Magic Moth Fly Pattern

[ivory arrow]

My Magic Moth pattern is nothing fancy, but it is effective. It is an excellent Stillwater pattern, or for very slow moving water. It submerges too easily in faster waters, but can be lethal on lakes and ponds.

It's just a dubbed body, and foam thorax. Then I tie on a triangular piece of thin (2mm) foam to the back of it.

The foam thorax is a key feature of this fly. The triangular shape of the foam means that the butt end is more buoyant than the head. The head can sink without additional foam added. By adding a foam thorax the fly floats flush on the surface like a natural moth.

It is also important to secure the body of the fly to the wing in such a way that it doesn't dangle below the foam. It is unnatural, and fish will often grab the wing, but not the hook, which leads to missed fish. It will also cause the fly to twist more during casting. You want to attach the foam wing at two points, the head, and the back.

You could use glue, but I don't like to use anything with an odor. I simply tie a tag end of string to the body of the fly. Pierce the foam with a needle and pull the tag end through. Then use that tag end to secure the back of the fly snug to the hook shank by pulling it tight and tying off at the eye. I tie off the tag end at the head of the fly with my final finishing knot.

It's not a pretty fly, but it works.

The Magic Moth.

Two fish that fell for it this week at a public Colorado reservoir.

 

[bigjim5589]

When I was growing up back in the 70's, I remember seeing many moth & butterfly patterns in magazines at that time & from before that time. I also remember seeing fish strike at moths & butterflies that had flown near the waters surface or had fallen into the water, so knew they would work.

The foam of today was not available then, so hackles of various types were used for the wings and it was difficult to get a good balance & even tie from one side to the other. I tried tying some myself, but found them to spin badly when casting them, which of course twisted the leader & tippet. They also tended to be quite wind resistant, which also made casting them any distance difficult. If you search some of the history of old bass flies, many of them were moth or butterfly imitations.

I gave up on the idea many years ago.

I like that you've kept it simple, and as long as they catch fish, who cares if it's not pretty.

Some of our most popular & productive fly patterns historically have been simple. :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing it!

 

[ivory arrow]

Thanks for bringing up the issue of wind resistance. You are right, when I first started tying and fishing this fly I had a problem with my leader twisting. Ultimately I found that a stiffer and shorter leader was necessarily to turn the fly over without twisting. When tied in a size 12 you have to fish it on at least 5x leader, and it helps if the leader is shorter than 9ft. Admittedly that is not great for many situations.


It casts fine. You can't tell the difference between casting this and a foam hopper of an equivalent size. The foam I use is called "silly winks" and is available from Hobby Lobby. It has a different, thicker density than some other fly tying foams I have felt. That might aid in its casting. I don't know. It has a bit of weight to it.

I did tweak this pattern several times and I found that the triangular wing works best. I suppose it is more aerodynamic than some other shapes. The more round the wing the more it will twist. Here you can see my fly next to a natural. The natural is more round and wide, but it will twist. The triangular shape has worked well for me. This is my second summer fishing this pattern and I haven't had trouble with it.

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[bbbruce77]

Neat pattern that I will definitely add to what I am now teaching my two grand sons
who are 9 & 11 and just getting interested in learning how to tie flies.

 

[ivory arrow]

That sounds great Bruce. I hope it works as well for you as it has for me.



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