The Double Deceiver and it’s origin have been something of speculation on the internet for quite some time now. Back in the day, factions formed in flyfishing forums, I date myself a bit here with todays Gen whatever crowd immersed fully in social media, but that was how people began connecting on things they were interested in some thirty years ago. We all know where Lefty’s Deceiver came from, but the Double Deceiver, Great Lakes Deceiver Cat4, Cat5 or whatever other name this fly has been referred to came from Michigan.
I can still remember the days when the argumentative banter reverberated across forum chat rooms about the flies origin, or later on social media when the beginning of the medium started, and where the beginning of down playing the importance of a flies history, the originator/tyer and all that it encompasses. A few different mindsets emerged that gave no credit to those who came up with an idea, simply brushing it off or adopting it as their own. That is exponentially more prevalent today, but I will save that for another conversation.
The story goes something to the effect that Matt Grajewski of Adaptive Fly was given some larger deceivers from Eli Berant of Great Lakes Fly to fish for Muskie with. Matt commented that this was early on in his pursuits of Muskie on the fly. When Eli asked what he thought of the flies he gave him, Matt said that the flies were great but would be better if they were articulated. Eli and him had a pretty interesting conversation about the idea as Eli at the time had only been tying flies without any articulation to them. Matt agreed to assist and got to work on the idea and sent one back to Eli and the fly was born, as well as a very good friendship that still stands to this day.
Eli out of respect to Matt asked if he wouldn’t mind if he sold these as he tied commercially and saw the potential in this pattern. Matt at the time wasn’t tying for sale, and agreed. In a conversation Matt stated, “I hadn’t tied with bucktail that much at that stage of my life, and Eli was a better tier than I was at the birth of this fly. Eli is a great guy and definitely influenced my tying as he was tying Muskie flies before me. Eli even turned me onto the East coast guys like Sedotti, Popovics and Lefty and that all played a big part into what I do today”.
No matter what variation of the fly that you tie, it is inarguable that it is a staple in the Michigan area but also on places like the White River system in Arkansas which I would call this flies second home. You would be hard pressed to not find a Double Deceiver taking up some real estate in any serious streamer anglers boat boxes who fish anywhere there are large brown trout, pike and muskie. Bottom line, the fly is a great baitfish imitation, and looking at the photos of happy anglers holding large fish with this fly in their mouth is more common than many might think.
I too tie and fish these flies regularly every season, and at times they are arguably a hard fly pattern to beat. When fish get on baitfish, and larger profiled one’s for that matter, this fly will usually get an eat. In today’s crazed world of multiple sectioned streamers that invest close to an hour of the tyers time to construct a single fly, the Double Deceiver and it’s rather simple construction make it a modern classic.
Although I carry several of these in the larger sizes in my fly library, the variations that I tie with the most frequency are typically in the 4 to 5 inch size for a bulk of my local trout and bass situations, with a 6 inch imitation being the top end and more situational size when the river is swollen. There are a couple ways of finishing off the buck tail on these flies to achieve that proper pitch or profile, and today I will demonstrate to you how I like to tie the ones that I fish and sell that fit into that particular size category. The most important thing that you should take away from today’s tying video is simple, when it comes to working with bucktail, find the balance in enough hair to provide the silhouette you are after that doesn’t detract from the flies ability to swim. If you build the basis of your fly around that concept, you will find that you can make a rather large profiled baitfish imitation with less material that is far easier to cast and still swims almost as good as the real thing. You might also find that you won’t need to add weight to the bend of the hook to “keel” it if you use the correct hooks.
I am of the opinion that many folks add keel weight to many of their streamer patterns tied with bucktail for the simple fact that they haven’t refined their design. Many of the flies that I see tied today with bucktail or other materials for that matter use far too much material and could easily be scaled back as much as 60%. This will not only make a cleaner imitation, but also a fly pattern that is far more enjoyable to cast and fish. Just some food for thought.