Ed Shenk's Sculpin

[surveyor06]

Recently I have been doing quite a bit of streamer fishing, mostly using various colors of woolly buggers. Saw Shenk's Sculpin and seemed like a pretty good pattern. Finding instructions, esp. a video on how to tie it is hard to find. I tried one last night, and although it will probably catch fish, its not exactly right. First off Im not so great at spinning deer hair, and two, Id like to see how the body is built up. From all the pictures I could find it looks like its trimmed somehow. Any help would be appreciated. I can post some pics of how mine came out it that helps.

 

[Fishidiot]

Shenks' Sculpin, like many of Ed's patterns, is simple to tie and very durable.

The body is dubbed fur trimmed to a wedge shaped taper (getting narrower toward the bend of the hook). Head is spun deer hair trimmed muddler style; leave some of the tips untrimmed to resemble pectoral fins. Tail is marabou.
Shenk Sculpins are usually tied in black but olive or olive/black works well too.

 

[quillfly]

another cheater method of getting the taper in the body is to use lead or lead sub to build the body . when i do a sculpin similar to Shenks i will tie in the marabou tail then use flat lead to build the majority of the body(i found a sheet that was three feet square and just cut small strips with a pair of avation snips) add the hair for the pectorial fins . then wrap monocord over the rest of the lead body and dub the body with hares ear (black or olive) . i have issues with spinning hair as well . for a lighter sculpin i guess you could use mono cord instead of the lead. i normally fish sculpins dragging bottom as that is were they are since they have no swim bladder and therefore cannot swim.

 

[jayL]

Sculpins swim, they are just not buoyant. For that reason, they stay near the bottom. The lack of a swim bladder means that they can't regulate their depth.

They are quite fast swimmers.

 

[JohnnyUtah]

With spinning deer hair you need to put in time and just master the technique. The tips on the pattern given already are great.

 

[StaggerLee]

JohnnyUtah wrote:
With spinning deer hair you need to put in time and just master the technique. The tips on the pattern given already are great.

Now this technique i'll pass on. This is where i draw the line and give the commercial guy the money for his fly pattern. Since he spends some time on each one. I think it's well worth throwing them a few bills when i need a few.

 

[beadhead2]

Ed Shenk's Master Of The Letort VHS ,I have available in DVD
PM me for details if interested

 

[govtmule]

if you dont want to spin the deerhair you can use a wool head, you may not get the full "walk the dog" type action but iit will work...

 

[surveyor06]

Probably one of those things I should learn as a fly tier I guess. Thats why I dont a razor on my desk. Do you guys use a dubbing loop for the body?

 

[JohnnyUtah]

I tie them with a loop and with out. I feel the looped ones are better. BUt that just m.h.o.

 

[pete41]

This will sound silly~`so be it.
Nothing looks more like a sculpin scurrying across the bottom than a light spruce fly streamer.Nothing.lol
The only drawback to the feather wing streamer is they are a pain for night fishing as the wing will rap around the hook so you have to check it often.
Buy one,tie one and watch its action,then compare it to the real thing.

 

[jayL]

A slumpbuster accomplishes basically the same thing, but is easier to tie imo.

 

[gfen]

pete41 wrote:
The only drawback to the feather wing streamer is they are a pain for night fishing as the wing will rap around the hook so you have to check it often.

Matuka-style wings combat this. Simple concept, bind the back of the feather wing to the hook above the bend.

 

[pete41]

true-
[he actually ties,wow] but it just doesn't have the sculpin wiggle.Also the light tips on the badger makes it look alive,in the water.

 

[Stevie-B]

It's odd this topic came up. I just tried tying these up myself. I tried tying them two different ways. I have never spun deer hear before so I gave it a shot. Some I tied with marabou for the front fins while brushing out the head and some I just used the deer hair. Think I might try to combine the two. I like the marabou fins and think the deer hair makes for a thicker head.

 

[JohnnyUtah]

Nice wraps steve, They will work for sure.