Nutria Sculpin Munker

Our Nutria Sculpin Munkers are designed and tied by Alex Belonga. Alex lives and fishes in the Great Lakes region and the Nutria Sculpin Munker is designed for this fishery.

The idea of designing a Munker style like this was born out of the observation of a great guide and friend of mine in Canada. A huge majority of Great Lakes steelhead and Atlantic salmon (and pretty much all species save our Great Lakes Chinook) is river baitfish like sculpins & darters, and other things like crayfish. These forage species are nicely imitated with this Munker design.

Nutria Sculpin Munkers seem to work well on a wide variety of species for us year round, and especially in the winter months when other patterns won’t make them move. (We are fishing 33-34deg water in the winter!)

The design is built upon a skittle tube platform. The reason I like the skittle tube is 3 fold:
1.) skittle tubes provide a great balance to a fly, especially when combined with larger steelhead/salmon hooks.
2.) the added skittle weight helps the zonker and deer hair break the surface. The skittle tube weight is about perfect! The fly tracks with the sink tip in line.
3.) because of all this, it allows you to use really light tips to really heavy tips, you can even lengthen out your leader on clear water and the fly still is in the zone.

Reasons for the nutria zonker:
1.) Nutria is a really unique spiky material not as common in North America. I love the buggy look, and it fights the current really well with great vibrating action.
2.) it doesn’t hold water like a rabbit strip. This makes it possible to cast it even on scandi heads. It also helps it to sink better
3.) if you look at it in the water, it just has a sculpin like look to it! I love it, it’s shiny and translucent like American Opposum, but more spiky with less underfur. It’s totally unique and really cool stuff.

We use the pattern primarily for Great Lakes steelhead, but it is really effective on our Atlantic salmon in the fall (post spawn when they aren’t eating small bugs on the surface). Tied smaller it would be a great stream trout pattern as well no doubt.
For summer months, it really shines on bass, carp, and even Pike!

My first fish on my own tied fly came on a Munker like these (although, not nearly as refined) in an olive scheme! I was hooked right away. We have also had some incredible days fishing these for steelhead! Really hard takes as well
And for the winter months, due to the skittle tube, you can put the fly right in front of the fish’s face, this is imperative in really cold water.

An article on how to tie the Nutria Sculpin Munker can be found here: https://skeenaflyzone.com/how-to-tie-the-sculpin-munker/

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IMPORTANT:
All our flies are Custom Hand Tied here in Smithers, BC, Canada by Jaap Kalkman. With a broad experience in commercial fly production, fly design, guiding and destination travel, Jaap will be able to help you with fly selection and tie the perfect flies for your next fly fishing adventure.

We have a selection of fly designs that you can choose from, or you can completely custom design your flies. Either way the flies will be tied for you by Jaap. To facilitate the ordering process you can simply order the flies that we have in our design selection from the site. Using our standard shopping experience with basket and secure checkout. If you want a customized design that is not in our selection simply contact Jaap: jaap@skeenariverflysupply.com

Custom fly production takes time; we suggest to order your flies at least 2-3 months prior to your trip in order to make sure that your flies can be produced on time. When you place your order we will let you know when you can expect your flies to be ready. Waiting times most commonly vary between 2 weeks and 3 months. For big orders from Lodges and Guides and Outfitters we suggest to order your fly selections for the next season just after the current season.

In order to make custom fly production feasable and cost-effective there is a minimum order quantity of 6 per fly pattern.

The difference between a good angler and a great angler lies in the details. This goes also for fly designs. Attention to detail is what we do, from hook or tube selection to materials to the way the material are tied in to make them move the best. The end result is a fly that produces more strikes, the landing part is up to you!