Barr’s Meat Whistle TBT

This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Barr’s Meat Whistle TBT.

I tied this fly recently for a customer and thought it a good candidate for my TBT post.

John Barr started developing the Meat Whistle in 2002. He spent two years tweaking the fly and fishing it alongside his normal spinning rod jig. It turned out to be very effective. You can read Barr’s full story of this fly and how he fishes it as well as many of his popular flies, including his Copper John and it’s many variations, in the book entitled Barr’s Flies (2007).

As Barr describes the fly development, he loves to catch both largemouth and smallmouth bass with jigs and his level-wind reel and a jig. The Meat Whistle is his attempt of a jig type fly.

His three favorite color combinations are watermelon (olive), pumpkinseed (rust), and black and blue.

Barr thinks the fly can imitate a crawdad too. And big trout eat those!

Tie up some of these in your favorite color as large trout gobble them up as well.

I’ll add the fly pattern sheet soon, but in the meantime, follow the instructions from Charlie’s Fly Box.

Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!

(John Kreft is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.)