Big Fly Fri-YAY

By: Adam Spence

Folks, it’s Friday, I love Friday and I love big flies. on Fridays throughout the Winter and Spring, we’re going to start sharing a “Big Fly Friday (or Fri-YAY) blog”

This week in Big Fly Friday, we’re looking at a fly I learned at a Bugs ‘n Brew night at my local fly shop. That evening was geared toward smallmouth, but this pattern could be used to target brown trout or even pike. My favorite pattern I learned that night was the Bad Hair Day; it’s a fairly simple tie that won’t break the bank, and man does it catch fish!

Main Target Species: Smallmouth Bass

Prime Water to Fish it: I like the Bad Hair Day in slower moving water the best. When the river is high but sluggish, or if you’re out in the bass boat on some stillwater, this is a great pattern to tie on. I also like the Bad Hair Day when there’s some stain, or even downright dirty water, in the smallie streams I fish. There is some bulk to the head that pushes water like you’d want in those situations.

How to Fish it: As with most streamers, you can fish the Bad Hair Day with a sinking line. I like it on an intermediate sinking line or an intermediate sinking leader. I wouldn’t recommend fishing it on a floating line only, as there isn’t much weight to this streamer. When fishing this fly, I like to make sure I incorporate several pauses in my retrieve, this allows the craft fur to dance and move and, if you’re fishing it in slower water, the material doesn’t get fouled up around the hook during these slow retrieves. All of this makes it as easy to fish as it is to tie.

Action: The Bad Hair Day is made almost entirely of craft fur, which is an excellent, wafty material in slower water. With this being the case, and if you’re fishing it averagely slowly and incorporating pauses into your retrieve, you’re going to get a lot of movement out of the material. The head is composed of laser dub, and on the pause the fly has a tendency to sweep up, much like a wounded baitfish will. While craft fur can take a fly or two to get the hang of (make sure you clean out the short sections!), it really moves awesome and provides bulk without adding weight. As a change up, I’ll tie what I call the “Buck ‘n Bad Hair Day”, and substitute the laser dub head with reverse-tied bucktail. This gives the fly more left/right darting action on the pause. You can also tie this pattern articulated to add a whole new repertoire of moves underwater (and if you’re looking for a bigger pattern for some of those toothier, angrier fish).

Colors: Here’s another one where the color combos are about endless. Craft fur comes in a variety of colors, as do laser dub and bucktails. A standby for me with all of my smallmouth patterns is white/grey. I’ll tie the Bad Hair Day in all white except for the laser dub or bucktail head, which I’ll use grey for. I also like to tie tan over white to imitate creek chubs or suckers. Olive or darker browns (with a heavy sinking line) could imitate a sculpin and black/purple should always make an appearance on cloudy days. Chartreuse is another complimentary color to experiment with as well.