Playing with Sizes and Colors on Bennett’s Lunch Money

Recently, I've been playing around with some different color combinations on one of my favorite streamers.  Bennett's Lunch Money is a great streamer that smallmouth, largemouth, trout, and even catfish will eat.  If a fish will eat a smaller fish, it will eat a lunch money.  I had some really good luck with this fly in early spring on my home waters for bass and catfish.  I also did well with it when I fished with Ryan Walker for smallmouth in southwest Missouri.  As fall approaches and fish metabolisms start to crank back up again, I want to make sure that I have plenty of these in my streamer box. 

I really like how the bluegill, shad, and baby bass color combinations turned out.  I want to add some orange to the bluegill, some bars to the baby bass, and more yellow to the shad.  I also bulked them up to a 1/0 B10S Gamakatsu hook.  This is usually a hook that I employ on big, articulated streamers but I really like the proportions that is gives to these flies.  The bend of the hook is right where the synthetic head starts to transition to the action of the natural materials.  I am interested to see how this thing rides in the water.  I think the dumbbell eyes will make it sink head first but the bulk of the hook and water absorbency of the natural materials might help it ride a little more horizontally.  I need to throw it in the fly tester AND test it out on the water with an 8 weight.  Be on the lookout for a post about this next week potentially!

I would be remiss if I didn't share my appreciation and gratitude to Ryan Walker (of Ozarks Smallmouth Alliance) for turning me on to this fly.  He sells them on his Etsy store and ties some amazing variations of this fly.  All credit goes to him for sharing the versatility of this fly.  And while it is called Bennett's Lunch Money, to me, Ryan might have stolen this Bennett fella's lunch money.  All joking aside, I am including links to an interview with Matt Bennett about this fly.

Matt Bennett Interview: https://troutsflyfishing.com/a/info/blog/vise-feature-matt-bennett-the-lunch-money

If you're interested in tying some up yourself, here is a link to a YouTube tying tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmLApe-AMgg&t=368s