Never could I have imagined what to expect when I heard my friend John screaming up a storm streamside. I was about 150 yards away and heard a lot of commotion, in my mind I was already excited picturing the 20+ trout he had on his line. Without haste I made my way over yelling "you got one?" To my surprise he was yelling back "I caught a sculpin, you have to see this thing!' when I got there I saw it, a fairly large sculpin on the verge of death. This was johns first sculpin he ever saw in person, and honestly made me feel like I've taken for granted how many I've seen. I could see wheels turning in his head, and to be honest I had some ideas begin stewing myself. we proceeded to attempt to revive the sculpin to no avail, and then we took some pictures.
In case you didn't know, Sculpins are awesome. I would say 90 percent of my streamers are some sort of sculpin imitation. So many things make sculpins interesting to me, nothing more so than a huge trout completely annihilating one. Sculpins have a fairly wide range and are definitely a favorite food source for trout. Take some time one day on the stream, maybe when the trout have decided they want nothing to do with any offering you have, and turn some rocks. See if you can't find a sculpin. Watch it swim, observe it's profile and color, pay attention to where you found it and it's habitat. Take what you learn home with you and apply it to the vise. For me I can personally say I will never have just one sculpin pattern. Although in my mind I constantly am trying to do just that, have one ultimate perfect sculpin to rule them all. Some things to consider : Sculpins are dark olive or tan the majority of the time and usually very motteled or sort of spotted, they spend most of their time sneaking around on the bottom of the stream under rocks, and personally I've seen them from 1'' to about 4''.
