Drakes Wounded Minnow

[Bruce Derington 0]

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by flyguy638:

I was tying at the Huron River Fly show on sat. and saw a gentleman by the name of Reggy Alexander who was tying with deer hair and one of the patterns he tied was a fly developed by Everette Drakes and its called Drakes Wounded Minnow. It caught my eye so I thought I would share it with you, hope you like it as much as I do, Bruce

 

 

 

Drakes Wounded Minnow

 

 

 

[David Legg 0]

Do you typically tie this with a bead weighted enough to sink or suspend, or does it float? It would be a great tailwater pattern I'll bet. We used to see a lot of stunned baitfish below a dam I used to fish, and any baitfish pattern fished like a wounded minnow would tend to get attention.

[Bruce Derington 0]

Reggie (who showed me the pattern) used an 1/8" bead, Don't know how it fishes

[deeky 0]

What's the scoop with the mono tied in after the bead?

 

 

[Pelhament 0]

I was wondering that too... Maybe to keep the bead in place so it doesn't slam back and forth against the deer hair, its seems like if you put two beads in there, you might be able to make this pattern rattle a bit. Seems they would be able to get a little bit of movement on the shank, if the deer hair wasn't tied to tight over them.

[Bruce Derington 0]

I didn't ask why but I suspect the mono helps keep majority of hair to stay on top side of hook shank as for the bead, being a 1/8" I suspect itdoesn't have to do with weight or rattle, maybe it makes it easier to "feel"for when you tie down the bullet head? See attached photos. 1st. photo shows basic set up; pic2 shows hair tied in , butts towards back and tied just behind bead;pic 3 shows hair pulled forward and tied in just in front of bead;pic4 shows final tie in point, which is the bullet

[Bruce Derington 0]

bump

[stream urchin 0]

This is a great smallie fly. Why I do not know but they’ll come up from the bottom and hit it just as Murray describes. He called it Drakes Slidder as he gave credit to Drake..... it is a slider. As mentioned above,I first ran across it in harry Murray’s first Fly Fishing forSmallie Book(1989) he had a drawing off it that looked spot on to your tie. i also recall a post and instructions for a man who knew E Drake. The bead was to form the head and not for any other purpose. But who cares.... it may offer different and attractive options in various materials and wgts. The instructions called for red thread behind the bead and used a washer or die to hold the hair in place. I use yellow hair and feathers. Have never used a washer to hold the hair in place but a fussy tier may find that useful. Here is a bit from the book

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=Hp7z6byr8...p;q&f=false

[Bruce Derington 0]

Stream Urchin, thanks so much for sharing this info, I like to learn history, it makes the tying so much more interesting in that I think of the events that may have lead up to me tying them. Fish pretty good, head floats and body lays in the water column at an angle and when twiched or midly stripped, it really represents and looks quite realistic.

[sniksoh 0]

man ide love to see how one of these does with a rabbit strip tail. think that would be to much for the deer hair to hold up?

[BigDaddyHub 0]

Aafter seeing this fly last winter, I tied it with splayed chartruese zonker strips for legs. GREAT frog pattern, sniksoh! The rabbit pulled my firts few flies a bit, but once it was water logged, I added a small split shot a few inches above the fly and stripped it subsurface in front of hydrilla....hang on, son! I shortened the legs a bit on the next few lfies and it slid and juked just fine. I found the trick to keeping it at least rising back to the surface was to cut the zonkers just a shade longer than the overall hook length. I favor a nice 6 or 4 stinger hook for this pattern. But that's just me....but yes, you can convert it to a frog REAL quick! You can even use squirrel zonkers for smaller patterns. The squirell zonker and Drakes head makes a killer baby water snake. I have even painted eyes on my Drakes. This is one of the most versatile patterns I have added to my arsenal in a very long time. Bruce ties it like a master!

[stream urchin 0]

Aafter seeing this fly last winter, I tied it with splayed chartruese zonker strips for legs. GREAT frog pattern, sniksoh! The rabbit pulled my firts few flies a bit, but once it was water logged, I added a small split shot a few inches above the fly and stripped it subsurface in front of hydrilla....hang on, son! I shortened the legs a bit on the next few lfies and it slid and juked just fine. I found the trick to keeping it at least rising back to the surface was to cut the zonkers just a shade longer than the overall hook length. I favor a nice 6 or 4 stinger hook for this pattern. But that's just me....but yes, you can convert it to a frog REAL quick! You can even use squirrel zonkers for smaller patterns. The squirell zonker and Drakes head makes a killer baby water snake. I have even painted eyes on my Drakes. This is one of the most versatile patterns I have added to my arsenal in a very long time. Bruce ties it like a master!

 

Murray painted eyes on his