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 Malone Skater

This simple fly was first shown to me in the early 70s by the late Russ Malone.  I don’t fish it often but sometimes it does seem to attract fish to the surface when others fail.  What the fish take a skater (often called a spider) for is anybody’s guess.  Once while fishing the Willowemoc on a slow day, I saw a nice brown take a fluttering moth.  I put on the Malone Skater and took him on the first cast!  Using the same fly, I caught several others during the course of the afternoon.  The fly can be fished either dead drift, twitched or skated on the swing.  The trout will tell you which way they want it on that particular day.

The most difficult part of tying the fly is finding hackle large enough and stiff enough to be suitable.  The more web free, the better the fly floats and moves on the water.  The hackle is tied greatly oversized.  Russ said that the diameter of the wound hackle should be the same as the diameter of a 50-cent piece.   Color is not as important as quality.  The rear hackle is wound with the concave side facing forward and the front hackle is wound with the concave facing toward the rear of the hook.  I normally use 6 or 7 turns of each hackle.  More turns produce a bushier fly but makes the next step more difficult.  Using the thumb and forefinger of each hand (watch out for the hook point!!) push the hackles toward each other to form a tight clump in the middle.

Hook : Dry fly; #16

Hackle : Cree, brown, ginger, grizzly, cream or dun; oversized

Alan Bowers

Fly tied by Alan Bowers