Legged Mud Minnow SBS

My friend Blake has agreed to provide a much needed fly tying component to the blog. I’m not yet a tyer so I couldn’t accomplish this without some help and Blake ties a really nice fly. The first step-by-step he has provided is the fly that I used this past weekend. This is a fly that he created by just throwing some materials together, it didn’t come from an existing pattern. He then told me I had to name it since I broke it in. Talk about pressure! What I like about this fly is that it looks a little like everything redfish eat; shrimp, minnows, crab, and I think you can fish it as such. I can’t really pin it down to any one type of fly pattern, it borrows traits from several different patterns, but I guess to me it most resembles a mud minnow. So I give you the legged mud minnow.

Materials (in order of application):

Mustad 3407, Size 2

Barred Ginger Zonker Strip

Dumbbell Eyes

Webby Hackle

Wire Rib

Dubbing

Sililegs

1. Use bodkin to poke hole in zonker strip and run onto the hook from the bottom to the top.

2. Mount hook in vice. I use a clothespin to hold the strip out of the way.

3. Start thread, tie in dumbbell eyes and bring the thread to the bend just above the barb.

4. Tie in hackle, wire rib, and clean up the ends.

5. Split the tread and fill it with the dubbing of your choice. I like something pretty flashy and bushy. Spin the thread and dub the shank of the hook to about 1 eye length behind the dumbbells. I forgot to take a pic of the spun dubbing before I wrapped it on.

6. Palmer hackle and tie in behind the eyes. Then counter wrap the wire rib to reinforce your hackle and tie in behind the eyes.

7. Take a dubbing brush and brush out some of the dubbing into the hackle feather. This will cause it to sweep back a little. Before and after pictures below.

8. Trim underside of fly (side with the eyes).

9. Turn over fly in vice and tie down rabbit strip behind the eyes. Make sure to pull tight so the hole in the strip is butted up against the other materials. Cut the waste end of the strip and cover the butt end with thread Leave yourself some room behind the eyes.

10. Tie in sili legs on either side of the hook. I like to make them sweep back .

11. Just as you did with the dubbing on the body, slit the thread, insert dubbing, and spin. You want this bit of dubbing to be really buggy and loose, not tight like a dry fly. Take one wrap of the dubbing right in front of the rabbit. Then figure 8 around the dumbbells eyes. Tie off the thread and use the dubbing brush to tease the dubbing fibers back into the rabbit strip.

12. Finished fly.

The legged mud minnow works! On reds, sheepshead and black drum thus far.