There's nothing quite like the sight of a hook jawed, massively shouldered salmonid T-boning a triple articulated, water pushing, irrepressibly swimmy streamer the size of a squirrel, but let's face it, large trout and char don't always just eat big stuff. In fact, realistically, many of them probably snack on smaller prey much of the time just to get by. While I love chucking and ducking a monster Dungeon as much as the next person, there are times when smaller patterns really outshine the huge ones. Conditions like low and clear water or excessive fishing pressure can get those apex predators second-guessing their decision to pursue a suspicious looking chunk of protein and it's worthwhile to have a few smaller streamer options available for those days when the bigger patterns aren't so productive.
When the Morrish Micro Jigged Sculpin first showed up at the shop, there was little doubt it would be a fish-catching machine. It's a deceptively simple pattern, has lots of movement from the rabbit, prominent eyes for fish to key in on, subtle gills as a trigger point and is pretty muted like a natural sculpin. And, compared to many of the other modern streamers that grace the fly bins, can best be described as "wee", measuring no longer than an inch and a half. Sure enough, on the first trial day out on our local waters the Micro Jigged Sculpin stuck a few nice bull trout and a handful of rainbows, some of them coming after the run had been fished through with a much larger streamer. The brown and the olive colors that are commercially available from Rio both work exceptionally well, but I've found success with ginger, white and even black variations of the pattern too. If you want to size it down even more, you can also substitute pine squirrel for the rabbit in the wing/tail and throat.
I mostly swing the Morrish Micro Jigged Sculpin on a 3 or 4 weight trout spey and add some short, intermittent strips. It's not overly bulky or heavy, casts very easily and sinks well. This is definitely one worth adding to your streamer box this season and if you'd rather not tie your own, they're readily available to purchase at the shop.
Morrish Micro Jigged Sculpin Recipe:
Hook: #8 Fulling Mill Jig Force
Eyes: Small Pseudo Eyes
Thread: 140 Denier Olive Ultra Thread
Wing/Tail: Black Barred Olive Variant Rabbit Strip
Flash: UV Pearl Ripple Ice Fiber
Throat: Tan Rabbit Strip
Gills: Red Flashabou
Head: Black Barred Olive Variant Rabbit