Tying the M & M Pattern
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UNI Products Fly Tiers Corner
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Warmwater Edition
May 2024
Ariticle and photos by Craig Riendeau
Spring is such an awesome season to fly fish in warm water. During April, May and June just about every warm water species is either pre-spawn, spawn or post-spawn. Some species in fact may be in all those phases at the same time, as not all fish in a lake spawn at the same exact time. This makes for some of the easiest fishing of the year, because all the fish will be shallow or relatively so.
Spawners are easy to find just by cruising a shoreline and looking for beds. Side imaging on a depth finder will easily show you the depressions of a bed along a bank. Often the fish are congregated so heavily that you can just smell them.
Pre-spawn and post-spawn fish will be only slightly deeper than spawners being on the first available cover just off the bank. New growth weeds in four to eight feet of water on flats just off the spawning bank is a good starting point. Early pre-spawn or later post-spawn fish move further out from the spawning flat to the first point or drop off. Add a log, rock or fish crib on it and it’s a fish magnet.
No matter if I’m targeting crappie, bream or bass I use the same technique though slightly different sizes of flies. When looking for pre or post spawn fish I’ll have one rod with a search bait on a slow sinking fly line to find fish and another rod with a floating line rigged with a float and fly set up for targeting a spot once fish are located.
Why the change in technique? Springtime fish are more concentrated in a small area than most of the year. I want a moving bait to at least get a hit to know I’m in the right area as I move down a bank. Then I switch to the slow-moving float and fly to concentrate on that spot that drew a strike. The float and float will stay in the strike zone longer than a stripped fly. One float and fly cast can have the fly in the strike zone five times or more longer than multiple stripped casts improving your odds on a hit with less effort.
A good commercially available search fly would be one that has a wispy tail that has a lot of movement to trigger a reaction strike. Something with a rabbit strip or marabou tail works well. Try flies of one to two and a half inches in length for panfish, two to five inches for bass.
Today I want to focus on the float-and-fly pattern because this has been my bread and butter for years. A good float-and-fly pattern should be tied on a 90-degree jig hook and weighted to be balanced and hang horizontal under an indicator. For me, the better flies are made from materials the breath in the water, exhibiting subtle action when activated by waves or line twitches.
This describes the M & M fly pattern perfectly. It follows the philosophy of KISS, keep it simple sucker, to the tee. It is a No. 8, 90-degree jig hook with a small bead chain eye tied to the front of the eye stem, putting the weight forward and balancing it. Then four strands of Krystal Flash are tied down the length of the shank and cut a quarter of an inch longer than the shank. Next a thin bunch of marabou is tied to the bottom of the hook to the same length as the Krystal Flash. Add a similar thickness and length of marabou to the top of the hook shank. Remember this fly rides hook up, when choosing top from bottom.
Also use a dark over light color pattern, such as white on the bottom and grey on top. Even with darker colors do the same – brown on the bottom, black on top. Finally add a finished head of thread to the fly and you’re done.
You want to keep the material length short. Spawning fish do not feed much but rather defend their nest and often just grab the tail of a longer fly only to move it off from the nest. A shorter tail will result in more hook ups. You can do the same for bass by using a #2 ninety-degree jig hook and cutting the marabou to about two inches. Yes, big bass will eat tiny morsels if hung directly in their face for a length of time.
Fish this on a 3x- or 4x-tippet leader for panfish or a 3x- to 1x-leader for bass, depending on cover. I use a 1/2-inch ball indicator with the No.8 fly and a 3/4-inch indicator with the No.2. I like the tooth-pick secured indicators because I can easily adjust the depth for the water that I am fishing. Using a popper for your indicator will work too, may even get you doubles. But this doesn’t allow you to quickly or easily adjust your depth. If I start getting more hits on my indicator than my fly, I just pick up another rod rigged with a popper and fish that.
Bright colored flies such as chartreuse or pink work well on aggressive fish. With skittish fish more muted colors excel like olive or black. Fish the flies like you were using a cricket under a bobber but had too much coffee that morning. Let the fly sit in place for five to ten seconds, then pull it a foot or so away and sit again. Repeat this until you feel that you’re out of the strike zone. Doesn’t get much easier or effective than this.
