COYOTE

“I started fishing for striped bass back in the mid 1970’s. I was a teenager then and we were fishing from the rocks of New York Harbor. Everyone where I grew up was spin fishing back then. While the most popular lure was a bucktail jig I had discovered a lure that would out fish a bucktail jig. It was called a roadrunner and it was manufactured by a company called Blakemore. The roadrunner was a killer lure and a staple in my tackle box all the way up until I started fly fishing back around 1990. I was living in Stamford, CT and while a Clouser was everyone’s go-to pattern, I just knew I needed a fly fisherman’s version of that roadrunner. What came to be was a fly that followed the roadrunner, hence the name coyote (grin). The coyote was designed to be fished in any water and turned out to be my best searching pattern. Tied with rabbit, the coyote breathes and moves better than a fly tied with only bucktail. It is also vastly more durable. Best of all, the spinner blade in the front of the fly allows for gamefish to either see (in clear water) or hear (in stained water) the fly in the water. While it was originally tied for catching striped bass, the coyote has shined when fishing for redfish, speckled trout, peacock bass, largemouth and smallmouth bass as well as a host of other fresh and saltwater gamefish throughout the world. While this fly might not appeal to the traditionalist fly fisher (due to the hardware), those that simply want to elicit a strike should always carry a few in their fly box. Be assured it will not disappoint.” – Signature Tyer Henry Cowen