Kennebago Muddler

hook : 9674 or 9672 sizes 4 – 12
thread: GSP 100 or other strong thread, color to match hair
body: gold tinsel
tail: mallard flank
wing: mallard flank feather
underwing: gray squirrel hair
head & collar: spun deer hair

The Kennebago Muddler was developed to copy the drakes on Kennebago Lake. It is fished as an emerger, but can also be fished on the surface. It is tied in tan, olive, and yellow. This is a very versatile fly. I had a customer this past winter ask me to tie some in size 4 to fish for big browns in Argentina. It has been fished as a stone fly on the surface, a stonefly nymph on a tandem rig, and Thomas Ames in his book Hatch Guide for New England Streams lists it as a grasshopper and dragonfly imitation. The yellow in small sizes is great in small ponds that are full of trout. I know a guide who consistently gets his sports large trout on the olive size 12, fished slow and on the bottom of the Kennebago River pools.