The weed seed

This pattern was stolen from Mike Schultz, resident sage, fly tyer, guide, and employee/manager of our local fly shop: Colton Bay outfitters on the west side of Ann Arbor. Mike is a brilliant fly tyer, and like all brilliant fly tyers does not realize how brilliant he is. If you can steal one of his patterns, you should. I first came across the weed seed as he was tying a bunch of them for a guide trip. I was looking at them, and he explained that he needed a fly that floated well but was simple and inexpensive to tie. He guides a lot of beginning anglers, and they tend to lose a lot of flies. I liked the look of it, and bummed one from him. It had no name, so I christened it the weed seed because it did look a bit frumpy. The weed seed is also a term used by A.K. Best to describe poorly tied dry flies. I did not know Mike then as well as I do now, and I thought that he may have been pranking me by giving me a pattern that was an "A Number 1 Hat Decorator", so I pranked him back by giving his creation a derogatory name coined by one of the most influential tyers of our generation. As is per usual with these things, I was paid back in spades.

I am still ashamed, and this is why. Fast forward to the following weekend on the Ausable River. I was fishing, and waded past a cabin where breakfast was being prepared. A bunch of guys boiled out and refused to let me pass their dock unless I showed them what I was using. One comment: you have released more fish in the past few minutes than we have caught all week. And what, pray tell, was I using? The weed seed. I had tied it on first thing, and it was catching every riser that saw it.

The weed seed is brilliant because it is easy to tie, and it looks like everything under the sun. It could be a mayfly, a caddis, a stone, or even a small hopper. I have messed with different colors, but natural seems to work 90% of the time. There have been times when it doesn't work, but those are pretty rare. It floats so well that it is a good searching pattern, which is the way I use it. It is a great pattern for those days when nothing is really rising, but you feel like fishing dry flies anyway even though subsurface might produce more fish.

The recipe:
Tail: two strands of krystal flash.
body: a clump of deer hair. Lay the clump around the hook shank, spiral back, then spiral forward.
Wing: a clump of deer hair. Leave the butts stick up like an elk hair caddis to form a small head.
Hackle: non, but you can leave some of the body or wing longer to make a few legs.

Takes 30 seconds, lasts and floats forever. And it catches fish. It has got to be the ultimate in impressionistic patterns. It is now one of my go-to flies, especially on new water. And the truth is that I asked Mike if it would be OK to write about it. He is very gracious about sharing his knowledge, and gave permission.


Update: I now tie the pattern with an antelope hair wing. It really flairs out and makes it float better and longer.