Creative Twist to a Sculpin Pattern

If I had to pick one streamer, and one only, to fish for trout, it's a simple little sculpin pattern I like to tie/fish.  It's not overly complex, it's a fast tie, and the fish seem to react pretty well to it.  I admittedly do not streamer fish much for trout, but when I do, I tend to reach for this pattern first.

The recipe is pretty straight forward.

Hook: DaiRiki 700B size 6 (20* bent shank "craw" hook)

Tail: rabbit strip

Body: dubbed, thick, I have used both Arizona Diamond Dub and Cohen's Carp Dub

Pectoral 1: deer hair tips, one clump per side

Pectoral 2: Lazer Dub or Bruiser Blend

Head: Sculpin Helmet

The rationale for the deer hair being included behind the dubbing pectorals is that the deer hair, when flared, will help prop the dubbing "fins" out a bit.  Since I use a small amount of deer hair, it doesn't add noticeable buoyancy to the pattern.  I add a few little touches of detail that are not 100% necessary, but I like to add them in and they don't take me much time.  One is hot-spotting the tip of the zonker strip with a little arctic fox, the other is powder painting the Sculpin Helmets.

So I was thinking about other color combos for this pattern and it hit me...this fly has a real similar profile to a juvenile channel catfish.  I took a few minutes last night and gave this a go.  I like the results, and will fish it soon (I hope) to see if the warmwater fish will eat a baby channel cat.

A couple of little differences I made for the channel cat version include pulling the zonker strip over the dubbed body (lighter color belly) for a more two-toned effect, and obviously adding some rubber legs for whiskers.  The helmet was powder painted in a "Pearl Pepper" color, which is a silvery gray color.  For the long whiskers, I used a strand of medium round rubber leg material, the shorter whiskers were made with small round rubber legs.  I just had to make sure I left enough extra space between the helmet and the hook eye to tie them in.  I used "Minnow Belly" Ice Dub for the dubbed belly of this version.  Here's a view from underneath.

I am planning on getting out for smallies on Friday morning, and I will be taking this little guy with me.  I wouldn't put it past a stream smallie to pounce on a little channel cat.