Tying Little Green Machine Trout Fly
This is a video on tying the Little Green Machine Fly. The Little Green Machine trout fly is one of my most productive mayfly nymphs on the Missouri River. I’d like to thank Vince for such a great fishing catching machine!
Fly Recipe:
Hook: Dai-Riki #060 size 18
Bead: Tungsten 5/64 Copper
Thread: Uni-Thread Camel 8/0
Tail: Pheasant Tail Abdomen: Micro Tubing Red
Thorax: Ice Dub Olive Brown
Wings: Poly McFlyon White Wing
Case: Small Pearl Mylar
The trick to tying this guy is keeping things slim and bulk to a minimum. Keep the thread wraps to a minimum, pheasant tail fibers to 4 or 5, stretch the tubing tight over the abdomen when you wrap it, wing buds sparse, and dubbing sparse on the thorax. With such a great profile it’s worth tying up this bug in a few other great colors. Gray, Chartreuse, and black are all great colors to have in the fly box. Next time you’re at the tying vise and you’re thinking about tying up some mayfly nymphs… Watch this video and tie up some of Vince Wilcox’s Little Green Machine and I bet you’ll have a new favorite mayfly nymph.
How do I fish the Little Green Machine trout fly? There are a number of ways that I fish this bug. Most often I fish the Little Green Machine on a standard two fly nymph rig. Length and weight are always changing but my standard nymph rig is set up as follows… I have a 9′ 4x leader, I tie on 2′ of 4X tippet, then I tie on my lead fly, to the bend of the lead fly I tie on another 2′ of tippet and secure my bottom bug. I run the bigger heavier bug as a lead and the smaller lighter bug as a trailer. Some times the Little Green Machine is the lead fly and some times its the trailing fly. I will also run a shorter rig and fish shallow water with it. So for example I’ll take a 4′ section of 0X and tie on a Strike Foundry indicator, yeah, that’s right… I said Strike FOundry! I still have 6 of them stashed away and I rock’m! On the other end of the inline indicator I tie on maybe 3′ of 4 Xand tie on my lead bug, then I tie 2 feet of 5X off the bend of the lead fly and tie on my bottom bug. I fish this rig in skinny water. Be it skinny and slow or fast and shallow, it’s a great rig when the fish are in that water. The third way I like to fish this fly is off the back of a dry fly. I set up a 9′ 4X leader and tie on 2′ of tippet, tie on my dry, then off the bend of the dry fly I run maybe 12” max of 5X and tie on my Little Green Machine. This is a great rig when blind fishing a dry fly or if fish are eating duns and emergers.
Tie up a bunch of these guys next time you’re at the vise and tie one on next time you are looking for a baetis nymph! I bet you’ll find a new favorite bug!
