BONUS: Crafting The Nut Job: A Deep Dive with Brendan Ruch

In this episode of The Butcher Shop, host Marvin Cash sits down with Brendan Ruch, the inventor of the Nut Job, for an in-depth exploration of one of predator fly fishing's most innovative swim fly patterns. Brendan walks through the entire journey of the Nut Job's development—from its accidental creation during a Logjam Live session to its deliberate refinement into a deadly smallmouth bass and musky pattern. The conversation covers everything from selecting craft fur over natural materials to dialing in the precise proportions and weighting that give the fly its signature glide action. Whether you're tying articulated streamer patterns for spring smallmouth in Central Pennsylvania rivers or adapting the platform for eight-inch musky flies, this deep dive into materials, techniques and retrieve strategies provides the complete blueprint from the vise to the water.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Brendan Ruch - Inventor of the Nut Job fly pattern, Fly fishing guide (Central Pennsylvania smallmouth bass)

In this episode: Fly tier and guide Brendan Ruch shares the complete story behind the Nut Job swim fly, from its accidental invention to its deliberate refinement for predator species. Topics include craft fur selection and handling techniques, articulated fly construction on shank-hook platforms, precise material proportions for optimal glide action, weighting strategies for different water conditions, color theory for stained water visibility, retrieve techniques for walk-the-dog action and adaptations for multiple species including smallmouth bass, musky and stripers.

Key fishing techniques covered: • Strip-pause retrieves with slack line manipulation for glide bait action • Depth control using different tungsten bead weights (3/16" to 7/32") • Sink tip line selection (Type 3 vs intermediate) based on seasonal conditions • Walk-the-dog presentation with rod tip manipulation • Single hook versus double hook platforms for different applications

Location focus: Central Pennsylvania rivers (smallmouth bass focus), Great Lakes region (musky applications), East Coast waters

Target species: Smallmouth bass, musky, trout, stripers

Equipment discussed: Craft fur materials and handling techniques, Trout Predator hooks (sizes 1-2), B10S hooks, Maxima Chameleon leader material, tungsten beads, finesse chenille, silicone rubber legs, articulated shank systems, sink tip fly lines

Key questions answered: • How do you tie the Nut Job fly pattern step-by-step? • What makes craft fur superior to natural materials for swim flies? • How do you weight swim flies for different water conditions? • What retrieve techniques trigger strikes on articulated streamers? • How do you adapt the pattern for different predator species?

Best for: Intermediate to advanced anglers interested in predator fly fishing, articulated streamer construction, swim fly techniques, smallmouth bass fishing, musky fly fishing and modern synthetic fly tying materials

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Marvin Cash00:00:04

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Butcher Shop where the Meat Meets the Water. On this episode, I'm joined by Brendan Ruch, the inventor of the Nut Job. We take a deep dive into the Nut Job.From its accidental invention to its deliberate refinement. We cover everything from the vise to the water.I think you're really going to enjoy this one, but before we get to the interview, two, just a couple of housekeeping items to make sure you don't miss a single episode of the Butcher Shop. Be sure to subscribe in the podcaster of your choice.We're only distributing episodes on the Articulate Fly for a limited time and if you like the podcast, please tell a friend and subscribe and leave us a rating and review in the podcatcher of your choice. It really helps us out. And finally, a shout out to our sponsor, Trout Routes.I've known the team at trout routes almost before there was a team at trout routes. We all know streams are getting crowded and chances are you're not the only one at your local access point.Get away from the crowds and busy gravel lots by using Trout Routes Pro.With over 350,000 access points mapped across 50,000 trout streams and much more, Trout Routes has all the data you need to help you find angling opportunities that others will overlook. Up your game and download the app today.Use code artfly20 artfly20 all one word for 20% off of your Trout Routes Pro membership at maps.troutroutes.com and a shout out to our friends at Schultz Outfitters.Schultz Outfitters is Southern Michigan's premier flying tackle shop, and the guys at Schultz Outfitters are some of the fishiest dudes on the planet. Book a day on the water, swing by the shop or check out one of their many classes taught by some of the best anglers and tires in the game today.Check them out@schultzoutfitters.com or give them a shout at 734-544-1761. Now on to our interview. Well, Brendan, welcome to The Butcher Shop.

Brendan Ruch00:01:58

Thanks for having me.

Marvin Cash00:02:00

Yeah, looking forward to it. And you know we're going to take a deep dive into the Nut job this evening, folks.And I guess, Brendan, the best place to to kick this off is where did the name of the fly come from?

Brendan Ruch00:02:14

For a while I was kind of rebelling against naming flies, you know, as you do when you think you're too cool for that kind of stuff. And when the the ax video came out and it was called the Leggy Hair Day.I figured that probably wasn't the right move, so a buddy of mine just texted me out of the blue and was like, my. My buddy Matt Wren, he was like, hey, why don't you just call it the nut job? Because it's basically a circus peanut.And I was like, oh, yeah, a bit of a nut job and kind of only like to fish with nut jobs, so. Makes sense.

Marvin Cash00:02:48

Yeah. And it doesn't take you down the whole Adamms family, you know, Cousin It thing, right?

Brendan Ruch00:02:53

Yeah, they're. Schultz and Silverio were big on the cousin it, and while it does look like cousin it, I think it's kind of a negative connotation.

Marvin Cash00:03:03

Yeah, fair enough. We could have called it the Uncle Fester. Right. So.So, you know, if we step back in the time machine, you know, what was the hole in your fly box you were trying to fill when you started designing the nut job?

Brendan Ruch00:03:19

So it wasn't really like I had an idea to create that fly. It was.I was very regular on Logjam Live at the time and was staying at my friend Frank's house and didn't have, like, my big bag of hen saddles, but I did have craft fur. And everyone was talking about the bad hair day for, like, weeks on Log Jam. So I was like, what if I made, like an articulated bad hair day?And so the first version had, I think, three tines of craft fur on the front. Usually I. I tie stuff way too dense until I fish it, and then I'm like, oh, yeah, I need to take some stuff out of here.So after fishing the fly that I tied on Log Jam and it was kind of doing donuts, I was like, well, it, like the profile looked good. I took one tie in out. I think I just razored that fly. And when it went back out with it, it was like basically like a little glide bait. And it.It casted a lot easier than the, you know, the hen saddle flies.So from a guide perspective, it was like, like, it's not, it's not like casting a woolly bugger, but it's a little bit easier than, you know, a soaked, like, leggy boy or something like that.

Marvin Cash00:04:39

Yeah.Plus, I mean, you know, particularly with COVID and afterwards, I mean, it's been pretty difficult to get high quality saddles, and they're not cheap.

Marvin Cash00:04:48

Yeah.

Brendan Ruch00:04:48

And that's the big thing too. Like, it's. It's just a different material than it used to be, in my opinion.And not like worrying about wasting a good saddle on a fly tying order or like, I I would, like, be tying a.A yellow leggy boy and be like, well, like, I only got, like, three more of these left in this saddle, and then I gotta wait six months for the next drop. You know, it was kind of a. It's a weird place to be when you, like, rely on these things.

Marvin Cash00:05:21

Yeah, it's a terrible addiction, right?

Brendan Ruch00:05:25

It used to be.

Marvin Cash00:05:26

Yeah.

Brendan Ruch00:05:26

Yeah. Plenty of big bags of hen saddles laying around.

Marvin Cash00:05:32

Yeah.

Marvin Cash00:05:32

And so, you know, you mentioned the Bad Hair Day, but, you know, tell us a little bit more about kind of the anglers and tires that inspired the design.

Brendan Ruch00:05:41

So, yeah, the Bad Hair Day is a fly by Dave Pinchkowski, and it's like the ultimate simplistic fly that has dense density in the front of the head utilizing the crafter butts. And I obviously, like, completely just adapted that to the circus peanut platform. My idea or the.When I first started using shank hook hook platforms, that was with the Lafkus Brush head Deceiver. And that fly really changed, like, what I thought of fly tying because I. I came into the game, you know, pretty recently.Like, 2017, 2018 is when I started really getting into tying. And, like, I was spending more time tying than doing anything else when I was off the water.So I was big into tying, you know, changers and swinging Ds and kind of like, cut my teeth on those flies. And I'm. I'm glad I started with, like, you know, the more complex stuff because it's made everything else a little bit more natural, I guess.Like, kind of like starting with changers and then going to peanuts. Um, but the. Yeah, the Lafus Brush Head Deceiver is by far the easiest fly to make a fish want to eat.It's just, like, kicks really well, really easy to cast. It's like a guide's dream. Um, and then I guess that brings me to. So, yeah, like, change your platform swinging Ds. I really liked Shel's Fluttercraft.That was a fly that I tied, like, two of, and that's a craft fur base fly. The crafty changer. I pretty much learned from Schultz by getting some feedback on the.The heads being too narrow, and I guess bring it all home with the circus pea. I mean, that's essentially like the. The chassis of the nut job. So, like, you got a shank in the back, the big splayed marabou tail.Just like I learned from seeing Russ tie and, you know, seeing his flies first on Instagram. And then you have your chenille core and then a veil and that recipe, I mean, you can do a lot of different things with that. But I.For the swim fly and getting that, like, walk the dog, like, neutral buoyancy suspending action, I think craft fair might be. Well, I know it's my favorite material for the job.

Marvin Cash00:08:13

Got it. And, you know, you've touched on this a little bit. And obviously after that first nut job, you weren't trying to get it to swim donut.So as you were tuning the pattern, you know, what was the specific bite trigger you were trying to incorporate into the fly?

Brendan Ruch00:08:27

So my favorite thing to do in the springtime is, like, fish a bright fly. You know, it's. This is a very common pastime for people, but fishing a bright fly that kicks so, like, it might.It might kick the length of the fly like most flies do.And then you have, like, the flutter craft, which was really cool because it had a resin coated mallard flank back, and it was, like, tied upside down on a jig hook with a ton of weight. And that fly, because of all that weight, could actually move further than the length of the fly. More like a glide bait.So after fishing that, my expectations kind of changed, but I never tied another one. So I ended up fishing a lot of craft fur changers.And that kind of gave me, like, the best of both worlds, like, not tying with all that resin, but still having, like, a big glowy fly that kicks really well and, like, has a really predictable, like, glide bait action.

Marvin Cash00:09:33

Got it. And so, you know, why don't you walk us through kind of that, you know, not the original one that did the donuts, because no one wants to fish that.Right. But kind of the current state of the art pattern maybe kind of from the back to the front.

Brendan Ruch00:09:50

So selecting the right pieces of marabou.And one thing I learned was, like, when you're using a full, like, 2 inches for your marabu tail, the like, suddenly, like, the whole pack becomes usable. So, like, I used to only use maybe 15, 20% of a pack, and I was making small maribou tails for, like, changers and bully buggers.But when you're using 2 inches for some reason, like, that almost seems like the feathers were meant to be used at that, like, at that tie end point. So using two really dense feathers, if the feathers I grab are a little bit more sparse, then I'll use three without hesitation. And that's tied on.I. I have a bunch of the. The, like, original Blaine shanks. So I cut a 25 mil shank basically in half. So it's Like a pinpoint.And then I put that in the vise and that gives you like a nice clean platform for that matter, to lay flat. And I'm. I'm sure if you tied it on a traditional shank with the ramp, I'm sure it'd be fine. You just don't want to tie it up all the way on the ramp.And then I'll just do a few wraps of finesse chenille. I. I was putting hen saddle back there just to make it prettier, but I've come to learn that that doesn't change anything.So saving a couple bucks per fly there and then bringing what I learned from the brush head deceiver and the circus peanut with using Maxima chameleon to connect the flies or connect the hooks. So I'm using Maxima Chameleon 25 pound to connect that rear shank to the hook.And I've never had a failure, especially back there because there's no, you know, nothing's pulling on it. But from there I'm gonna do, actually there are two rubber legs or sometimes up to four rubber legs on that tail shank.And I'll just put that over the finesse chenille so it kind of like bails over the whole tail. And starting on that rear hook, gonna go like finesse chenille.Let's say halfway, three legs, finish the other third, three more legs, or you do four legs. The more legs you add, the more it's just kind of gonna like suspend before it starts to turn with the current. It's kind of like just more drag.Acts like a parachute. And then you're going to do your reverse side of the crash fur. And again, like keeping the butts in, just like the bad hair day.Then I'm going to use Maxima chameleon again to connect the rear hook to the front hook. And I think it's pretty important to. I use like a couple six mil beads, either two or one.But when you're securing that maxima to the front hook, I really like to put super glue right. Kind of like where that, where the mono meets the shank. Because I have had that not pull out, but I've had that like kind of break free side to side.So for years now, I've been using like loctite blue gel on that. And then I'll just get some real tight wraps. And I haven't had that problem since. But same thing as the rear hook.You're just going to add two tines of craft for instead of one. And you're going to keep. Maybe you want the butts to be about three quarters of an inch or like a five inch fly, four and a half inch fly.And however much of the butts you keep and how tall that is, that'll be your starting profile for the fly. And typically, I'll add more legs to the. The two tie ins of legs in the front.

Marvin Cash00:13:57

Got it. And I know you're really particular too, about the positioning of the legs on the fly.

Brendan Ruch00:14:02

Yeah, I like to position them on like, like airing on the top of the shank rather than just on the sides. I think it, it adds to that kind of like parachute suspending action.

Marvin Cash00:14:15

Yeah. And I also know too that you're like, it's kind of funny. I watched the video you did with Schultze preparing for the interview.You're super fastidious.

Marvin Cash00:14:24

Right.

Marvin Cash00:14:24

And so you also. Don't you have a trick with the shank positioning to help you get a better taper in the fly as well?

Brendan Ruch00:14:33

Yeah. So actually, yeah, I forgot something very crucial in that connection to the rear hook.So I started tying this fly by using like a 20 mil shank to connect the tail shank to the rear hook. And I would leave, I don't know, maybe an eighth of an inch kind of like hanging out the back of the rear hook.So I would connect that like how I learned from James Hughes. But like you, you put the shank in the vise wrap thread on it.So that gives you like a better base to like, kind of cinch it down into the thread that's gonna be on the hook. Um, but that's how that was just me getting the tail further from the. The tie in of craft fur on the rear hook.Now I will use a, like a 4 millimeter bead. And that saves a lot of headache. And I haven't noticed any difference in fishability, but kind of saves you some time there.But if you, if you buy 4 mil beads from like Jansen, that craft or whatever, you just thread that through the maxima and basically you're just spacing that tail away from the. The craft fur.

Marvin Cash00:15:52

Got it. Yeah. So you're basically using the same technique that you're using to attach the hooks.

Brendan Ruch00:15:57

Exactly. Yep, yep.

Marvin Cash00:15:59

Yeah, got it. And so, you know, as you were kind of experimenting with the pattern, are there any materials that just didn't make the final cut?

Brendan Ruch00:16:11

Yeah, I, I had tried putting a little bit of a brush head on the front, and there just doesn't need to be any more density added. I feel like I did some smaller ones with translucent brush just because I wanted to burn some money, I guess. But I, I found, like, finesse.Chenille from hairline seems to be by far, like, the slipperiest material for the, the core of that fly. And by that, I mean the fly is just gonna kick and travel a bit better.It's, it's doesn't have as much drag as some of the other, like, stiffer materials. And if you want to kind of like, beef up your profile a little bit, Senio satin chenille works really well too. So if you wanted to, let's say my.My average nut job is like 4 1/2 to 5 inches. If I wanted to tie a 6 inch fly, I would use satin chenille. And because of the taper that you're creating, you have to use more craft fur butts.So naturally you have to add more weight to fishing in a zone that you want to fish. And the weight kind of helps propel that fly, so the satin chenille isn't inhibiting the action.Um, so I, I wouldn't use satin chenille necessarily for the single or the standard, but I do like it for creating a little bit bigger profile on like a 6, 7 incher.

Marvin Cash00:17:41

Uh, got it.It's a great segue into my next question, which is, you know, obviously, you know, you have a synthetic focus versus natural materials and the nut job.And, you know, you know, because you could have done buck bucktail or something else, but, you know, obviously selecting synthetics over naturals affects kind of flow and, you know, all, you know, how much water passes through and around the fly. You know, how did making that synthetic over natural decision affect the fly's design?

Brendan Ruch00:18:14

So the decision to keep rolling with that platform. And let's start at, like, my faith in craft fur. So that came from the craft fur changers and then the brush head deceiver.And I was messing with, like, after, you know, spending years tying crafty changers, whether they were too sparse or too full, like, kind of got that figured out a little bit.And then I was messing with densities on the brush head deceivers, and I noticed that you could really get some more profile and a little bit different kick. Like maybe like more extreme kick if you, like, kind of beefed up the crafter. And I, I wasn't using butts.That's just kind of like tying it in, not even reverse. You're just tying it in on, like a little bucktail prop on the brush head. And I just, I started to develop a lot of Confidence in the.The fish ability of it. And even when it's tied densely, like, as long as you're not using too much too many, like, butts. Like, craft fur acts a lot like.Like it just like a hen saddle or like, schlopping. Like, there's something about it where, like, the water's flowing through it, but that doesn't mean that it's not gonna, like, deflect water.It's a very interesting material. And like, fishing, fishing this fly. I don't know, it's. It's really fun. And it was like, it's kind of unpredictable, like, after the pause.So that's kind of what kept me going with, like, even just like, I. I never thought I would have a pattern. I was very content with, you know, fishing peanuts, changers, swinging Ds, whatever. But I was.It was kind of just, like, curious to explore where this fly could go. And there's probably more, like, development that could happen with resins. I just. I'm not a huge fan of, you know, tasting resin on my fingers.Four, four hours after using.

Marvin Cash00:20:20

Does get everywhere too, dude. I mean, it's. I don't know what it. I don't know what the deal is, but, like, it gets everywhere.But, you know, any kind of tips or tricks kind of related to proportions or weighting you can share with folks.I'm, you know, in terms of, like, you know, you know how to kind of pick the bundles of craft fur to, like, I know you like to kind of place beads about, I don't know, a third to a halfway back sometimes, you know, on the front hook, like, combinations or tricks to kind of get your flies tuned the right way. You want to share with folks.

Brendan Ruch00:20:53

Yeah, I think getting a clean cut from the sheet of craft fur is, like, the most important thing.Like, before you even, like, start tying with craft fur, you need to be good at cutting craft fur, and then you need to be good at transitioning it from your left. Your right hand to your left hand or vice versa and flipping it because you're going to be reverse tying it. Like, it's.It's not the easiest material to work with, and it really helps to be like kind of a slow, methodical craft fur cutter. Like, it. It pays. It doesn't pay to rush it because then you just end up with like a. A loose clump of craft fur.You can't throw it in a hair stacker, you know, So I think making sure that you're cutting, like, as close to that backing material as you can and then being very careful when transferring it, you want to be like handling the craft for very close to where you cut it. So then you're not losing any of that bulk that you're trying to keep for the, the head, the bulk, or the butts. But yeah.So as far as waiting goes, I will switch between keeling three sixteen tungsten beads and seven thirty seconds.Tungsten beads and the, the seven thirty seconds are kind of reserved for that, like, really big profile, like five and a half to six inch fly and like high flows.Like, I, I, I was catching a lot of big fish early, like in really early spring Last year on 7/32 nut jobs and they're, they're necessary, but as soon as that current speed starts to drop and it's like almost average flows in the river that I fish, like, it's just too heavy. You can't really stall it. So that's where the, the 3:30 seconds or just keeling it on the boat comes into Play.I think 3:30 seconds is like, it's, it's definitely going to sink more than be like neutrally buoyant, but it keeps you in the game longer and faster current speeds than just keeling it would.

Marvin Cash00:23:08

Got it.And I, and I guess you like to, you know, obviously you're cutting clo the craft fur close to the backing, but, you know, I suspect you probably pull the tips when you're trying to size the clumps to tie in as opposed to cutting them, right?

Brendan Ruch00:23:21

Oh, yeah, that's a great question. So I learned from Mike Schultz to rip the tips at some point.It must have been like during COVID he was doing like, classes maybe, or it was like on the craft Fur Changer YouTube video. But he was ripping the tips. And so I started doing that.And at first it was like, that was, that was kind of like a technique that I had to wrap my head around. But that preserves the density of the clumps so much better than like pulling tips out to match, like the length that you want.So it, it also gives you just a much more full look when you're tying shorter clumps of craft fur. So, yeah, practice ripping the tips too, because that, that helps a ton and it'll just get you a nicer looking taper.

Marvin Cash00:24:10

Got it.And so, you know, can you share kind of your kind of preferred hook and shank combinations maybe for your, you know, your favorite sizes and maybe some favorite color combos?

Brendan Ruch00:24:21

Yeah, so I would say as far as hooks go, I'm only using a rex and occasionally B10S's. The standard size is going to be that, like 25 mil shank that I cut in half.I guess it could be a 15 if you're just using a standard shank and then a size two trout predator, either light or standard to a size one.Sometimes I'll do one, and one ought especially like, you know, just squeezing a little bit more length out of a fly and the hook penetration doesn't really go down. And in the springtime, that little bit of exercise kind of helps. I have done some with a.A one in the back and then two beads and then like a 2o worm hook like you would see on the swinging D in the front. Um, and that's a little long for just craft fur. So you can use a, like a little bucktail tie in to kind of prop the crafter up a little bit.You know, kind of learn learning from the Laskas fly. And I have had success with the Lafkus platform with, like, a shank, a size 4 trout predator, and a size 2 minnow up front.So I tied some nut jobs on that platform and caught trout in the West Branch of the Delaware with that. And it was a nice smallmouth fly.And I haven't tied any because I started tying a single version, and I'm tying that with two shanks off of a size 2 or a size 1 B10s.

Marvin Cash00:25:55

Got it. And on the single nut job, any other adjustments you need to kind of make in the tie, you know, to make it swim like the. Like the regular nut job.

Brendan Ruch00:26:08

So I feel like. I feel like there was more thought that went into that than the double, because usually sizing down a swim fly is.You lose a lot because it must have something to do with, like, the diameter of the fly line and then your leader. But for some reason, like, micro changers, like, I. I could never tie them myself to where I was like, oh, like, I'll fish this.Or even like some smaller finesse changers. Like, when you lose length, you lose a lot of that kick. So when I sized down the nut job, I wasn't really expecting much, but for some reason, I.So I was watching something with Russ, or maybe even we were talking at Bob in the Hood, and he was talking about, you know what, Marvin, it was on your podcast. I think he was talking about putting two shanks off of the rear hook for the flicker tail and, like, for the big tailwater circus peanuts. And that's.I was like, well, what if I did, like, tail and then a shank just for movement in the middle, like, not.Not really movement on the swim, but movement as far as, like, getting that tail to kind of, like, touch the eye of the hook, which is what you'll see on, like, a game changer or a shank hook, hook, fly.So I think I was, like, cleaning my truck, listening to that podcast, went in and tied one, and I was like, well, this looks kind of silly because it's just marabou with finesse, and then it. Some rubber legs and then a shank that just has finesse and then, like, you know, standard front hook nut job setup.So it looked a little silly, but the tail hit the eye of the hook, and that's. That gave me confidence to actually fish it.And when I fished it in the spring, I was like, oh, okay, this is like a single hook fly that I'm actually gonna fish. So that. That was. That was more exciting to me than the actual, like, what we're talking about today, like, the nut job.I think the single was definitely more of a surprise to me.

Marvin Cash00:28:19

Very neat. And so, you know, what are some common mistakes that folks make when they tie the nut job or even the single nut job?

Brendan Ruch00:28:28

Too sparse is something I see a lot.Usually doesn't happen very, like, super often, because I'll, like, if someone tags me in something and it looks too sparse, I'll just say, like, hey, like, you know, try adding twice as much craft fair to the front. You know, quarter inch longer on the butt. On the butts. And then most of the ones I'm seeing now are, like, dialed, which is sick.Like, it's really cool to see people tying the fly and, like, tying it really well. Whereas I feel like some of the other swim flies are a little bit, like the nut jobs, nowhere near as popular.So there aren't people posting a lot of poor ones, you know, But I'm just really excited to see people tying them. Well, I think when you're. When you're tying the tail, like, if you watch the video, you can see, like, I'm a very anal or thoughtful tire.Like, I. I take consideration in, like, every. Every time I tie in a material, I'm, like, looking at it to make sure it's exactly where I want it.So getting the tail to look right and act right, you have to hold the feathers by the tips, and then anything that isn't being captured by your. Your fingers needs to come off of that plume of feather. So it just. It makes it look a lot cleaner.And then you're also not getting more bulk at the tie in point than you have at the end of the feather. So you get more, more of that, like proper, like full wag of the tail on your pauses. It's the other tips.I think it's very easy to go too heavy on the chenille. So I'm, I'm not doing like touching wraps like you would be if you were tying a finesse changer.Anything where you wanted to like, add density with that core. The core is strictly just to like, keep that material off the shank. And it's also a very like, flat material.So like finesse chenille is going to deflect water. And I think like, that aids into like the, the slipperiness property that that material has as the core of a fly.As far as silicone legs go, I think you should add as many as you want because you can always rip them off if it swims. Weird.But I'm, I'm a big fan ever since, ever since Mike put the, the leggy boy out, like, I've been a huge fan of that fly and I haven't fished a ton of standard feather changers. There's just something about a skirted swim fly that just works.So don't be afraid to add like six legs total on the back, eight legs total on the front. You could do 10 on the front. And like I said, you could always cut them off on the water.You know, it's like flash if you're tying in like flash, but you can always cut some off.And yeah, I think a general tying tip, like not even just for the nut job, but for these people who are getting into tying swim flies or aren't happy with their swim flies that they have tied. I think just taking the time to like, watch how the guys tie them who created the fly.Like, every little movement at the vice is something that has years of experience behind it. And like, people don't even know what they're doing. I've tried to like, teach classes before and I'm like, oh, yeah.Like, I didn't even realize I did this, but I should probably, like, explain this. You know, it's just take as much time as you can to like, learn how to tie the flies correctly.Take care in every tie in because you don't want things to be falling out while you're on the water. You're spending it like, you know, 30 to an hour on the fly. You don't want it to be falling apart.But yeah, I mean, just don't go into it and expect to tie a Good swim fly the first try, unless you do the research.

Marvin Cash00:32:38

Got it. Any tools that folks should have at their bench to make it easier to tie the nut job?

Brendan Ruch00:32:45

Yeah, I think the biggest thing that you could have is either it's something to push the craft fair back for like, a clean, like, almost circular profile. And for a long time, I've been using a bic pen. I don't know where I picked that up from, so, you know, some. Some big tire tying bucktail probably.But I've been using the MN fly like the. The standard fly tool. And that thing is. It's like a bic pen made of glass. Basically.It's like the Ferrari of thick pens as far as, like, pushing back materials go. So for a long time, I'd have to, like, I'd be breaking thread, doing half hitches on the pen, and it was just all chewed up.And I would get a new pen and it gets all chewed up. So this thing just. It makes. Makes life a lot easier. And I've been like, really happy with it.And it's like, it's not often there's like, something comes along that just, like, makes life a lot easier at the tying desk. So that I was very, very pleased with that.

Marvin Cash00:33:47

Yeah, I'll try to find it and drop a link to it in the show notes. And, you know, if we shift gears to fishing the fly, you know, where do you generally like to fish the nut job? In the water column.

Brendan Ruch00:33:58

I like to fish it as high as I can while still getting eats. So that's kind of where like, the multiple weight options comes into play. Sometimes fishing that.That bright fly where you can still see it isn't the right move in dirty water. So, like, you have that, the bright fly, the fish can see it, but it's. It might be out of your, you.

Marvin Cash00:34:21

Know.

Brendan Ruch00:34:24

Out of your sight, and the fish are gonna pick it up. But it kind of. You lose that element of fishing a bright swim fly. That makes it fun. But yeah, I mean, I'm. I fish it like a circus peanut in March.So I'm fishing it like, meaning I'm fishing it low with the 7:30 seconds or just kind of like dead drifting at 3:16 on a type 3 sink tip. But as soon as fish start looking up in the water column and start chasing, like, I'll start to fish a little bit lighter.So I'll be like 316 and then 025 or 030 keel, killing it on the water.

Marvin Cash00:35:05

Got it. Do you change the fly line.

Brendan Ruch00:35:11

This year? I think we talked about it in the roost report. I fished the Type 3 sink tip for a long time, way more than I normally would have.And I think just the way I'm fishing with like manipulating the rod and the line so much as opposed to just stripping the fly that the, the running floating line allows you to control the fly a lot better and across multiple currents or even just like one current scene. So this year I didn't switch to an intermediate until pretty late in the season.Normally I'd be fishing it like the whole season and then I would throw the type 3 on with A, a really buoyant fly or something. But the intermediate was more in play under like average conditions for me this year with the nut job.

Marvin Cash00:35:59

Got it. And what's your favorite flavor of leader setup?

Brendan Ruch00:36:04

Leader setup. Like pretty standard Schultz Outfitters video setup. I used hatch fluorocarbon for a long time.Now I've kind of like been messing around with different tippet ends just because that 16 pound got expensive. So I'm doing 30 pound fluoro or 35 pound fluoro to 30 or 25 and then to 20, the really short section of 20 and about 18 inches of the other two.You can go a little bit longer on the heaviest section for ease of turning over and then maybe two feet plus a couple inches of Sunline FC leader material. And I've been using that in 16 and 20 pounds.

Marvin Cash00:36:56

Got it. And so why don't you walk us through how you like to fish the nut job to get the desired action.

Brendan Ruch00:37:04

Lots of like being pulled into slack, whether that's a hard strip, uh, maybe like while you're stripping, drop your rod tip to the surface of the water. And then when you're done stripping, bring your rod tip back up a few inches to where it started. Similar to how you'd see guys like fish a jerkbait.Um, introducing slack into your strip or the, the fly movement at all is gonna allow the fly to do what is what it was designed to do. Um, and flies have limitations compared to conventional gear. So giving, giving the fly every bit of chance to succeed is all you can do.So I like to throw like what I say are men's, but it's probably just like an upward jerk that moves the line. And then I, I might like think I like jerk upward and then mend after. But it's not like a thoughtful men, it's just kind of like moving the line.So that will give you like the ultimate amount of slack obviously, cause you're mending it. So using the Rod tip.And just like, I would recommend just getting creative because I see people do similar things that have never fished with each other, but they're all doing the same thing to give that fly just a ton of slack and like a hard movement. Maybe like twice the length of the fly max. So you're talking like 12 inches max as opposed to like 3ft. See, some guys moving flies way too far.You really want to, like, maximize that fly's movement, whether it's gliding like side to side or jigging up and down. Like, you want to be doing that in a confined area where you think the fish are.

Marvin Cash00:38:50

Right.

Brendan Ruch00:38:50

Like, we're not just like, going out and like, ripping spinner baits. So, yeah, giving. Giving that fly the. The most slack you can in any way you can will work as long as you can still set the hook afterwards.Um, so I would recommend, like, downward jerks while you're stripping. Maybe jerk to the side, throw a little men the opposite direction, jerk straight up, mend upstream, jerk straight up, men downstream.Like, just get creative. And you don't have to just strip the fly back to the boat. That gets old after a while anyway.

Marvin Cash00:39:22

Yeah. So what we're really talking about is however you want to do it. Captain's choice. It's basically strip install. Right?

Brendan Ruch00:39:32

I would say move install. Yeah. Intro, move it, introduce slack, and let it do its thing.

Marvin Cash00:39:38

Got it.

Marvin Cash00:39:40

Awesome.Well, and I also know that, you know, you can catch stuff, you know, other than trout and smallmouth on the nut job, if folks want to go chase other species kind of. What are some adjustments they may need to make to the platform?

Brendan Ruch00:39:55

So when it comes to, like, other species that I've tied for, it's pretty much only musky and stripers at this point. So for the, the musky version, I think I mentioned I was using translucent fiber to kind of like just be a. A taller base to that fly.And I was doing shank hook, shank hook. So using a. A shorter shank hook in the back, it was like a four ought short shank. And then one of the. The big game shanks.I think it was like 35 millimeters in the middle and a five out up front. So the total length with like a two and a half inch marabou tail is only like eight inches. Maybe like eight and a quarter.But tie that in like black or like a suckery color. Like, I've had good success with it. And then same platform, but with a American rooster knife tail. I. I've had a lot of success. Right.I'VE seen a lot of success with that while I'm rowing. But yeah, Leslie just put like a, it was very large. It was between like 45 and 50, probably closer to 50.I watched that thing devour a 9 inch fly and then it felt like I had to put my, my arm in up to my forearm to get it out. It looked like a woolly bugger in things mouth.But yeah, using, using bucktail to prop up the craft fur on those 8 and 9 inch versions helps a lot with profile. And you can even do like a little like maybe like a micro buford under the crafter tie ins in the front.Because once you're using the full length of the cheetah, crafter like gets a little wispy. So you're still able to utilize the butts.But adding that little bit of a buford kind of just allows that fly to stop a little bit more and start that kick early. As far as tying for stripers go, I've, I've tied some, some like peanut bunker sized ones.Tied that with a kind of like single nut job style just so you don't have two hooks in a striper's face or throat, but two shanks. Pick your shank. I would go like maybe 15 in the back, 20 in the middle. Maxima bead connection and then like an ax1o mino hook.And we need to circle back and talk about colors actually.

Marvin Cash00:42:33

Oh, just realized that that's okay. We, we're, we're, we're there now. How about that?

Brendan Ruch00:42:37

Sweet. So craft fair comes in a ton of good colors and there are also a ton of duds.I don't have the list of duds off the top of my head, but allowed me to think a little bit differently than hen because hen was always limited. Like you could never go to a shop and get every color you wanted to get.And if you were lucky enough to have them all, then, you know, you can make some cool blends or whatever. But most shops will have at least like eight colors of craft fur. So I am a big fan. But let's start earlier in the season.So we got like dark green sometimes, you know, green, brown, water. I really, really like to fish olive and black and I when it's wet because the black is on top of the olive.Like you could probably just get away with fishing an all black like five inch nut job. But the key to that fly is adding a couple turns of copper polar chenille over the finesse chenille.So you're getting like circus peanut level of polar flash. But the nut job action. And my God, I think. I think that color accounted for, like, most of the big fish. And I would just.I was fishing that every day with clients for like a month. Like, if, if they mentioned, like, oh, I wonder if they'd eat yellow. Like, yeah, we'd switch to yellow and catching fish on it.But fishing that olive black fly is just, like, it's got my confidence now.Not as fun, but when I'm fishing that, like, you can't see, like I was mentioning earlier, like, when you're fishing a bright fly and you can't see it, so it's not worth it. Like, you can't see it anyway, so you might as well go dark when the fish can see it.And then when the water kind of like, gets a little bit more green, like, few feet of visibility, I'm going all yellow or yellow with orange veiling the yellow. Like to call that flame boy little like World Industries throwback. But that is a huge confidence color. And that's what Leslie caught that muskie on.There's something about the way, like, we've talked about it a bunch of times on the ROO report, but, like, the way that yellow and orange kind of like, throws out like a glow in the water. It's like luminescent or something. But, yeah, that, that's a favorite to fish as things get more clear.Going with your more like pan over cream or tan over white, olive over white. You can, you can mess around a ton with more, like, the natural colors. I don't think there's a bad combination of any of the following.Could be like, white, cream, tan, medium olive, dark olive, camel, like camel. You know, kind of like the ginger of the craft fur. But yeah, there's. There's just so much, so many possibilities with craft fur.I don't think I've scratched the surface of what's possible, but I definitely have more than enough to cover all the, you know, the ranges that, that I need.

Marvin Cash00:45:54

Very, very cool. And before I let you go this evening, you know, anything on the fly tying or the fly fishing front you want to share with folks?

Brendan Ruch00:46:02

So I'm off the water a little bit more these days, but I will be at Bob in the Hood at Schultz Outfitters the end of January, I think into the first day of February, and I'm really looking forward to that. I'll be teaching a class for the first time there this year, and it is sold out, which I really appreciate.Be tying the single nut job and the nut job And I really hope that I can find the time to resurrect Logjam from its nap, but that's a ton of fun. That's Tuesdays, 8.35ish. I think it might be the exact. The exact time right now. But yeah, I also may be able to take you out in the spring.I'm looking pretty full right now as far as what I'm able to guide. But yeah, if we could.If we can make it happen, I would love that and would love to introduce more people to the bite that is giant smallmouth in the spring. There's really nothing like it on the. On the East Coast.

Marvin Cash00:47:06

Yeah. And so why don't you let folks know where to find you on social media and on the web?

Brendan Ruch00:47:12

You can find me@rushangling.com. that's right. It's official. Rouge Angling on Facebook, Brendan Roush on instagram, and yeah, rouge anglingmail.com.

Marvin Cash00:47:27

Well, there you go. And I think there's still some general admission tickets left for Bob.And don't quote me on that, but, you know, if you're into this predator fly game, you owe it to yourself to grab a ticket and. And head up there. It's a great week.And the general admission tickets get you into the Friday night party all day Saturday, you know, over the freight house, sit down, talk to the tires, and then you can see, you know, Brendan and other folks so you can sign up for the classes if there's spaces available and learn from the best. So, Brendan, I appreciate you squeezing me in after your burrito bowl this evening to talk about the nut job.

Brendan Ruch00:48:02

Yeah, man, I appreciate you having me on. It's been a pleasure.

Marvin Cash00:48:06

Yeah, absolutely. It's always fun.And, folks, we'll have Brendan back in the spring when he's back on the water, and we'll go down the Central PA smallmouth route again. Well, listen, Brendan, I appreciate it. Have a great holiday season and I'll talk to you soon.

Brendan Ruch00:48:22

Yeah, man, I'll see you at Bob in the Hood.

Marvin Cash00:48:23

Take care.

Marvin Cash00:48:25

Well, folks, we hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Before we leave you, one more thing. If you listen to the podcast, you know about trout routes.If you fish Midwest lakes, you owe it to yourself to check out its sister app, ONX Fish. Midwest ONX Fish takes the guesswork out of finding new places to fish. Search and filter lakes by species size and abundance.Plus get local details and background info so you can show up with a plan A and as many backup plans as you want. Make the most of your time on the water. Head over to onxmaps.com today. And remember, links to all this episode's sponsors are in the show notes.Check them out. Fish hard, folks.