The Men In Black - an inside look

I'll probably catch hell from Mrs. Roughfisher for giving away my trade secrets for free, but I'm in a giving mood today, so here goes. The Men In Black (MIB) is a roughfisher swimming nymph gone undercover. These G-men have been kicking ass on the water so far this winter/spring and have been taking names. Definitely one of the first flies you grab to start the day and search the water. Let's take a look at how we roll:


Contraband list

• 2x heavy, 1x long, curved nymph hook, or stainless O'Shaughnessy hook
  
• 6/0 UNI thread, black
  
• bead chain eye, gold
  
• monoflash (or krystal flash), peacock
  
• zonker strip or hare, black
  
• black/peacock ice dubbing
  
• peacock herl
  
• glimmer flash chenille, peacock
  
• sili legs, black

Tie in the bead chain on top of the hook shank using a figure 8 wrap.


Tie in two strands of flash at the base of the hook, just above the bend.


Pinch a clump of rabbbit hair and tie in for the tail. Spin dubbing onto thread and dub a tapered body. I used a custom dubbing blend: similar to the Hare-line Ice Dub, but with antron added to provide body. My blend provides better built bodies than the Hareline product which IMO doesn't have enough filler in it.


Tie in 5 or 6 strands of peacock herl for a wingcase.


Tie in a strand of glimmer flash chenille for the thorax, and palmer two turns, counter clockwise. Tie in and trim tag end.


Hold two 1" pieces of sili leg material parallel to the top of the hook shank. Use two thread wraps to hold legs in place; straighten and even legs out.


Pull wingcase over bead chain eyes and tie off. Whip finish head, starting at the base of the bead chain eyes, and working your way toward the hook eye. Repeat. By whip finishing from back to front, you are covering the tag end of the knot with thread wraps. This will add protection to your knot and keep it from unraveling after use.


This pattern is highly versatile. You can fish it actively as a streamer, roll it on the bottom like a crawfish, dead-drift it like a stonefly nymph or hellgrammite (dobsonfly nymph), or swing it like an emergent stonefly, dobsonfly, or large mayfly nymph. Hold on to your rod grip lest some beast from the bottom rip it from your hands.


Now that you know the secret to tying these muthas, you better make it look good.