The Articulated Peanut Envy.....

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Again, without further ado....Galloup's Articulated Butt Monkey (full material list below)

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(if possible watch in HD in full-screen....and don't be scared of the beard, it is gone now in a horrible trimming accident)

Rear Hook: Mustad 34011 #4
Thread: Black
Undertail: Marabou
Body: Estaz
Overtail/Body: Rabbit Zonker (in this case barred)

Articulation: Beadalon
Spacers: Glass Beads

Lead Hook: Gamakatsu B10s #2
Eyes: Painted Lead Eyes (attached to the UNDER side of the hook)
Body: Estaz

Over-Body: Rabbit Zonker (again, barred this time)

Gills: Lazer Dub
Head: Wool

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Lake Ver’ making a Million Casts.

Thinking back on Lake Vermillion... Musky fishing can be equated with an adventure race. In a race there are parts where the course is smooth and comfortable. Then, there are places that hurt! Both happened on Lake V.

For the first two days it was up hill but smooth. We were casting,enjoying the new sites sounds, and smells of the North Woods, it was great. It was amazing to watch the sky full of the mountainous clouds billowing and grand. The loons called lazily over the north woods water and there were dozens of bald eagles. North woods eagles were like buzzards in Ozark County, everywhere.

Yet by day three the hurt broke the surface. Brian manages to impale a giant purple popper in his shoulder. We all know Brian can cast 107’ feet like he was brushing his hair, but this cast made me cringe as a gust of wind crumpled it.

THHWAAACK!

Have you ever taken a 2/0 hook sunk to the bend in yourfriend’s shoulder?

We managed to remove it and what did we do, kept casting.

Thoughts of “Why are we still here?” “God, if I just catchone I’ll end my musky career right now”, “This is starting to get ridiculous”Thoughts that never cross a fly fishing guide’s mind begin to take over. Soonyou cast out of desperation to catch THAT fish, knowing that, the next castwill be “the one”.

And it is! The next cast that you place right in the meatslot, watch it hang slowly, thinking “that is the one”. Then you notice castingslack is in the trolling motor right as big head comes out from under the logand chews your fly like laffy taffy. While your falling out of the boat to setthe hook… That is when IT happens… THAT is when your chance comes, and goes,like THAT!

 The high that comes with musky fishing is also in similarityto a race finish. The adrenaline of hooking a fish as long as your leg matchesand perhaps surpasses that jolt of knee buckling energy that hits at the finishline of a long and exciting race.

That’s on your next cast though. Not this one. Try again…

Fish are the excuse to adventure into the wilderness, butthey end up only a sliver of the story. We gain much more than a “grip andgrin” when we set out with friends into unimaginable adventures.

There is nothing in this world with as much value as good friends.

Muskie Musk.

We leave our family for 9 days for 10,000 casts toward a Muskie.

Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) from the Ojibwa word maashkinoozhe, meaning "ugly pike". Muskie like to cruse “patrols” looking to destroy whatever critter they choose. This is no ordinary fish. They are the apex predator in any water they live. Eating anything they can possibly fit in their toothy mouth. This is not a fish for the light of heart, mind, or body...

North of Hwy 8 live the Maashkinoozhe. Tea colored rivers from the rust belt harbor the elusive fish.  We cast flies that are larger than some house pets to a fish meaner than a doberman pincer on Starbucks. We arrive at camp around 1am, since we had to catch the evening rise on the Driftless, we drive by night. We set camp, charge camera batteries, and rig our titanium bite leaders.

Sunrise and we rise, off to the musky river where hopefully the guy remembered to drop a johnboat off for us. Sure enough it was there. Now, nobody in the boat had ever casted for muskie before this, but it was easy to see why the fish loved this water. Slow pools with submerged vegitation haunted us as we casted furiously. We floated by submerged logs and gawked down into the amber water in hopes to see one. The river was very similar to home. Steep rocky riffles gently sweeping around the corner into deep slow glassy pools, we had confidence in this type water. Reading seams, drop-offs, shadows, submerged vegie, and woody debris there were fishing places everywhere! Yet….where were the muskie?
Two days straight of casting 10wts and flies the size of a muskrat and no toothy critters.
But...we did catch a few smallmouth bass that could have passed as bait in these waters. Powerfull dark and deep were the smallmouth bass here. We could catch smallmouth in the Ozarks so we quickly threw them back and kept casting, and casting, and casting.....all the way to Lake Vermillion.

I'm sure by now you have gotten the gist that I am not a fan of the "How-to" type videos with a guy winding thread on a hook-shank for 10 minutes.  Sure, they are informational and teach you how to tie a certain fly and they helped me a TON before I had the ability to break a fly down but they are so BLEEDING BORING!  I kind of started messing around with a more entertaining approach a couple years ago on a horrible quality point and shoot and, for the most part, my music choice was Weird Al.....I take myself SUPER seriously if you haven't noticed.  So after I upgraded some equipment (a couple of times) and started shooting better quality videos I decided to keep that take on fly tying videos.  I speed them up, yada, yada, add some cool music and they are pretty cool (at least my boys think so.)  Dude Tying A Fly takes almost the same approach....only with a different twist.  He ties on a Nor-Vise and can bust through a fly like no one I have seen, and they are not sped up.  Check his channel out and tell him to do more videos!!

Dude Tying A Fly

See a video of the tying process of this fly HERE