I’ve been doing a lot of streamer tying during the cold months and watching a lot of tying videos on YouTube. There’s less fishing to do, so I’ve been filling up the fly boxes. One style of streamer I haven’t tied yet is a Gamechanger, even though I’ve had the materials on hand for a while. The thought of spending that much time on a fly I might lose on the first cast has made me avoid tying them. Recently though, I stumbled upon Alex Lafkas’ Modern Deceiver. It’s an articulated fly, but with only one hook (in the front) and only a couple articulation shanks, as compared with 4 or more shanks on a Gamechanger. This struck me as a good balance between effort and effectiveness, so I started thinking of what else I could do with that platform. Since I mostly fish with a floating fly line, my first thought was to add weight, so I decided to start with a Half and Half (half Clouser, half Deceiver) and add an articulation on the back end. My first prototype used 2 shanks in the back, with the rear shank having a saddle hackle tail and hackle collar, the middle shank having a complex twist body, and the hook basically being a Clouser with a complex twist body. This fly looked great on the vice, and was productive on the water, but when it was wet I thought it looked a bit too long and “snaky” as the body wasn’t very bulky. My latest version (video below) only uses on articulation shank, and should have a more proportional look in the water.