	MAX'S THUNDER CREEK MINNOW Courtesy of Max AKA FlashBackMax THUNDER CREEK MINNOW Tell me if you’ve ever done this. You’re standing in your favorite tackle emporium one day. You’re suddenly jarred back to consciousness after finding yourself staring for several minutes at the seeming endless bins of one type of fly or another. It’s like ordering dinner at a gourmet restaurant. Prosciutto encrusted Chilean sea bass with a porcini infused garlic and ginger dipping sauce. In the vein of fly fishing there’s the ever popular foam winged biot body hi-vis adult prismatic emerger’s. Or perhaps you’re interested in bead head rubber legged purple butted tungsten weighted muddler special. Not interested? You just want flies that catch fish? That‘s no fun! If you’re a country diner, bacon and eggs kind of guy like me; the thunder creek minnow is your type of fly. It’s simple, nearly indestructible, it can be tied in any number of different patterns, and most important of all, it catches fish like crazy. In the Alaska theme, I have chosen a salmon fry type pattern to show the tying steps in. However there are any number of patterns that work very well. All white, black/white, brown/white, blue/white, etc. Just use your imagination and be observant to the baitfish and minnows you see where you fish. TYING THE THUNDER CREEK MINNOW MATERIALS LIST Hook: I used a regular #8 woolly bugger hook, however a straight eye hook is ideal Thread: olive 6/0 Body: Wrapped olive krystal flash Flash wing: olive krystal flash Middle-wing: gray bucktail(very sparse) Underwing: white Bucktail(very sparse) Top-wing: olive Bucktail(very sparse) Eyes: acrylic paint Epoxy or softex for the head coating Step 1 - Insert the hook into the vice and wrap the shank with thread. Step 2 - Tie in a couple strands of the olive krystal flash at the rear of the hook. Step 3 - Wrap the krystal flash forward towards the head and tie it off with a few wraps of thread. Step 4 - While holding the krystal flash taught towards the back, wrap over it a few times with the thread. This positions it so the flash will point backwards and lay towards the bend. Step 5 - Select a very sparse amount of the gray bucktail and tie it in. When I say sparse, I mean sparse. I counted less than 20 strands in the picture. Step 6a - Turn the fly over in the vice so the hook’s pointing up. Clip of a fairly sparse amount of the white bucktail. Measure it against the fly. You want it so it hangs off the back a little bit, but not so far that when a fish hit’s the fly it misses the hook. So it’s best to be slightly shorter than slightly long. I missed and made mine on what I would consider the long end of acceptability. Step 6 - Tie in the bucktail so the tips point out way past the eye. Secure it with several good wraps of thread. Step 7 - Select a bunch of the olive bucktail. This time you have a measure guide. Just make it about the same size as the under-wing. Step 7a - Tie in the olive bucktail tightly. This is where a lot of tiers get messed up with this fly. You need a big enough base of thread and hair so that the bucktail when it’s tied down it carries the size you want, if that makes any sense. In other words if you have a very small tie down point the head will look wrong and disproportionate to the rest of the fly. It’s also easier to spread the bucktail out so that it’s more uniform and there are no spaces that let you see under the hair. So just wrap a nice base of thread. You can even throw a little head cement in there for kicks. Step 8 - Turn the fly over again and position the thread so that it’s a little less than a third the way down to the end of the body. Then grab the white bucktail and fold it over on itself and tie it down. Step 8a - Turn the fly back over and repeat the same procedure with the olive. Step 9 - Use a whip-finish or a couple of hitch knots to the tie the fly off. Tying finished This marks the end of the tying portion of the fly Step 10 - Coat the head with either softex or head cement. This will prevent the paint we’re going to use for the eyes from sinking into the hair. Step 11 - After the glue has dried it’s time to put on the eyes. I use a nail head for mine. Dip the nail into the white paint and carefully dab in onto the head to make the white background of the eye. Step 12 - Do the same thing again only this time use black paint to simulate the pupil and use a slightly smaller nail. Step 13 - Cover the head with softex or epoxy. This will protect the eyes and create a shiny 3-D look. Step 14 - This isn’t totally necessary, however take a sharpie marker and draw a couple of vertical bars to simulate the parr marks on the baby salmon. Finished fly! This fly might seem complicated and if you tie them one at a time it is. However this is an excellent “tie by steps” fly. In others words tie a bunch of them to a certain point say step 7a. Tie maybe 6 or 8 of them to that point. Then finish them all in another round of tying. That way they come out more uniform and similar than they would if you did all 14 steps for each fly at one time. Let me know if you have any questions. Happy tying!!! Courtesy of Max AKA FlashBackMax

MAX'S THUNDER CREEK MINNOW

Courtesy of Max

AKA

FlashBackMax

THUNDER CREEK MINNOW

Tell me if you’ve ever done this. You’re standing in your favorite tackle emporium one day. You’re suddenly jarred back to consciousness after finding yourself staring for several minutes at the seeming endless bins of one type of fly or another. It’s like ordering dinner at a gourmet restaurant. Prosciutto encrusted Chilean sea bass with a porcini infused garlic and ginger dipping sauce. In the vein of fly fishing there’s the ever popular foam winged biot body hi-vis adult prismatic emerger’s. Or perhaps you’re interested in bead head rubber legged purple butted tungsten weighted muddler special. Not interested? You just want flies that catch fish? That‘s no fun! If you’re a country diner, bacon and eggs kind of guy like me; the thunder creek minnow is your type of fly. It’s simple, nearly indestructible, it can be tied in any number of different patterns, and most important of all, it catches fish like crazy.

In the Alaska theme, I have chosen a salmon fry type pattern to show the tying steps in. However there are any number of patterns that work very well. All white, black/white, brown/white, blue/white, etc. Just use your imagination and be observant to the baitfish and minnows you see where you fish.

TYING THE THUNDER CREEK MINNOW

MATERIALS LIST

Hook: I used a regular #8 woolly bugger hook, however a straight eye hook is ideal

Thread: olive 6/0

Body: Wrapped olive krystal flash

Flash wing: olive krystal flash

Middle-wing: gray bucktail(very sparse)

Underwing: white Bucktail(very sparse)

Top-wing: olive Bucktail(very sparse)

Eyes: acrylic paint

Epoxy or softex for the head coating

Step 1 - Insert the hook into the vice and wrap the shank with thread.

Step 2 - Tie in a couple strands of the olive krystal flash at the rear of the hook.

Step 3 - Wrap the krystal flash forward towards the head and tie it off with a few wraps of thread.

Step 4 - While holding the krystal flash taught towards the back, wrap over it a few times with the thread. This positions it so the flash will point backwards and lay towards the bend.

Step 5 - Select a very sparse amount of the gray bucktail and tie it in. When I say sparse, I mean sparse. I counted less than 20 strands in the picture.

Step 6a - Turn the fly over in the vice so the hook’s pointing up. Clip of a fairly sparse amount of the white bucktail. Measure it against the fly. You want it so it hangs off the back a little bit, but not so far that when a fish hit’s the fly it misses the hook. So it’s best to be slightly shorter than slightly long. I missed and made mine on what I would consider the long end of acceptability.

Step 6 - Tie in the bucktail so the tips point out way past the eye. Secure it with several good wraps of thread.

Step 7 - Select a bunch of the olive bucktail. This time you have a measure guide. Just make it about the same size as the under-wing.

Step 7a - Tie in the olive bucktail tightly. This is where a lot of tiers get messed up with this fly. You need a big enough base of thread and hair so that the bucktail when it’s tied down it carries the size you want, if that makes any sense. In other words if you have a very small tie down point the head will look wrong and disproportionate to the rest of the fly. It’s also easier to spread the bucktail out so that it’s more uniform and there are no spaces that let you see under the hair. So just wrap a nice base of thread. You can even throw a little head cement in there for kicks.

Step 8 - Turn the fly over again and position the thread so that it’s a little less than a third the way down to the end of the body. Then grab the white bucktail and fold it over on itself and tie it down.

Step 8a - Turn the fly back over and repeat the same procedure with the olive.

Step 9 - Use a whip-finish or a couple of hitch knots to the tie the fly off.

Tying finished

This marks the end of the tying portion of the fly

Step 10 - Coat the head with either softex or head cement. This will prevent the paint we’re going to use for the eyes from sinking into the hair.

Step 11 - After the glue has dried it’s time to put on the eyes. I use a nail head for mine. Dip the nail into the white paint and carefully dab in onto the head to make the white background of the eye.

Step 12 - Do the same thing again only this time use black paint to simulate the pupil and use a slightly smaller nail.

Step 13 - Cover the head with softex or epoxy. This will protect the eyes and create a shiny 3-D look.

Step 14 - This isn’t totally necessary, however take a sharpie marker and draw a couple of vertical bars to simulate the parr marks on the baby salmon.

Finished fly!

This fly might seem complicated and if you tie them one at a time it is. However this is an excellent “tie by steps” fly. In others words tie a bunch of them to a certain point say step 7a. Tie maybe 6 or 8 of them to that point. Then finish them all in another round of tying. That way they come out more uniform and similar than they would if you did all 14 steps for each fly at one time.

Let me know if you have any questions. Happy tying!!!