December 04, 2025
By Charlie Craven
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One of my favorite things about writing this column is getting to know so many delightful and interesting people who also just happen to be fly tiers. Kisha Atkin, her husband Chris, and their two teenage boys James and Wes have become familiar faces in fly shops and shows across the country over the last several years. A clearly and almost annoyingly fishy family, these folks have angled their way through the United States over the past eight years, living and working from an RV after losing their family home to Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Kisha (@mommaangler ), the matriarch and somewhat reluctant heroine of our story today, grew up fishing with conventional gear, and was a self-professed tomboy her entire life. Her love of fishing infected her family quickly and entirely, and they all took up fly fishing in 2021.
Atkin says she knew nothing about fly fishing, had no mentor, and didn’t know where to start. She credits her own curiosity along with a ton of actual fishing days and guidance from the plethora of friends made along the way with shortening the whole family’s learning curve on the water.
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In the time since, they’ve all become ardent and outstanding anglers, and their enjoyment of the sport is obvious to anyone who is lucky enough to spend a few minutes with them. Their exuberance and energetic demeanor quickly show in conversation and you quickly realize that this family took a heaping load of lemons and have not only managed to make lemonade but are pretty happily doing it very well. On a personal note, I would keep an eye on both of their boys to show up in a future crop of super guide/anglers in the next few years. The combination of talent, passion, and opportunity they are working with promises big things should they decide to further ruin their lives.
Kisha has become a well-known tier at tying shows and demos over the past several years and has several patterns of her own design, the latest of which, called the Sugar Momma, was picked up for distribution by Umpqua Feather Merchants for 2026. Kisha wanted a jigged, tight-line streamer pattern to fish the deep holes that so many other anglers passed up on the Dream Stream section of the South Platte River here in Colorado , and she set about trying to design a pattern that had some built-in movement but also had enough profile to trigger a reactionary bite reflex from the trout. Rather than go with the somewhat obligatory and at this point overused squirrel strip style fly, Kisha built something more akin to a soft-bodied, flowing, jigged Deceiver-style profile that has changed the way we all look at jigged streamers now.
She starts with a stout size 8 Umpqua XC400 hook coupled with a 3/16" copper or silver tungsten slotted bead. For thread, Kisha prefers 50-denier Semperfli Nano Silk as its small size and good strength lend it to anchoring materials well while not creating bulk. Starting with a small bundle of fine flash, doubled over and anchored at the midpoint on the shank, Kisha matches a set of hen feathers to create a wing/body section about two inches long.
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These soft, webby feathers absorb water and sink well, while also moving seductively in the water. To build the head of the fly, Atkin uses a clump of Senyo’s Laser Dub to build a small spreader to create volume without bulk, then faces that with a few sparse turns of mallard flank to add some variegation as well as a classy touch.
The collar itself is the only tricky part of this fly. Using a large Chickabou feather or two, Kisha places them into a Pettijean Magic Tool Table, folding both sides of the fluff upward then removes these fibers from the table with the clip side of the tool and places them in a short dubbing loop. I used a Hareline Feather Prepper foam block along with a Stonfo Dubbing Clip, much to the same effect. A quick spin of the fibers and you are left with a stemless marabou-like brush that can be easily and cleanly wrapped tight up to the bead. The Laser Dub underbody creates enough bulk to keep the Chickabou from collapsing while adding some subtle color and flash.
The overall profile is decidedly fish-shaped, but with loads of inherent movement.
The Atkins fish this fly on a tight-line rig, probing it into deep holes, working it slowly with jerks and twitches to imitate a small trout or baitfish that is perhaps not having its best day. The jigged configuration keeps the fly from hanging up and the heavy tungsten bead and slim overall profile make it sink fast and react quickly to every tick of the rod. The fly is commercially available in white, tan, black, and olive but the pattern can, of course be tailored to match whatever you like.
Kisha's Sugar Momma Fly-Tying Recipe A finished Sugar Momma streamer. Step-by-Step Fly-Tying Tutorial Step 1. 1. Place the slotted bead onto the hook and clamp it into your vise. Start the Nano Silk thread just behind the bead and dress the shank with a layer of thread extending back to the hook point.
Step 2. 2. Move the thread up to about an eye-length behind the bead and tie in a sparse clump of flash at the center of its length. Fold the front end back over the top of the shank, doubling the flash, and wrap the thread back over it to the hook point. Trim the flash to ragged lengths at about 2 to 2.5 inches.
Step 3. 3. Select two narrow and nicely shaped hen saddle feathers from the pelt. Align their tips and measure them to 2 inches long, accounting for some of the fluff at the base of the feather to be incorporated into the tail.
Step 4. 4. Tie in one feather on each side of the shank with the curve toward the hook. I press them flat against the side of the hook over the thread base from the flash and capture them with a few wraps of thread to keep them parallel to the hook shank. The feathers should curve toward each other and be parallel to each other.
Step 5. 5. Bump the tying thread forward to just off the folded flash base. Preen a clump of Senyo’s Laser Dub into an aligned, flattened bundle. Lay this bundle on top of the hook and let it fold around and encompass the shank, with the center of its length even with the hanging tying thread. Make two loose turns around the dubbing while holding it in place, then tighten the thread, coaxing the fibers around the shank as needed. Cinch the wraps down tightly.
Step 6. 6. Fold the forward-facing dubbing fibers evenly back and slip the thread to the front edge. I create a small thread dam of a few turns to hold them in place but not push them down tight to the body. Use a dubbing brush to smooth out the dubbing and align it all the way around the hook.
Step 7. 7. Select a mallard flank feather that has fibers about an inch to an inch and a half long. Create a separation point at the tip of the feather, then tie it into the shank at the front of the dubbing bundle. Lift the feather up and stroke the fibers rearward along the stem.
Step 8. 8. Make three or four turns of the mallard feather, almost right up to the bead, then tie it off and clip the excess. I use the dubbing brush at this point to preen the fibers evenly into place along the outside of the dubbing spreader. Next, build a 4-inch-long dubbing loop directly behind the bead.
Step 9. 9. Using a Pettijean Magic Tool or a Hareline Feather Prepper, fold one or two Chickabou feathers into the crease, grasp the exposed fibers with a feather clamp, and trim off the stems. Put the loose fibers between the strands of the dubbing loop right up tight to the hook, then spin your dubbing whirl to create a flowing marabou brush.
Step 10. 10. Wrap the marabou brush tightly behind the bead and tie off. Pull hard on the tying thread and you’ll actually hear the thread click into place behind the head. Clip the excess loop and whip-finish. Use that dubbing brush to preen the fibers up and back to create a broad outline for the head of the fly.
Charlie Craven co-owns Charlie’s Fly Box in Arvada, Colorado. He is the author of four books, most recently Tying Streamers: Essential Flies and Techniques for the Top Patterns (Stackpole Books, 2020).
