Egg Eating Bunker Minnow

[JoJoPro]

This is simply a bunker minnow fly pattern tied onto a jig head. The idea is that it is supposed to immitate a minnow eating a salmon or trout egg. I use it for steelhead, as eggs and minnows are two of steelheads' favorite foods. Of course this pattern could be tied up in any trio of colors, or two colors, or one.

Materials:
1/64 oz round headed collarless jig, orange
6/0 white tying thread
Chartreuse Krystal Flash
One 4" strand of black yarn, unravelled.
One or two 4" strands of chartreuse yarn, unravelled.
One or two 4" strands of white yarn, unravelled.
1/8" holographic eyes, chartreuse.
Super glue.



1. Tie in several strands of Krystal Flash.


2. Pull apart the yarn into individual fibers.


3. Tie in clump of chartreuse yarn so that the middle of the clump is immediately behind the jig head. Make the minimum amount of wraps possible to keep the "minnow's" nose as close to the "egg" as possible.


4. Pull the clump of yarn near the head end back over the tail end. Make a couple more tight thread wraps between 'nose' and 'egg'


5. Tie in the white 'under body' yarn over top of the chartreuse yarn the same way as was done in step 3.


6. Repeat step 4 with the white yarn.


7. Tie in the clump of black yarn the same way as in steps 3 and 5.


8. Double back the clump of black yarn as was done in steps 4 and 6.
9. Whip finish.


10. Use your thumb and fore-finger to gently pull the yarn fibers into the shape of a minnow's head.
11. While still holding the material in this position, apply super glue so that the whole "minnow" head is saturated. Take great care not to glue your thumb or finger to the yarn!!! :blush:


12. While the glue is still wet apply the holographic eyes. Keep holding the yarn in position until the head has dried.



John

 

[hunter7711]

Very nice job on showing how it's done.

 

[Pup]

Great step-by-step tutorial. I really like the looks of the finished tie too!

 

[Radtexan]

Great job...

 

[LedHed]

Great tye - excellent pattern - thnx for sharing

 

[Ron Don]

Nice work! Love it.

 

[AtticaFish]

That is an excellent emerald shiner imitation, gonna have to make me me some of those. You have my imagination running also... might try to tie the idea on a tube insert head - to give the look of just a minnow.

Thanks for the tutorial - will add it to the index pages of the site on my next update! :jig:

 

[ScottV]

Great job on the fly and the tutorial.

 

[jjsjigs]

that is quite possibly the best shiner imitation I've seen in a long, long time! I'm tellin' ya now... I'm tying those up tonight!! Time to hit the craft store for some yarn!!

Instead of super glue could you use epoxy on the head? (super glue fumes really rake havoc on my sinuses)

 

[baitmaster]

awesome tutorial. Thanks for sharing

 

[Lost Pole]

Never seen anything like it…amazing! I'm wondering if u could pinch the tail someway to give the caudal peduncle definition.
Is that blaze orange PP?

Thx for sharing.

Adam

 

[JoJoPro]

Thanks everyone!

You could save yourself the time of pulling apart the yarn by buying similar materials from fly shops, ("polar fiber" perhaps it's called???). The craft yarn is way cheaper though...like $4 for a one pound spool, which will certainly last me a lifetime. The yarn used in this way also moves very nicely in the water. I also use a lot of craft yarn in my fly tying, using it for egg patterns like Suckers Spawn, blood dots in Glo-Bugs, and as dubbing for nymphs, scuds, larvaes, etc.

I'm sure that you could use epoxy in place of the super glue. I prefer using the super glue as it dries quickly and allows for the tie to come together more quickly. A warning though...I have found that some super glues start smoking when applied to the yarn, which gives off some really strong vapors which I'm sure is no good for us to be breathing in. The 'Green' super glue pictured with the materials does not smoke, does not have as strong of fumes, and seems to work just as good as any other super glue. I found this at the crafts store as well.

In the past I played around with the tie and put a tail fin on it by stripping all but the tip section of a hackle feather, and cutting those remaining fibers to the shape of a tail. I tied the stripped feather in by the stem first then continued with the tie as demonstrated. The tail looked good on the dry jig but I found it to interfere with the swimming action of the yarn in the water.

I purchased the jig heads pre-painted, and they had a traditional liquid paint coating. Blaze orange powder paint on a perfectly rounded trout head type jig would be sweet for this tie for sure.

You could tie this pattern up in all sorts of color combinations and you could use any sort of fibrous materials in place of/in addition to the yarn. Below is a Bunker Minnow fly I tied in this way, using black and white yarn and yellow angelina in the middle for a flashier presentation that still has movement.


John

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

That's a winner,really nice jig that costs little to tie. I'm not a fan of superglue,however. The fly is cool,too.Where do you get that greenish flash. I want some.

 

[jjsjigs]

I tried with earnest... I could not rip apart the yarn well. I got frustrated very quickly. I'm almost ashamed to post this pic since JoJo pro's jigs is so awesome. Adding my pic to his post would be a slap in the face to him. However, I did add a tail (aka caudal peduncle definition) that Lost Pole was looking for. Now please, this is just a quick tie for me to get familiar with the bunker pattern. It's VERY VERY rough!!! Don't laugh... Mmm'kay? I omitted the "egg part" of the jig and made the jig head... the head! I must say after tying this I like Jo Jo Pro's pattern better than me trying to bastardize it.

 

[toadfrog]

WAY COOL !

 

[StumpHunter]

Thanks for posting the great pics as you went along. Very nice jig and the info is great.

 

[Russ Mixon]

Wondering where to get the threads use in tying the bunker minnow?

 

[AtticaFish]

Wondering where to get the threads use in tying the bunker minnow?

In post #12 he talks a little about the yarn that was used. He just called it craft yarn. I think you could probably find some fancier 'fly tying' materials to use in its place like congo hair or EP fiber. The idea of a giant ball of yarn that will tie thousands of jigs/flies for $4 buck sounds like music to my ears.

BTW - Welcome to the forum and glad to see you post!

 

[midnight]

I liked JoJoPro Bunker minnow so I tried making a couple of jigs out of yarn. I used a mustache comb to separate the yarn fibers. I got the yarn at Walmart (Day Glow) 236 yards for 3 bucks.It sure looks good in the water!




please give opinions!

 

[Fatman]

Look good! These are the velcro tools I made to work with yarn and dubbing

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