Walt Mueller, Jr. aka "The Otter" (always in the water and usually catching fish) has been an avid fly tier and fisherman for over 50 years and resides along the Blue River in the Colorado Rockies. While also known for his small nymph patterns, he has the distinction of developing and marketing the original "Soft Milking Egg" fly patterns. While he initially developed these realistic and highly effective milking egg patterns for the Great Lakes steelhead areas that he fishes, they have also proven to be exceptional flies for all the cold water fish species, from:
- Alaska
- Canada,
- Pacific Northwest
- Mountain West
- Great Lakes
- and other world areas for all steelhead, salmon and trout species
While there are many other egg patterns on the market, none are "soft and milking". Others are made of hard plastics or epoxy and do not exhibit the "milking" characteristic of real fish eggs. These "Soft Milking Egg" patterns duplicate real fish eggs when drifting in the water current. Walt developed and created various color and size combinations to duplicate realistic colors for the different species of trout, salmon and sucker spawn eggs in our rivers.
Walt shows you how to tie "Soft Milking Egg" fly patterns with 15 different colors and 6 different sizes and configurations from his small 2 x 2 mm double row "Soft Sucker Spawn" OS-3 flies on tiny #18 thru #10 hooks, then the 4 mm, 6 mm and 10 mm flies with single eggs on #16 thru #6 hooks plus the larger 3 x 6 mm clusters and multiple clusters in various sizes on #10 up to #2/0 hooks, tied in his many different translucent and opaque egg colors with Otter's Milking Veil material. He also demonstrates tying realistic "Soft Spawn Sack" flies that last for multiple hook-ups using his different sizes of egg materials, plus a new method to tie up the Alaska style pegged egg system using his realistic products. "Walt's Otter eggs are incredible - nothing compares" Matt Supinsky, Owner, Gray Drake Lodge, Newaygo, MI, writer and guide photographer.
