I know, it’s Christmas Day, and I’m writing about scud patterns! The “wee fella” is playing with a new X-Box and I’m just not quite into that sort of thing. He’s promised me that later on, now that he is feeling better today, he’ll definitely be wanting to try out his new smaller bobbin I gave him.

Yesterday evening (Christmas Eve), I wrote about trying out my own new bobbin and working on some scud patterns that I want to experiment with and try out. This morning, I thought I’d see what others have to say about their favorite scud patterns. I came across The Winona Fly Factory blog and specifically, this post: The T.hread H.eaded S.cud. Take a look at the photos of his scuds. I really like how he has used the orange thread as a “hot spot.”

In my research, I note that Ian James writes:

“John went on to tell me that there is a parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis which lives in the intestinal tract of a scud and which turns the intestinal tract orange. Fish key in on this. Why orange? The scud is simply the intermediate host for the parasite. It actually wants to end up living in a trout, barbel (Barbus barbus), bream (Abramis brama), goldfish (Carassius auratus) or chub (Leuciscus cephalus). So by turning the scud bright orange the trout can easily see it. The trout woofs down the scud and the parasite ends up where it wants to be … inside the trout. Darn cunning. Sometimes you will find dead orange coloured scuds in the water or inside a fish. Orange is not the colour of a live scud, it shows up when the insect dies. The orange colour is carotene and when ingested, the carotene is transferred into the tissue of the fish, and the flesh takes on a nice reddish-pink colour.”

~ Ian James – “Scuds. It’s all about scuds.”

Lots of ideas coming to mind now. I’ll have to try to keep it all simple, so David can make another video “to teach other kids” too!