Murray’s Strymph

Many anglers call the Murray’s Strymph the universal smallmouth fly. When I first developed the fly I was fishing for smallmouths almost every morning. Some mornings they were in the riffles and I did well fishing nymphs upstream dead drift. Other mornings they were further down in the pools feeding on minnows when streamers were more effective. After a great amount of experimenting the Strymph evolved which could be fished across stream as a streamer and upstream as a nymph. The design goes back to the late Charlie Brooks, a special friend, who encouraged a “In-The-Round” style of tying and the use of ostrich hurl for the Murray’s Nymphs.

I fish this upstream dead drift, keeping a tight line on it and using my Bright Butt Leader with 2 MFS Indicators so I can see the strike on my indicator system. I also fish this across stream using a 6 inch stripping action to swim it slowly across the stream bottom.

The Black Strymph is effective in mimicking the hellgrammite and sculpins. The Olive Strymph is very effective when the bass are feeding on dragonfly nymphs and dace minnows. The Cream Strymph is an effective nymph and where there are chub minnows.

Later I discovered the strymph is an outstanding fly for large trout all across the country.

For additional information on how to fish nymphs dead drift listen to my podcast “Upstream Dead Drift Nymphing”