally intended to imitate the eggs of a spawning Lake Erie Sucker but it’s clear that it could also represent the eggs of a salmon or steelhead. Spawn is naturally negatively buoyant, if it weren't steelhead and other fish would have a difficult time securing the eggs in their gravel redds. When eggs become dislodged from the nest, they generally tumble along the bottom in fertilized clumps where feeding trout slurp them without much effort. The egg yarn absorbs water and when coupled with the weight of the hook and bead, it allows one to present the fly in a tumble, along the bottom substrate looking oh so good to a hungry trout. Here's what you need to get started. Slide the bead over the barb of the hook. Build a thread base behind the bead. Advance the thread to where it meets the barb. Trim excess thread. Tie in a half dozen strands of krystal flash. Trim to length. Should be as long as the shank of the hook. Trim excess. Take a strand of egg yarn and separate it in half. Tie in front of the krystal flash covering completely. Make five loops. The first will be small securing with two tight wraps on top and two tight wraps in front. The next loop with be slightly larger. The third loop will be the apex. The fourth and fifth loops decrease gradually. Trim excess egg yarn and whip finish. The finished product.