[dorian.ducker]

Sorry...I am still relatively new to all the entomology. What exactly are scuds? I have about ten of them in my fly box in about 4 different colors, but I don't know what they are supposed to match.

[tie one on]

If I'm not mistaken they are to mimic a larva stage,
similar to a maggot. They are great flies. I've caught
lots of different species on those flies.

It's always good to carry various colors, it's give you
many options.

Tie One On

[dorian.ducker]

Larva of what?

[GeorgeMcFly]

I believe scuds are freshwater shrimp. here ya go "Insects for Beginners - 101, Part 5 - Scuds and Sowbugs FAOL"

[Doc]

dorian.ducker, scuds are an aquatic life form and a relative of the shrimp. They are a very important food to trout in stillwaters and a true staple second only to chironomids (midges). Here's a chart from Phil Rowley's book 'Fly Patterns For Stillwaters'.


In my experience there are two great ways to fish scuds in stillwaters.

#1 - Under a strike indicator. You can hang your scud at the desired depth in shallow or deep water (higher percentage of scuds found in shallow water and in low light). With this technique a curved hook should be used as scuds hold their bodies in a curved fashion when they are dead, resting, feeding or falling through the water column. Very fast strips then letting the fly sit for long periods of time would be your presentation with a curved scud pattern.

#2 - Stripped in.
When scuds swim, they do so with their body extended. Patterns with pronounced curves are not effective with this technique. Your retrieve should be short, quick and jerky with a few seconds of pause.

Pattern colors should resemble the plant life seen on the lake bottom.

As far as in rivers, I just fish them dead drift as I do any nymph.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Doc

[MrEsox]

Scuds are an ground to ground missile made by the soviet union sometime ago. HA surprized no one had put that down yet.

A scud is a name given to a small amphapod. They are NOT, I say again NOT freshwater shrimp or even related to shrimp. Shrimp after all are crestations. Though they do look alike their physiology are differant. A scud actually looks more like the tail section of a shrimp that you get with a shrimp dinner. Some other facts is they are heavily segmented and lack a fan like tail shirimp have. I use to work IDing macro aquatic inverts and I use to see these things a lot. In the US 2 speacies are common but very hard to tell the differance between and a microscope is needed to do so. For fish they provide a good stepping stone for small fish, but lack nutrition to sustain larger fish. I have tried to tie this pattern and find it to be too frustrating to get down right, so I picked one up at my local fly shop. I find that this pattern works for almost any fish, but perch and gills seam to really like it over other patterns.

[GeorgeMcFly]

sorry for saying they were freshwater shrimp. they are not shrimp just shrimp like in appearance! is that better.

I was just going by the fly anglers online page. on the link I posted above it says scuds are relatives of the shrimp and crayfish family and that they are often refered to as freshwater shrimp. I have never seen one in person or used a scud pattern to fish with.I will have to give tying some a try. there isn't much vegatation on the rivers I fish but we are hitting up a few lakes this summer and I might have to try some out. gives me a reason to tie the pattern. anyone got good scud imitation patterns? I seen one thats almost real looking using uv knotsense to harden the latex shellback casing. don't have any knot sense tho so any others?

[Joni]

around here SCUDs can be pupa or a POTATO BUG I guess Sow Bugs the same thing. Different colors for different stages. Orange and Pink work well here in the rivers. Olive and Gray are probably the best, but then there is the RAINBOW...that stuff is fantastic!

[sandfly]

scud.....shrimp !!

[Joni]

The only shrimp in the Rocky Mountains is the Brine Shrimp of the Great Salt Lake or the ones on my plate with a lot of Garlic Butter...Mmmmmmm

But we do have SCUDS in the tailwaters and I guess they do belong to the fresh shrimp family.
Sorry, the Sows are the Potato Bugs