Me, I saw this as a chance to tie the pattern with a bit of serious flare. Since I had no material list, I made it up as I went. The tail I tied with orange hackle tips, the purple abdomen was Ice Dub, the yellow fuzzies a collar of Ice Chenille. My interpretation of the front half was chartreuse and purple hackle palmered over some orange Ice Dub. The antlers? I crafted them out of some black ultra chenille. And thus, the Cheechalope was born.
Of course, now the only thing left to do was to actually fish this contraption. As hilarious as it looked, I was pretty confident that a hungry sunfish would actually consider this thing food. I wasn't wrong.
I retired the Cheechalope after that one fish. It had served its purpose, both in artistic endeavor and utility. Moral of the story: no matter how crazy the fly design, it just might work.
I have been around a long time on the fly fishing and fly tying front, and, I can assure you I have never seen or tied or fished a Cheechalope. Us fly fishers and fly tyers do take our sport much too seriously!
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