Week 3
Week 3
Thunder
Creek Minnow
By: Michael
Uleski
Every predator fish eats smaller fish, that’s a known fact. Sometimes though they want the skinnier profile of fishes such as glass minnows. The Clouser Minnow is an excellent fly for the job with its skinny profile, but what about on the shallow grass flats where weeds can be a problem? Enter the Thunder Creek Minnow, originally tied for freshwater it can be a deadly fly for many shallow-water game fish when they are passing up larger patterns.
Materials:
Hook: Saltwater,
standard length, Mustad 3407/34007
Thread: 6/0 Unithread, red or orange
Tail: 1/8” mylar tubing
Lower wing: bucktail, usually darker than the belly for contrast
Upper wing: bucktail
Weedguard: 30lb monofilament
Instructions:
Cut a 4” length of 1/8” mylar tubing
Start your thread ˝” from one end with a granny knot. Wrap the thread around
and whip finish, then coat with head cement or superglue. Fray the end of the
mylar tubing to create a tail.
Tie in your thread at the back of the hook.
Position the mylar tubing on the top of the hook that will give you a length
that the mylar will be long enough to be outside the bucktail wing when folded
back in the coming steps, usually 2-3 times the length of the hook shank works
well. Secure the tubing to the top of the hook.
Move the thread forward to the eye of the hook. Cut a small stack of long
bucktail hairs. Measure these from front to back where the tips will end just at
the start of the frayed mylar tail. Hold the bucktail at the point where the eye
is and cut off ˝” past the eye. Turn the hairs around so they are facing
forward and tie in on the bottom of the hook the using ˝” excess you left on
the hair length.
Repeat the process in getting the proper length of bucktail for the darker back
of the fly. Tie these on to the top of the fly. Of course this fly can be tied
using a single color but most baitfish have a contrasting back and belly.
Move the thread back to the bend of the hook.
Now comes the tricky part to fold the bucktail hairs back to the rear of the
fly. This can be done using fingers, but a special hackle tool comes in very
handy. The hackle tool can be made by taking a sheet of 1/8” foam and cutting
it into a 2” square, then cut a 1/8” hole in the middle of the foam square.
Position the hole over the eye of the hook and slide the foam on. It will
naturally push all the fibers back tight along the shank of the hook. This makes
it easy to tie the bucktail down at the rear of the fly.
Once all the bucktail is secured and pointing in the right direction towards the
back of the fly, trim off any short fibers that pop up. Add your prismatic eyes
at this stage. Whip finish at the back of the fly and cut off your thread.
If needed, cut a 2” length of 30lb monofilament and dip it into
superglue. Push the glue covered end into the head of the fly and add another
small drop to secure. Allow everything to dry and then coat the head in several
coats of head cement.
This fly is a very versatile minnow imitation and can be tied in realistic colors such as gray and white or bright colors as an attractor pattern. It’s also a very easy pattern to tie small, such as a size 8. Putting a small minnow in front of a cruising predator results in almost an instant take. Try this minnow out and you’ll find it a keeper.
Tight lines all…