Minnow Imitator

Matthew Clark is an angling videographer & the creator of Small Stream Salmon Fishing network. He has been an avid Traveling fisherman for over 25 years. His experience with both fly rod and terminal gear has covered much of the west coast for many species of fish in both fresh and saltwater.

Currently his work can be found on this site in the video & article sections.

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Matthews Minnow Imitator

Matthew Clark
Small Stream Salmon Fishing

Other variations include Olive Flash Sculpin and Red Roe Minnow

Materials list for Saltwater Minnow

a 2/0 red Gamakatsu salmon steelhead hook
5 mm eye cavity dumpbell eyes in silver
medium holographic stick on eye, make sure they will fit the dumpbell your working with
silver tying thread, not to fine.
silver mariboo feathers
medium dark blue electric/metallic tube wrap for head, not sure what the exact name of material is but its about 3mm wide.
sky blue hackles
dark blue flashaboo
white or pearl flashaboo for contrast

This fly is tied much like a steelhead jig. a small amount of lead wire wrap can be added for 5mm down the shank right behind the tied in eyes if desiered to be fished as a jig. Shown also are 2 variations. for the Olive Sculpin and Red Roe variations chenille is used for the head wraps in place of the metallic tube wrap.

Start with a 2/0 red Gamakatsu salmon steelhead hook [note Gamakatsu has longer shank the Eagle Claw] set in your vise.
Heavily tie in the dumpbell eyes centered 5 mm back from the hooks eye with many criss x cross wraps. Every 12 criss x cross wraps are locked down with a few wraps around the front and back of the eyes. Repeat [note you may wish to put cement on after this for additional strength] until the eyes are securely in place and tight on the hook shank.

Tie in the blue tube wrap just behind the head and create a round uniform head with criss x cross wraps alternating from right to left around the dumpbell eyes figure 8 style and an occasional single wrap around the front and back of the eyes to help secure and even out the ball your trying to create. Not a perfect science, you can unwrap and redo if your not happy with first try. tie off blue tube wrap in the same place you tied in just behind the head and trim the extra tube material off but not to short. Do not tie in or out at the front of the head.

From this point all materials are tied in jig style just behind the head. Strip the sides off of 1 or 2 silver mariboo plume, bunch up and tie them in clean over top of the tube wrap tie off point/collar right behind the eyes and head you just created. Mariboo should extend out about 2 inchs from the back of the eyes when tied in.

Tie in the sky blue hackle over top of the silver mariboo dry fly style. Again starting just behind the eyes [dry fly style - rotating around collar opposite direction of thread wrap direction] and tie back to a slight angle, tie off with half hitch.

Over cut [4 or 5 inchs] and tie in on top of the collar the dark blue flashaboo so that its about 3 inchs long, about an inch longer then mariboo. You want to give the fly a flashy active anchovy like tail beyond the body of the fly and thats what this over length of dark blue flashaboo creates.

Now throw on a little less of the the white or pearl flashaboo on top of the blue at only 2 inchs, not as long as the blue below it but you can leave a few long just not all. If you want a few long ones I recommend adding them in after the short length step. throw some cement on the ties and finish the fly while the cement is wet. It will seal up better if the next set of wraps smash's the cement into the whole mess behind the head. This will keep the materials from "plucking out" after heavy use

To finish the fly. while cement is wet as mentioned above, jig tie with many tight wraps behind the head till a nice heavy even collar is built up over all the materials as shown. Throw 2 or 3 half hitch behind the head over the collar to tie off. Cement the collar wraps about 4 to 5 times over a day to give it the nice clean shiny well finished look.

Saving the best for last now add the sticky holographic eyes into the dumpbell cavitys and watch your minnow come to life! Good luck!

Variations

Olive flash sculpin: tied on bronze
color hook

Red Roe Minnow: tied on red hook