Two inch Skinny Minny

[salmobytes 0]

 

Bill is flattened solid wire solder (it's non-toxic, they use it for copper water pipes) glued to a Costco tomato container bill (rough the bill with sand paper first) glued to some closed cell foam. Crystal Flash adornments. Snelled #8 hopper hook. Vinyl tubing hook keeper is sewn into the body of the wiggler. You do need a small barrel swivel about 18" inches up the leader. In March when the big rainbows come up out the main river to spawn in the feeder streams the big males just can't resist a fight. Especially now when they're on the move but the actual spawning is still a month off yet.

 

To make a good wiggler for still waters you need a wider diving bill. But for moving water lake lures flutter too hard and catch too much water. For a river lure you want to keep the diving bill relatively narrow. So it dives, wobbles, flutters and darts wildly and unpredictably this way and that. This is a relatively big one. You can make them as big or as small as you want.

 

To make any wiggler work you need a balance of weight at the bottom front matched with buoyancy at the top rear. Those opposing forces keep the lure from spinning all the way over, so it oscillates back and forth, from side to side instead.

[mikechell 0]

I am definitely NOT a "purist". I wouldn't even call myself a traditionalist.

 

But ... I am just not sure what I think of that lure. I do think that anything large enough to be thrown with spin casting gear, should be. And that one looks like it's just about at that range.

 

It's somewhat innovative, I'll give you that ...

[salmobytes 0]

Two inch streamers without weight can't be thrown with a spinning rod. This one does have weight. But not enough for spinning gear. So I think it's in never never land. Never never for purists and never never for spin fishermen because it's too light. I mean........with light weight spinning gear you could probably get the (above) lure out there 25 feet or so. But that's not really doing it to it. With spinning gear you'd be lucky to get this one ten feet beyond the end of the rod tip. This ones needs a fly rod.

 

And you can make them smaller or bigger. So mebbe it's a flure. I'm just doing my civic duty. I've been tying itty bitty mayfly duns for a month and I just wanted to keep the universe in balance.

 

[Cannonx4 0]

I like the concept of it. Do you have any problems with the line rubbing into right where it goes through the bill. I noticed what looks like maybe a drop of glue there.

[salmobytes 0]

Good question about line rubbing. That's not a drop of glue that's deformed plastic where I pushed a bodkin needle through the bill to make a hole for the leader. No not really. But I seldom fish wigglers for long. They're special purpose flies for snaking down into log jams and other oddball places. Hmmm. Well I have fished them for hours at a time now that I think of it. It hasn't been a problem yet. The little ones are really fun to play with.

 

In my neck of the woods (Bozeman/Livingston area in Southwest Montana) the Paradise Valley Spring Creeks are big deal. In certain circles anyway. The March and April nymph fishing can be spectacular when the rainbows are gathering in pre-spawn behavior. April and May Baetis hatches are good and people fly in from all over the world for July Pale Morning Dun hatches that taper off in August. In September it can be almost impossible to catch a fish. If you use match-the-hatch flies anyway.

 

During September when everybody else is getting skunked on #20 and #22 Pheasant Tails bead head nymphs you can always coax a few on small flashy pearl streamers. Really little ones. If you use wigglers instead of streamers you can catch a dozen or more. Even in September when everybody else will tell you it's almost impossible.

 

At any time of year, on the Spring Creeks, if a storm comes in you can wack the daylights out of big brown trout with giant streamers. Especially so in the deep fast water below road culverts. For reasons I have no explanation for those same giant 6" inch streamers do not work on warm sunny days. Dawn and dusk maybe. But not in the middle of the day when it's sunny. But when it's blowing and snowing or raining you can use those gihugic streamers all day long. I don't fish the spring creeks anymore because it's too expensive (I used to guide there). On stormy days when my customers gave up and went home I'd stay and fish.

 

On those stormy days if you fish a BIG wiggler downstream along the edges deep fast water, huge yellow brown trout streaks will appear behind the wiggler and disappear without taking. Two, three, four times they'll look at it and refuse. And then boom. They eat it. Rich guys fly in from all over the world and fish there every year for a decade and never catch a fish over 17" inches long. I've caught a half a dozen over 20" in a single day, but only when wet heavy snow was coming down sideways and the wind was blowing like crazy. On giant streamers and wigglers. I remember I caught one 20" inches long right in front of Bob Auger once. On a wiggler. Bob was the stream keeper at DePuys Spring Creek for quite a few years, back in the early 1990s. Bob just grinned. Moved his chin back and forth sideways and said something about "Only you Sandy."

 

Anyway, for spring creek streamer fishing you want very small streamers, almost like classic wet fly size, on warm bright sunny days. But when it's storming you want giant streamers. Why I can't explain. But so it is.

[salmobytes 0]

Here's another one modeled after my favorite bass lure. When I was a whipper snapper. The Lazy Ike. The diving bill on this one is made from spawn sack mesh and UV glue, molded on top of a soft transparent plastic materials pouch. Shine the UV LED flashlight from above. Then from below. The only hard part is holding the light from below without looking into the light. Then trim the bill to shape with scissors and toenail clippers. This one is relatively small. Made for a #10 hopper hook.

 

Crazy Ike

 

[Philly 0]

Nice concept. I'm definitely not a purist. It looks like it will work better than my attempts to do a Flat Fish, similar to the Lazy Ike. The thing I forgot was I needed some weight in the front to get the lip down so it would dive. Have you thought about bringing the hook eye though the lip. That might prevent any line chafing that might occur.

[ditz2 0]

I sure remember the old Lazy Ike. I tended to use Flatfish though. I still have a few of the old Flatfish F-1, F-2, and F-3 fly rod versions. I seldom tie one on because I don't enjoy fishing them. They are a challenge to pickup for a back cast. They were not cheap either. I did always regret not finding an all chrome F-1. Too me one of the major advantages of the fly rod is being able to fish just the likely fish holding area and picking up the fly and re-casting where as with spinning the lure must be fully retrieved before a new cast can be made.

[mikechell 0]

I went fishing with a co-worker last summer, who'd never seen a fly angler. He'd seen a few quick clips of the casting, but none of the "fishing" ... and he thought fly fishing WAS the casting. He thought you constantly flailed the fly around, and hoped a fish would hit it while in the air. (Yes, he's a little air headed)

Anyway, I was using my fly rod, and he was amazed ... and a bit impressed ... when he found out it wasn't just "flailing".

 

But, the one thing he really liked, was your observation Ditz. He mentioned that I get a lot more time "fishing" and much less time "retrieving".