Mike Exl found Wildcat Creek Outfitters while attending Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. He would hang out in the shop all of the time, basically being a shop rat. They figured since he was already there all of the time they might as well give him a job, so they did.

Mike has been fly fishing since he was very young and fly tying since the age of 14. His older brother was into it, so this peaked Mike’s interest. He grew up fishing for steelhead, panfish, and bass on private lakes, the Calumet River, and Salt Creek in Northwest Indiana near Crown Point.

He is now a guide and store manager for Wildcat Creek Outfitters in Zionsville, Indiana. He teaches fly tying classes for the store. The classes are beginner based to build skills and then teaches them to tie targeting a specific species. He will also teach new fly tying techniques as they are introduced in the industry.

His fly tying is heavily inspired by Kevin Feenstra, a guide in West Michigan near the Muskegon River. This type of tying uses a lot of Flashabou or flash. There are many patterns that use Australian possum. Adding a lot of material is common too. Mike uses these patterns to target both steelhead and smallmouth bass.

Mike also works with the founder of the shop, Chad Miller on various patterns. Mike says that Chad will take many seasons to perfect a pattern. For example, maybe the fly pushes a lot of water, but it may add too much bulk to the fly, so adjustments are needed.

Catching literally hundreds on a fly, Mike is well experienced when it comes to fishing for carp. He says that some people want to throw a fly that is too large. Two to three inches is too long. A fly on a size 8 or 10 hook that is about an inch and a half in length works the best. Mike says that Dave Whitlock’s rubber legged squirrel nymph is on of the most productive patterns he use’s when fishing for carp.

The key to carp fishing is sight fishing. Then you want to get the fly in front of their face. Carp can be difficult, he states. Sometimes carp will just ignore your fly and they are easily spooked. It could be something as simple as having a little too much weight on the fly that makes a bigger splash. So you should work on minimizing your splash.

A slow decent helps with better hookups. So be mindful when creating a carp fly and work on its decent in the water. Mcfly foam is a good material to use with its natural colors and the fact that it holds air which makes it sink slow.

Streamers are Mike’s favorite flies to tie because he feels it allows him more creativity. He likes to use a size 2 to 4, 3x long hook when tying for steelhead and smallmouth. But steelhead streamers are definitely his passion. The feeling he gets while swinging for steel is simply amazing.

I feel lucky to have Mike so close to home here in Indiana. I’ll be heading up around Zionsville soon and will be heading to the Indiana on the Fly fly fishing show in January where I plan to chat with Mike and hopefully pickup up a thing or two!

The photos above are in order of the recipes listed below.

Fly #1 Egg Sucking Leech

Hook: sz. 1 stinger hook
Shank: 35mm from Flymen Fishing Company
Tail: purple marabou
Body: purple Ice Dub and UV copper Polar Chenille
Hackle: barred wood duck
Head: chartreuse Ice Dub

Fly #2 Wildcat Streamer (Mike Exl version)

Hook: sz. 6 TMC 8089
Tail: rabbit zonker natural
Body: natural cross-cut rabbit and uv copper Polar Chenille
Eyes: medium pearl lead eyes
Head: copper and uv pearl Ice Dub

Fly #3 Mike’s Sculpin

Hook: sz. 2 TMC 9395
Tail: Tiger Barred rabbit strip
Body: tan Ice Dub Chenille and olive schlappen
Collar: tan mallard flank
Flash: perch holographic Flashabou
Head: Australian possum

Schultzy, Owner and Head Guide of Schultz Outfitters in southeast Michigan is the creator of this fly. They spend a lot of time chasing smallies at Schultz Outfitters, so the Red Eyed Leech fits right in. I like the fact that Mike used a dubbing loop containing rabbit to construct the head of this fly. Here’s the information that Schultzy sent.

Recipe:

Hook: Daiichi 2546 Size 4-1/0
Eyes: Hareline Pseudo Eyes or Spirit River Real Eyes Plus (They are the same product) RED 7/32″ or 1/4″ for you hot shots

NOTE: The hook rides up, Eyes go on top of the hook like a Clouser!

Tail under flash: Copper or Gold Flashabou Splash
Tail/ Body: Rabbit Strip approx 2-3″ off the rear. Puncture the leather and strap in using repeated wraps on top of each other. Use the excess strip and continue to wrap a body up behind the eyes. Tie off!
Collar: Mallard or Wood Duck Flank wrapped 2 to 2.5 x’s. Lady Amherst in a dubbing loop works as well.
Head: Rabbit trimmed from the hide and spun in a dubbing loop.

TIPS…
Adding Extra Weight – If more weights desired, I prefer to use a extra large brass or a tungsten bead behind the eye. This needs to be placed on the hook first.
Lead wire is also an option, however it takes more time.

Spun Rabbit Head- Use the longest stuff you can find!
Magnum strips are nice for the spun head since they require a shorter cut.
Using 4.5″ or longer Hair scissors helps.
Use a dubbing twister with a high quality bearing.. The Stonfo Roto Dubbing 2 is the BEST spinner on the market!
Thin out the rabbit once in the loop, Less is more!

Colors – Black, Olive, Tan or Chocolate Brown are tough to beat

Stop by the shop if you have any questions or need help with this one!

James is a guide for Schultz Oufitters and mostly guides on the Huron River. He chases a lot of smallmouth bass and carp on the Huron. Here are two of his go-to flies for these two species. He says they aren’t real extravagant flies but that is why he likes them. Simple patterns get the job done and he can sit down and crank a dozen out without a major time commitment.

Ice Minnow

Ice Minnow
Hook: Daiichi 2546 size 6
Eyes: Bead chain
Tail: White Ice Fur
Collar: Mallard Flank
Wing: White Ice Fur
-This is my go-to for carp. The fish in our rivers spend a lot of time chasing fry and really key in on small white streamers. If the presentation is correct, there’s a solid chance you will be rewarded with a fish.

Murdich Minnow

Gold over White Feather-Tail Murdich
Hook: Daiichi 2546 size 1-4
Eyes: Hareline 3D eyes
Tail: Two Chinese saddle hackle feathers
Flash: opal and gold flashabou
Body: White Ice Fur
Head: Pearl Estaz colored gold on top using a Prismacolor pen
-The feather tail Murdich Minnow is one of my workhorses for guiding. The smallmouth in our rivers will crush this fly day in, and day out. The feather tail gives a really nice swimming action in the water compared to some other materials I have used.

Hook: Streamer Hook size 4 or 2, bent up like a swimming nymph hook
Weight: .30 or as heavy as you want to get it (see below)
Pinchers & Tail: Turkey Biots (Black, Brown, or Olive)
Rib: Blue, Purple, or Black 26 gauge wire
Body: Thick Black, Olive, or Brown Chenille
Legs: Coq De Lon Feather – palmered
Shell: Black or Brown Thin Soft Leather. Trimmed with a curve at the bend, and hook gap width
To Finish: I coat the leather with Sally Hanson’s Hard as Nails Clear

Tying Tips:

• The weight can be wrapped around the hook, placed on either sides or put on one side to create the Drunken Sailor effect.
• The shell is cut in half then retied back on as a normal Hellgrammite split shell.

My passion is chasing Smallmouth with the Fly Rod on the Huron River, Shiawassee River, and Grand River, that is how and why this fly was created. I watched spin casters using live Hellgrammites for Smallmouth and I wanted a fly of my own that represented the nymph of this Dobson Fly.

Mike Schultz of Schultz Outfitters tied his summer time off colored water baitfish pattern he calls Schultzy’s Fate Fish. His detailed instructions follow.

Rear Hook: Daiichi 2546 Size 4 or 2
Front Hook: Daiichi 2546 Size 1 or 1/0
Eyes: Small Pseudo Eyes, Real Eyes or iBallz, I hate lead… It BREAKS!
Connection: 30- 45lb American Fishing Wire or Rio Bite Wire DON’T use the CHEAP Stuff.
Beads: Small Round, The ones we stock at SO.
Tail 1: Small clump of Buck Tail to prevent fouling as well as adding to the life of the fly if the feathers break off.
Tail 2: 4 Saddle Hackles, Multiple colors are always nice.
Rear Body: 2 Wrapped marabou feathers, preferably shorter than the ones used on the front to give the fly a tapered look. White first then color of choice.
Rear Flash: Flashabou, Mirror Krinkle Flash or New Age Holo Flash from ORVIS
Connection Cover: Flash
Front Body: 1 White Wrapped Marabou Feather, followed by a large piece of Schlappen wrapped for bulk.
Optional Rattle: Tie in on top at this point and glue, Glass or plastic 3MM.
Front Body continued: Wrapped Marabou followed by another wrapped Marabou in a contrasting color.
Front Flash: Tied in around the Marabou
Throat: Red Ice Dub (NOTE: NOT IN FLY PICTURE)
Head: Long magnum rabbit trimmed off leather and spun in a dubbing loop. Figure 8 around the eyes.

I’m a fan of bass streamers, because I love bass, period. This streamer caught my eye and it’s called the Jawbreaker. Theo Anest of Colorado created this one. The reason bass will love it is because of its jigging action with a lot of movement added by rubber legs and a curly tail. Here is Theo showing how to tie it. The fly is sold by Solitude Fly Company.

The major key to the Woolly Bugger’s success for catching fish is this pattern imitates a wide vary of food sources … baitfish, crawfish, hellgrammites, leeches and nymphs (damsels, stoneflies).

When fishing the Woolly Bugger, vary the retrieve until you find what works best to draw the fish’s attention and strike.  On ponds and lakes, I usually start with a steady strip-strip-strip-pause (2 to 3 seconds) and repeat retrieve.  In moving water systems (streams and rivers), I have been successful getting fish to strike a Woolly Bugger on the swing, dead-drifting, steady continuous retrieve and strip-strip-strip-pause retrieve … be flexible with your presentations.

In tying and fishing Woolly Buggers for over two decades, keeping the palmer hackle length equal to the gap of the hook and the marabou tail length ranging from 1-1/2 to 2 times the body length is critical and has clearly produced more hook-ups.  Also, a countered-wrapped wire rib protects the palmered hackle and adds flash.

I get this question asked frequently, “what your most productive color pattern” … my “go-to” color patterns are Purple or Black for stain and slightly tinted water conditions, Brown or Olive for clear water conditions.

Woolly Bugger

Beadhead Woolly Bugger

Beadhead Egg Sucking Woolly Bugger

Woolly Bugger, Purple (size 6 shown)
Hook – Mustad R74 (4X long, 2X heavy)
Sizes – 12 to 4
Weight – lead free wire (optional)
Thread – Black (UTC)
Tail – Purple marabou blood quill (Hareline)
Rib – Gold wire, countered wrapped (UTC)
Body – Purple chenille (Hareline)
Hackle – Grizzly saddle dyed purple,
tie-in at the front and palmered back (Keough)

Creekside Tidbits & On the Vise at http://www.amflyfishing.com

The Beadhead Mini Woolly Bugger.  A host of advantages accrue to the angler targeting panfish (bluegills, pumpkinseeds, redears, crappies) who actively moves the Beadhead Mini Woolly Worm in low-light conditions.  Stripping the fly creates a life-like movement and bulges for the panfish to home in on … along with telegraphing light strikes.  One of my favorite and productive tactics is actively working the fly just below the surface film when fishing outside edges of submerged weedbeds and timbers draws the fish’s attention and prevent hang-ups.  Don’t be surprise if you hook-up and battle a largemouth bass … I have caught a good number of largemouth bass with this tactic.

Beadhead Mini Woolly Worm, Brown (size 14 shown above)
Hook – TMC 100 (standard dry)
Sizes – 12 to 16
Beadhead – Gold
Thread – Dark Brown
Butt – Burnt orange Antron yarn
Rib – Gold extra-fine wire, countered wrapped
Body – Brown rabbit dubbing
Hackle – Grizzly saddle dyed brown, tie-in at the front and palmered back

Andy @ amflyfishing.com

This is a new fly tying video from Matt Erny of Streamers Fly Fishing. Matt loves chasing Smallies and this streamer is killer.

Matt Erny has churned out another cool tying video. This one is on his Zelda Streamer. Visit Streamers Fly Fishing for more.

Matt Erny of StreamersFlyFishing.com is at it again! I’ve seen Matt tie this fly and I know he has a lot of faith in it. He says it is his “go to” fly and for the last 3 years it has proven to be effective on trout, smallies, and largemouth.

Matt Erny is working hard on the videos lately. You get two for the price of one on this one. Visit Streamers Fly Fishing for more. Matt’s comments are below.

Both are EXCELLENT patterns for Bass. I prefer the Frog for LMB and the Coyote for SMB. My biggest Smallie ever cam on a Coyote Ugly. A 6.5 pound beast!! Drag them on the bottom jig them strip them, just a great all round bug!

A Mike Schultz original and super effective on smallmouth. A great early season/ high water fly!

Materials

Thread: GSP 100 Olive
Front Hook: Daiichi 2546 Salt Size 1 or 2
Rear Hook: Daiichi 2546 Salt Size 4
Eyes: Pseudo eyes or Tungsten Predator Eyes medium or large, tied on underside of hook
Under Tail Flash: Speckled Flashabou gold, copper or mixed
Tail: Barred or variant rabbit strip “strapped” in

Connection: 30lb Backing
Belly: White Finn Raccoon or Arctic Fox
Body: Rabbit strip wrapped
Collar 1: Grizzly Schlappen, wrapped
Collar 2: Mallard Flank or Lady Amherst
Pec Fins: Grizzly Marabou tied 1 – 2 on each side
Legs: 2-4 Wapsi Silli Legs
Head: Magnum rabbit cut off hide and spun in a dubbing loop
Flash: 2 strands red Holographic Flashabou & 2-3 strands gold or copper Flashabou
Wing(s): Grizzly hackle feathers tied Intruder style

Favorite Colors
: Black/ tan/ peach/ olive

Tying Tips
Slip a tungsten bead behind the dumbbell eyes for added weight.

www.Facebook.com/SchultzOutfitters
www.schultzoutfitters.com
4 East Cross Street Ypsilanti, MI 48198 (734)-544-1761

Matt Erny of Streamers Fly Fishing released another fine video. Matt came up with this pattern in the summer for 2006 and it has become a staple for smallmouth bass. Matt says,  “It is truly one of the best finesse flies ever! Fish it slow around cover on lakes and dead drift it on rivers. It also works great with a strip pause action.”

Tyler says this is one of his most productive bass flies. He started fishing this fly a little over two years ago and have had killer results.

Matt Erny of StreamersFlyFishing.com is tying his SheBomb in this one. Matt says this fly literally breathes in the water. Check it out!

Jason and Toni Haddix are the owners of Water Edge Fly Company. They do commercial fly tying, destination fly tying and retail web sales of flies, materials and accessories. They tie stacked hair bass bugs, pike flies, musky flies, carp flies, streamers, and saltwater flies. They also tie for just about anything by request including destination trips around the world and custom orders for almost any species. Each pattern is proudly tied  in the United States, in Colorado.

Jason has been production tying for over 15 years and supplying guides, outfitters, shops, and the public with high quality bugs behind the scenes. Jason says, “Our goal is to put high quality flies in peoples hands at the best possible price point and do it all here in the U.S.”

The Swingin D has been making a lot of noise in the online fly fishing community lately. The word on the street is that it’s a killer smallmouth pattern. In case you have missed it, here is the rundown from Mike Schultz of Schultz Outfitters.

This fly has been doing some major damage for us this season. Time to release the BEAST!
I’ve been working on this for a while. It’s a hybrid pattern using parts and ideas from Tommy Lynch’s Triple D, my original foam headed Meat Whip and Mark Sedotti’s theory’s.

Rear Hook: Gamakatsu B-10S
Tail: Saddle Hackles w/ Flash
Flash: Flashabou of Choice
Rear Body: Senyo’s Predator Wrap Trimmed followed by Rabbit clipped off the hide and spun in dubbing loop
Overwing: Mallard Flank or Silver Pheasant
Front Hook: Gamakatsu Worm (Round Bend)
Connection: 40lb Rio Bite Wire w/ Three 6mm Plastic Beads
Connection Cover: Flashabou of choice
Front Body: Rabbit strip wrapped 2 – 2 1/2 times followed by Senyo’s Predator Wrap Trimmed and wrapped through Rattle (Palmering wraps, Don’t over dress)
Rattle: Large Glass 5mm
Collar: Marabou wrapped tip first (2- 2 1/2 wraps max)
Flash: Flashabou of choice
Wing: Grizzly Hackle, 1 on each side
Throat: Red Palmer Chenille or UV Polar Chenille wrapped to the eye of the hook, Tie off
Head: Rainy’s Foam Diver Head in Small or Medium (Use Gel Super Glue on the Throat before sliding the head over

Chad shows you how to tie a really cool pattern of his.

In between tying orders, I’ve been doing some creek fishing recently. A few days ago I spotted a nice sized gar that I’ve been itching to catch. He took a bite of my fly the other day, which was a Grandpa’s Chickenhawk, but I couldn’t get him hooked. If you have ever tried to catch gar, you know the feeling. They are hard to hook because of their long narrow mouth with teeth.

In this same water there are Pumpkinseed Sunfish and I have a feeling the gar love them. There are flies made specifically for gar from nylon rope because it will get entangled in their mouth and you can pull them in that way. I didn’t want to do that, so I created this little Pumpkinseed of Doom to try out. It includes John Rohmer’s Arizona Simi Seal and a bit of Senyo’s Laser Dub. I tip my hat to the guys at FlyFishFood for turning me on to Simi Seal, it’s great stuff. I gave the fly a trailing Intruder hook for good measure. This is not a big streamer, it is a small one. Perfect for small creek fishing.

So I went out to the creek yesterday to do some fishing. I was not able to get a good look at a gar like before, but it was fine by me, because I was rewarded anyway. A nice Smallmouth Bass grabbed a hold of the Pumpkinseed of Doom and gave me a good fight. He made a few runs back and forth and made two jumps trying to shake it off, but couldn’t. To my delight, I was able to bring him in. Man I love Smallies, they are so tough!

I have not given up on the gar. I will continue to hunt for one. I’ll definitely be tying up some more Pumpkinseed’s of Doom to take with me, no matter what I’m fishing for.

-Paul