Mother Shucker

Mother Shucker Gray

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Tying Instructions

1. Attach the thread behind the eye of the hook and lay a thread foundation to the bend of the hook.

2. Create a foam body with 1mm foam. I am using a size 12 Morrish foam indicator cutter. It is almost the right size and shape for a size 20 Mothershucker.

3. Both sides of the foam need a little bit of trimming.

4. You want the foam to be about the same width as the gap of the hook.

5. Measure the shuck part of the foam to one shank length.

6. Attach the foam to the top of the hook shank at the bend of the hook so that about one hook length of foam is beyond the bend. Wrap the thread forward on the shank not more than the midpoint of the shank.

7. Wrap the thread around the shank under the foam tag to the 3/4 postion and attach the foam at that postion with some thread wraps. This will create a body segment.

8. Trim the foam so that it does not exceed beyond the eye of the hook and secure with thread wraps from the 3/4 position on the shank to just behind the eye. Wrap the thread back to the 3/4 position.

9. Attach a nylon thread or 7x tippet material behind the eye with thread wraps. I have a gallows tool set up on my vise to hold the tippet vertically over the hook.

10. Attach the base of a saddle hackle sized to the hook to the side of the shank just behind the eye. Secure the hackle quill to the base of the tippet with thread wraps.

11. Wrap the hackle around the tippet going up the tippet 4 times and down 4 times so that the hackle is near the base of the tippet where you will secure the hackle with a few thread wraps.

12. Bring the tippet forward over the eye of the hook and place a thread wrap over the tippet behind the eye. Then, bring the tippet back towards the rear and lock the tippet with more thread wraps behind the eye of the hook.

13. Then bring the tippet forward, secure with some thread wraps.

14. Trim off the tag end of the nylon thread..

15.Apply a whip finish.

16. Apply some head cement to the underside of the thread wraps/

17. The finished Mother Shucker.

Materials to Order Material, click the link
Hook	TMC 100 #20-22
Thread	Uni-thread Gray 8/0
Body	1mm Foam Tan
Shuck	1mm Foam Tan
Thorax	Uni-thread Gray 8/0
Hackle	Light Dun Hackle
Post	6X tippet

Phil Bair

Mother Shucker

A foam body for a midge is not often used but, if you can do it, it provides great floatability. In Utah, there are some very large midges, in fact the “mother” of all midges, the Buffalo Midge. Utah fly fisherman, Phil Bair came up with this pattern as he recognized the large number of buffalo midge emergers that were being consumed by the trout during the Fall months.

Usually, trout concentrate on the bottom of the stream bed for midges but, in this case, they were concentrating on the surface. The problem that the midges had was getting stuck within their shuck and creating an easy meal for the trout. Phil thought about the floatability issue for a desired pattern and tried out a piece from his rubber doormat. It worked and figured foam would work even better, it did! He had a Mother Shucker…

The foam color could be selected to match the midge, often tan or gray, and a light dun hackle is tied in the paraloop method would give a good sight mechanism as well as represent emerging wings. Phil also found that if he used a dark colored foam, the pattern will work well during BWO hatches.

Mother Shucker Brown

Hook	TMC 100 #20-22
Thread	Uni-thread Brown 8/0
Body	2mm Foam Brown
Thorax	Uni-thread Brown 8/0
Shuck	2mm Foam Brown
Post	6X tippet
Hackle	Light Dun Hackle

Mother Shucker Black

Hook	TMC 100 #20-22
Thread	Uni-thread Black 8/0
Body	1mm Foam Black
Thorax	Uni-thread Black 8/0
Shuck	1mm Foam Black
Post	6X tippet
Hackle	Black Hackle