Scud
Also called Freshwater shrimp, Amphipod
A scud is a small freshwater crustacean, usually a side-swimming amphipod. Trout and other fish eat them year-round, especially in spring creeks, tailwaters, and lakes.
- Group
- Crustaceans & worms
- Category
- Entomology & forage
- Level
- Beginner
- Water
- Freshwater
Last updated
What Scud means
Scuds are tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that live around weeds, moss, and bottom debris. They are usually curved, laterally compressed, and they swim with quick kicks, often on their side.
In trout fishing, “scud” can mean the real animal or a scud imitation. Scud patterns are fished as nymphs, often near weed beds or along the bottom, and they are common in stillwaters and fertile rivers where aquatic vegetation is thick.
Scuds are sometimes lumped together with sowbugs in conversation, but they are not the same creature. Sowbugs are more flattened top-to-bottom and tend to crawl more than they swim.
Why it matters on the water
Scuds are available to fish when there is no obvious hatch. If trout are feeding but ignoring mayflies and midges, a scud or sowbug-style nymph is often a better match for what they are actually picking off the bottom.
Scuds live where weeds and moss collect. That points you toward specific water types and lanes, edges of weed beds, soft seams, and the slow margins of spring creeks and tailwaters, instead of focusing only on riffles and surface activity.
Shop Scud
Read next
- MidgeA midge is a small two-winged fly; in fly fishing it often means a chironomid. Most of their larvae and pupae live in water. Midges hatch in every month on many rivers and lakes, and trout eat them year-round.
- NymphA nymph is a subsurface fly meant to imitate an aquatic insect in its immature stage, or a small food item drifting in the current. Nymphs are fished with or without weight, an indicator, or tight-line methods.
- ShrimpShrimp are small crustaceans that many flats and inshore fish eat. “Shrimp” also refers to fly patterns tied to imitate their shape, color, and quick darting movement.
- SowbugA sowbug is a small freshwater crustacean, similar to a scud, that trout eat year-round where it’s abundant.