The 'Home Invader' Streamer Fly Series

Doug McKnight recently made this pattern famous by including it in the 2010 Spring issue of Flyfisherman Magazine.  However, this pattern had been around for years in the trout-filled 'Endless Mountains' of North Central Pennsylvania... (in one form or another).  

























Kevin Hawthorne with an epic 24" brown trout using a Home Invader Streamer while flyfishing on the Lackawaxen River (near Hawley, PA) in 2003.

Doug's theory of why big fish eat streamers is sound.  He feels the large trout attack streamer flies due to hunger or territoriality, and many times both.  In the past, like Doug, I've seen large trout behave badly toward other members of their own species.  One morning at the Grassmere Park area of Fishing Creek (Columbia County, PA) I witnessed a big trout rhythmically feeding on tiny #22 Trico's but suddenly attack a smaller stocked trout that drifted near his Trico buffet.  The large trout just engulfed this smaller trout head first!  The only thing I saw was the tail section of the smaller trout hanging out of the big trout.  Each time the smaller trout tried to escape and flick its tail around the larger trout would swallow up another half inch of the fish until the small brethern was fully and completely gone!  This whole display only took about 10 minutes to finish - but it totally made me rethink my tactics on flyfishing.   The small #22 to #26 sized dry flies went out of my box and I started "huckin' huge streamers".  I was hooked on streamer fishing for BIG fish... no pun intended.  

I started using a variant of the Home Invader about 8 years ago for fishing smallmouth bass on the North Branch Susquehanna River, and for big trout on the forks of the Loyalsock Creek around Hillsgrove, PA.  As for the actual tying of the Home Invader, Doug lists arctic fox fur within his pattern recipe.  My varient incorporates local North Central PA game furs, some Finnish Racoon fur,  and some synetheic fibers too.  Another difference in my pattern is that I use bead chain eyes instead of dumbell eyes like on Doug's pattern.  My Home Invaders are exclusively tied on a Tiemco 300, which is a down-eye, 6XL heavy wire, forged bronze streamer hook.  I find this hook to be outstandingly durable and can handle the fight of a thirty-plus inch Steelhead to over a five pound largemouth bass.  Other than those small cosmetic changes, his pattern and my version of the Home Invader are virtually identical.  

I was kinda surprised when I read about Doug's streamer in Flyfisherman Magazine.  Doug and I must be kindred spirits somehow, since we both publicly acknowledge that Bob Clouser is one of the best streamer pattern innovators that American Flyfishing has produced. 

Honestly... I confess, I robbed Doug of his streamer name since reading his article.  What I originally called my variant was crude and slightly obnoxious.  (ask me about it sometime).  Like all my patterns, the materials I use make this fly pulsate in the water without having to move it or strip it around the water to make it come alive.  While the Home Invader is a proven smallmouth bass and trout producer here in the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York, it also works on other waters.  I've had customers from California to Maine purchase my version of the Home Invader and all tell me that it's a go-to pattern whenever they want to catch quality large fish.  




















Oh Yeah...  The 'Home Invaders' aren't just for trout.  They work on bass too!

So, go ahead... start "huckin' streamers" and realize that this pattern will make your flyfishing tactics change!  You will become a believer in the Home Invader!!  You can count on that!