favourite minnow pattern

[Fish For Life 0]

What is your favorite minnow patter .What patterns work good for you and what pattern looks most realistic. please don't all jump forward and say clouser minnow, lets hear some variety please.

 

Thanks

[SCOwens 0]

The Gummy Minnow (is it really a fly?) We catch a lot of dock light trout on them on the high night tides in Charleston

 

Also I like a large EP Minnow to mimic mullet

[DryFlies4Life 0]

I don't fish streamers much but muddler minnows, tie down minnows, and floating minnows (Ian Forbes version) I fish with success, however since I started tying I haven't tied any up. Honestly don't like clousers. IN my opinion they don't have enough movement, and they don't imitate anything really well.

[Rocco 0]

There will always be a place in my streamer boxes for sparse tied white buck tails over plain silver tinsel bodies -- the little back dress of fly fishing. Tied from size 10 to 2, you can match a season's growth in forage fish and hammer anything that eats meat. Susceptible specis range from specs to pike inclusive. I have used it on river walleyes at night with great succss too. If you must tart it up, the string of pearls is a sparse over the back bunch of peacock hurl.

 

Rocco

[JSzymczyk 0]

I guess enough time has passed above- CLOUSER DEEP MINNOWS. DryFlies4Life, spend some time watching real minnows in real environments. Bucktail hair seems as if it was engineered especially to provide a material which moves how real baitfish move.... flexible to thin at the tail, stiffer and thicker toward the front.

 

You are correct, no fly IMITATES anything very well. The whole giant steel hook thing pretty much negates that idea. However, the best flies SUGGEST food better than most. If the most important fish-catching factor was Looking Realistic, we'd all be working with molded plastic instead of tying flies.

 

A properly tied CDM never stops moving in the water, swims like a natural baitfish, and can be tied to suggest just about any possible kind of forage fish, and also any type of attractor/unnatural colors which can be dreamed up. The style is not the only answer to every streamer/bucktail fishing situation, and I tie many unweighted bucktails too. However the CDM style is by far the most versatile top to bottom, slow to fast, and I've caught tons of fish with it compared to others.

 

Important to note, just because someone ties dumbell eyes on a hook, that does NOT automatically make the fly a Clouser Deep Minnow.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Important to note, just because someone ties dumbell eyes on a hook, that does NOT automatically make the fly a Clouser Deep Minnow.

 

Amen to that!

 

Joe Schmuecker (last name spelling is wrong) of WAPSI invented lead dumbell eyes. Prior to that Bead Chain eyes were used even before the famous Charlie patterns. I believe Joe was melting lead or tin into the bead chain eyes for extra weight before he molded the lead barbells and if he wasn't melting into bead chain others were.

 

Kirk

 

Favorite topwater minnow patterns.

 

Favorite subsurface pattern or similar including the Muddler mentioned above.

 

Favorite bottom minnow pattern.

[Chefben4 0]

You ask people what their favorite minnow pattern is but dont want people to say a clouser. People continously say clousers because they work. The same fly I can use in MI for a ton of species I have used in FL and done incredibly well. So as far as effectiveness that fly is number 1 for me. With that being said I HATE tying clousers minnows. I have tied a ton and Im tired of them lol. You cannot argue with success though on top of a quick tie.

Other then clouser (for variety sake) I like ep minnows and EP micro minows. Pretty straight forward to tie and they work well. Easy to color to match local baitfish too.

 

If I had Kirk's flys in my box I would throw out the majority of my others. Good stuff dude!

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

My favorite small minnow pattern is kind of a saltwater version of a Wooly Bugger. It's called the Crystal Schminnow, is simple to tie, but mine usually sport wire weedguards. Norm Ziegler came up with this pattern and his fly shop on Sanibel Island is a great destination if you're on the west coast of Florida.... I tie them in sizes that range from 1/0 all the way down to a small (for saltwater...) #6. One shop that I tie for asks for them in tan or beige over white in a large 1/0 size - they're being used in the surf for snook that are right at your feet on the Atlantic side from Miami all the way up to Stuart. For my own uses they're mostly in size #2 down to #6 - and rarely any different than basic white/pearl. At any rate here's some pics....

 

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

(954) 435-5666

 

ps.. for small tarpon (under 15lbs ) a #4 white/pearl version is my go to pattern when we're not tossing poppers at them....

[pike man 0]

Mine would have to be the 4M fly and a minnow i desighned that i call the C&C streamer. pics comming soon.

[ditz2 0]

Clouser......I also use Blonds, Schminnows, Decievers, Muddlers, Wooly Buggers, and a few others

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Clouser......I also use Blonds, Schminnows, Decievers, Muddlers, Wooly Buggers, and a few others

 

Ditz, even though I put up a specific few, I'm kind of like you. I think alot has to do with the water conditions and the type of structure you're fishing in addition to what you think the fish may be interested in. Us fly tiers usually have more flies and patterns than we'll ever need in a lifetime that really complicates things.

Reminds me of a statement a good tying friend of mine told me once, I laughed my ass off and have neve forgotten it.

 

He said, "Kirk, the fish wouldn't eat anything, at one point I opened my box held a syonce over the box and waited for guidance from beyond and even that didn't work!"

 

It was a lot funnier when he said it twenty years ago.

 

Kirk

[tctrout 0]

What is your favorite minnow patter .What patterns work good for you and what pattern looks most realistic. please don't all jump forward and say clouser minnow, lets hear some variety please.

 

Thanks

The usual suspects thus far, and I will add another: Black or Olive Woolly Bugger. The only difference is that I prefer mine tied with a peacock body; tough to beat peacock on ANY fly! Anybody find a way to put it on a Clouser yet??? ;-)

 

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I like the Zonker. Of all the minnow imitations I've seen, to me it looks the most like a minnow. I used to tie them with lead tape trimmed to the shape of the "sagging" belly; now I like using those tungsten scud body things. The other change I make is, rather than using mylar tubing, I just take sparkle braid (or diamond braid, whatever it's called) and wrap it up the length of the body. WAY easier than the mylar, and it comes in lots of cool colors, too.

 

I don't like Clousers either. They join pickles, home-grown tomatoes, the music of Jimi Hendrix and organized sports in a category I call "Things I Wish I Liked So People Wouldn't Look At Me Funny". I know they work. So do nymphs - don't like them either. Guess I'm just weird, but I'm happy this way.

[agn54 0]

I'm with Kirk and Ditz on this one, I prefer different patterns in different conditions. One of my favorites that hasn't been mentioned is the polar fiber minnow. I have had great luck on that is many different and even negative conditions such as slack tide on the flats. Craft fur minnows could fall under this same category.

[Rocco 0]

Somewhat susrpised so far that noone has mentioned the Murdich Minnow. The pattern lends itself to a variety of forage imitations, it moves water, and screams "EAT ME". I have tied quite a few but have not yet wetted them yet,

 

Rocco