People enjoy fly fishing scuds for a variety of reasons. For some, it’s an opportunity to get out in nature, away from the business of “real life” and hopefully land some fish. For others, it’s a chance to study and potentially outsmart one aspect of nature.
In order to do this, anglers must be knowledgeable in their fly choices. While it’s important to properly present flies, you’ll struggle to land fish if you can’t select the proper pattern. There are few patterns in fly fishing that are overlooked and found in very specific areas of the world.
Scud patterns are one of those unique patterns that anglers don’t even bother using. They find themselves fishing with baitfish streamers, caddis patterns and mayfly nymphs. Scud patterns should never be overlooked!
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I never had fished a scud pattern until I started fishing the tailwaters in the western United States. These flies live in extremely cold water and I’ve had a massive amount of success nymphing with these flies.
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A scud is a freshwater crustacean. Many anglers refer to them as freshwater shrimp. Again, they’re never going to be the most popular fly in an anglers box, but they should be used often throughout the season. If you find a solid scud bite, you can believe you’ll land quite a few fish.
There are over 90 different species of Scud in North America. Be sure to spend some time at your local fly shop before you decide what pattern you need to use. They’re extremely active and fish love to feast on them.
Scuds belong to the Amphipoda family. Other species in this family include lobsters, crayfish as well as shrimp.
Scud always reproduce in the spring. Females are the ones that are always going to be carrying the eggs. The eggs stay on the underside of the thorax for up to three weeks. Once they have hatched, they’ll stay in the pouch for about a week.