Steve Sobieniak is a bamboo rodmaker and fly shop owner in Lanesboro, MN, which is in the heart of the Driftless region. The South Fork of the Root River flows through town, right across the street from his shop. He approached me a couple of years ago, asking if I would be interested in tying a fly that he designed, or maybe saying he happened upon it would be more accurate. The story went that his dad was fishing the Metolius River in Oregon oh so many years ago, and he found a broken-off fly in a tree along the bank. He thought it still looked fishable, so he tied it on and proceeded to slay the trout for the rest of the day. He showed it to Steve afterwards, and it quickly became a family favorite. They labeled it the "Metolius", after the river it came from. Apparently it has gained quite a following amongst Steve's customers, and he had become unable to keep up with the demand. So, that is where I came in. I have now tied about 75 dozen of them for Steve in the past couple of years, and I still can't quite wrap my head around it. It's rather ugly. Or, if not ugly, at least atypical. I had to teach myself to make sure I didn't tie them too nicely. Here is one I recently tied:
Not really sure what it's supposed to imitate, but maybe it's more of an attractor.
The recipe:
Size 14 dry fly hook
6/0 thread, gray or pink, or whatever you'd like
Elk hair for the post/tail (or is it the post/wing? not sure...)
Brown hackle, sized one size too big
Brown or tan dubbing (I almost always add some pink around the post, but that is optional
Let me know if you have any questions, or if you tie some and have some luck with them. I will be posting a tutorial video on YouTube soon, if you are interested.