Martyn White | Thursday, 4 December 2025
I thought I'd do a saltwater pattern this week: Skok's Mushmouth. Mostly because last week I remembered it and tied my first one in probably a decade, but also because they're really good.
There's little real reason the mushmouth fell from my rotation other than that magpie thing many of us do in trying and becoming enchanted by new patterns. The mushmouth is a really good pattern and although it looks like a a fairly basic baitfish, it's a bit clever. Tied properly, it's completely non fouling when freshly tied and still 99.5% non-fouling after many many fish. In fact, there’s a good chance the rest of the fly will probably be shredded before the anti-fouling “spine” is knackered. It's fairly prototypical and can be adjusted in size to match all sizes of bait, with the only real limit being the length of synthetic you can get your hands on. My preference is for the smaller end with mushmouth patterns in the 2.5 - 4" range, but from looking online the larger sizes up to 12" seem to be pretty popular. For me, a yak or SF Sedotti slammer is a better choice in those sizes, but that's no criticism of the mushmouth, it’s just that these are pretty foul proof too..
It's a fairly simple tie and you can put them together pretty quickly once you get used to it. My preference is to do all the actual tying for however many I'm doing before finishing all the eyes and heads, a bit of a throwback from the epoxy days but still quicker than doing them all one by one. The reason I prefer the smaller flies is the ability to use softer, more mobile materials for the body. Angel hair or other shredded mylar is great, EP style stuff, poly-bear or whatever else you can think of will work well. Bigger flies should be tied with stiffer materials like yak, SF or Kinky Fibre, but as I mentioned earlier, probably won't be that prone to fouling without the mushmouth style anyway.
Here's the dressing
Hook: Gamakatsu SC -15 or other short-shank SW hook.
Thread: clear mono
Spine: superhair and flashabou
Body: almost any synthetic
Glue: softex or similar
Eyes: your choice
Finish: UV resin
Some people tie them with liquid fusion glue, but it's not as good as softex because it dries too slowly. You can get away with it on bigger flies, but you really need to be careful with it on the little ones if you don't want it to soak through everything and give you a brick of a fly. You don't have to use an SC-15, but you'll struggle to find a better short hook.
Here's a video of Dave Skok tying the fly, the quality isn't great as it's old. It is however, the best video of how to tie it in my opinion. Mushmouth