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This minnow / baitfish evolved from the standard slump buster pattern. I avidly fished the slumps for almost an entire season two years ago until I figured out I needed a fly that was bigger & longer for the hungry brutes who reside in the coldwater streams of Mount Washington Valley, NH.

This was the day when the NN was born, the first prototype, well tested - One Fly Day, by accident

I love the classic look and feel of Nome’s Nuisance, and I think the zonker wing & throat, marabou tail with the body braid underbelly is key to the success of this pattern. It’s also extremely rugged.

With the influx of new varieties and colors of bunny strips, the large selection of colors in body braid and the already unending choice of marabou, makes this pattern so flexible that it could imitate various baitfish from both fresh and saltwater in every corner of the earth.

Mix it up…..Barred Bunny, Marabou and body braid….

Materials:

9674 Streamer #4 Hook
6/0 Chartreuse Thread
Bill’s Body Braid
Chartreuse Strung Marabou
.035 Lead Free Wire

Attach body weight - with this fly be sure to leave plenty of room at the eye for the fur palmering - especially if you plan to use a cone or bead head.

Marabou tail attached after being measured against the hook shank for proper portions. Attach tail and move your thread forward, then palmer the marabou around the hook shank to fill out body.

This method will make a tapered body - I apply it to many other flies as well…

Tie off the marabou… this may look too bulky, don’t worry, just wrap back to your tail threads and back again to the eye and once more back to the tail with your bobbin. The feathers lay down quite well. The few strays will be covered by the body braid.

Tie in your body braid. If you wish to use tail flash this would be the time to include it. Flash appeals to fishermen, but I have found that it is not necessary for this fly to work.

Wrap the body braid once around and put it on your material clip.

Select fur. I like rabbit strips - long-haired tan with gray underneath! Measure the skin end of your strip against the end of the marabou tail to your threads. This is where you will want to attach your fur strip the first time. I use a tool to get a straight line across the skin and wet the fur on both sides of the measurement to make it easy to attach the skin.

Now with the thread in the correct place from tying in the body braid, tie in your skin with several wraps of thread and touch it with cement.

Move your thread toward the eye.

Then take your body braid off the material clip and make a single wrap over your threads on the skin with the fur still parted (remember to wet if the hair gets in your way).

Fold skin back and continue to wrap the rest of the body making sure both sides are completely covered. Leave plenty of room at the eye and tie off body braid. *Hint: Bill’s Perl Body Braid takes on color tints from the underlying material.

Lay the skin down and tie in the skin where your thread is currently with several wraps and touch with cement.

Move your thread forward to the eye. Take your strip and palmer it two to three times and tie off just before the eye. Snip the skin and try very hard not to cut your thread.

Through experimenting I’ve found that the fur breaths best underwater when you only palmer a couple of times rather than the entire body of the fly. It’s important to Leave room for the bunny fur to ungulate and pulse with each rod tip or line movement.

Lastly shape the head…

I fish Nome’s Nuisance dead drift, swing and strip action with good results. I really enjoy swimming this fly in with a smaller baitfish pattern as the lead fly. There is something about one fish chasing one another that monster fish can’t resist in partaking. The chase game has hooked some serious fish for me when using NNs.

I’ve landed trout, bass, pickerels, stripers and in ‘08 I hope to add more to the list.

Here are a few of my favorite color choices…

The top fly is 5″ long. Grey with brown tips is hands down my top hook-up bunny fur color choice with this pattern.

Smelt Nome’s Nuisance…

The color choices are endless!

For the salty dogs… I used some of these flies off the rocks last year and picked up a few stripers. I plan to hit the estuaries this season armed with an array of NN colors.

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Spring is almost here!

Tight Lines