El Sculpito - A.K.A Cheech's Articulated Sculpin

I am not exactly sure how it all started or why but for some reason I was on this streamer thing. I have a few trips coming up to a few choice areas that I will be tossing streamers, so I jumped in head first like any normal lunatic. Research lead to more research, pages mounted to hundreds. The more I read the more I kept going back to Mr. Galloup's theories, I was fascinated with Kelly Galloup's ideas, patterns and his willingness to think outside the box. It appeared to me that his patterns are very methodically thought out, perhaps years of creative testing. The book Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout by Bob Linsenman and Kelly Galoup caught my attention. Never have I been so determined to read and re-read this book, nor has any fishing tactic book been able to keep my attention. After studying my notes I compiled all my research together, to figure out what it is that I am after. With all these poorly written notes I don't know how anyone could make out a word but in the end I came to a few conclusions. First I want it to be big and ugly and second the action needs to be constant, sink on the strip and lift on the slack, lastly the colors, hummmm what to do....

I debated all this for... around two minutes before I called Cheech with the good news. The good news is that Cheech gets to tie a bunch of streamers; I like having a creative tier on speed dial. We discussed a few things and met at the shop to get the supplies. After a few dozen emails, a few photos of Sculpins, more photos of patterns, and a couple tutorials on different techniques for spinning hair, the moment had come. Cheech was off to lock himself in his dungeon and start tying. The good thing about Cheech is that he has massive ADD, so one pattern turns into something else and then something totally off the wall is produced in a few wacky colors, before you know it there is a fewundred to play around with and I know that there won't be two of the same flies. That works out great with my ADD, I like the challenge of narrowing it all down.

Cheech called…Finally it been like two entire days. "I got the fly's meet me at the shop". To my surprise there was 4-5 dozen streamers, all a bit different. It was like three Christmas's at once. I made the call to Nick, I got the proto's lets hit the Weber to see what happens. As the story goes there was some great fish caught. I watched the Brown leave cover and follow it through the shallows; it out ran the fly and then to my amazement hit it for the side, t-bone style, amazing, simply amazing. Watching the fish the entire time was exactly what I was looking for. The research was paying off and I felt good about wasting a few weeks tinkering with ideas. The full sinking line with a short stout leader worked best for me, along with Cheech's new Articulated El-Sculpito.

More info on El-Sculpito can be found on Cheech's Blog
Photo of fly by Cheech
Link...I tie, therefore I am