The Green Butt Skunk was born on the banks of the North Umpqua River and has found a place into almost every steelhead anglers’ fly box. The fly doesn’t represent anything specific but works its magic in tantalizing and mysterious ways.  The fly has great contrast (black/white), a hot spot (the green butt and red tail), a bit of flash (silver tinsel) and has a baitfish like profile that swims and looks like FOOD!).

Fly Recipe

1. Hook – This is a wet fly or streamer. It should go on a larger hook usually. I tied mine on a Mustad, s4 spey hook.
   
   
2. Tag – Silver tinsel
   
   
3. Thread - a heavier or strong thread in black
   
   
4. Butt – Chartreuse sparkle yarn, chenille, ice-dub or floss all work well
   
   
5. Tail – Red hackle fibers
   
   
6. Body – Black – I tied mine using a black Ice Dub. Medium chenille is popular.
   
   
7. Rib – silver tinsel
   
   
8. Hackle – Black saddle hackle or schlappen
   
9. Wing – White calf tail

Tying Instructions

THREAD AND TAG

Start the thread around the 2/3 mark of the hook. Cut the waste as you tie back to the curve. Right before going around the bend, tie in your silver tinsel, turning it, so it rides on the bottom of the hook. Continue down and around the bend of the hook. Bring the thread back to just around the barb of the hook. Wrap the tinsel up the hook bend in touching turns to the thread, and tie the tinsel off. Keeping the tinsel on the bottom of the fly, I find that the whole tinseled area will remain flat. Tie in your red hackle fibers, making your tail as long as you like. Tie in the butt piece you are going to use and advance the thread about a head portion up the hook.

MAKE YOUR DUBBING LOOP

If you use dubbing, prepare it before you start. I will preen the dubbing fibers and lay them out on my leg so I can see. Depending on the body you are after, this is the best way to see before putting it all in a dubbing loop and spinning it up. I try to build my body with shorter fibers first that get progressively longer towards the head of the fly.  Now is when I tie in the tinsel rib, which adds some critical flash and helps keep the body intact when you start catching fish. I keep the tinsel on the bottom of the hook and leave a tiny space between the butt section and where I start the tinsel. Then when I create my dubbing loop, put the dubbing in it and spin it up slowly, while combing it out. This makes a dubbing loop that will look and tie-up better.

MAKE YOUR BODY

Wrap the dubbing loop (or chenille) up the hook, about 2 to 3 heads lengths back from the hook eye.  As you wrap the dubbing up the hook, pull each wrap backwards so the fibers are out of the way for the next wrap. Tie off the dubbing loop and comb it out to make a shaggy body. Pull the dubbing fibers out from the shank and wrap even turns of the silver tinsel through the body and secure it at the front of the hook. When done there, go back and comb the dubbing loop backwards.

ADD THE HACKLE

Tie in your hackle and make sure when you do, it is NOT longer than your tail. Make 3-4 turns of the hackle and tie it off and trim the waste piece. Wrap back through the hackle for durability and then wrap the thread back over the front of the hackle a bit to make the hackle face towards the back of the fly.

TIE IN THE WING

Now take your calf tail and cut a not too big a piece off. Use a brush or your fingers and remove any hair fuzz and shorter pieces of hair out and put the rest in a hair stacker tool. This is critical to keep the wing on the fly, so it doesn’t fall out when making false casts. The wing length should be just longer than the body, but no longer than the tail. Calf tail is slippery so it helps to tie it in securely. I make a loop around the calf tail before I even get the material to the hook. I then finish the tie-in, holding up tiny sections of the calf tail butts and tying through them. After cutting the waste pieces out, I will usually go in with a cautery tool to burn the waste pieces off and then use a small amount of super glue before creating the head of the fly.

FINISH THE FLY

I like to do a double whip finish for durability. Once the head is completed, cut the thread and finish with head cement or UV resin.