Spinner'd Minners - A great fly for bass, trout, musky, pike, sunfish

Spinner’d Minners

Last Victim of the Spinner'd Minner Caught By Derrick Filkins and the Spinner'd Minner that caught it below. Tied by Derrick on an Ad Swier 8/0 Partridge hook, made by Mustad.

Coming Soon
Fox's Spinner’d Minners DVD
with Tying Instructions &
On-Stream Fishing Tips

New Spinner'd Minner Lites

Click Here for Spinner'd Minner Recipes

May 17th, 2004 when I spoke at the AFF Club monthly meeting, I mentioned that I was reading a very interesting book, “What Fish See”, written by Dr. Colin J. Kageyama. The book is about how the small particles in different colors of water filter out and change the color of all types of materials. Some materials change color in a couple of inches of water while others maintain their color several feet deep. The book also discussed how some colors and materials (especially fluorescents) experience “long distance color shifts” when you move away from them underwater. This one phenomenon explains why a fish that charges at your fly from a long distance suddenly turns away and refuses the fly at the last moment. Your pattern changed colors from when the fish began the attack to when it refused it. The book also describes the effects of different colors of water, clear which we would consider blue, green, and muddy which would be considered red; and the effects of different background colors in each of the three water colors—light, dark, green, brown, sand and so on. I am sure you are thinking that this is too much information and too complicated for the average fisherman. Well, Dr. Kageyama is not an average fisherman. If a fisherman catches 10 steelhead in a year, the fisherman is in the upper 8% of “steelheaders. Dr. “K” catches over 150 steelhead per year. He is a consultant for Mepps and Mr. Twister. I think his book is something we need to know, don’t you? This book address all types of fish—Steelhead, Trout, Bass, Walleye, Musky and Sunfish. It also destroys the myths associated with the vision of fish and how well they see the fisherman approaching them. You crouching fly fishermen might as well standup straight and approach your fish slowly because you are not hiding when bent over. You are causing yourself a lot of back pain needlessly.

“What Fish See” also addresses the flies used when fly fishing and the materials used in making them. You would be surprised at how poorly hair, fur, and feathers show up underwater. Most of our patterns appear as blah brown, yuck dull dark gray, black, or become invisible. All of the meticulous detail we take when selecting the perfect shade of natural materials is just so much crap. The only salvation for fly fishing is that we fish shallow water. The closer to the surface we fish, the better natural materials appear as they do in the air. Once we let the fly sink a couple of feet (or inches in muddy water) depending upon the light, background, and water color, we loose our advantage.

Pretty Landlocked Salmon caught on a Spinner'd Minner

So what is an answer? Dr. K offers a testing kit of six filters to test materials, lures, flies, etc. I purchased one, and here is what I found. Synthetic materials, rattles, brightly painted or colored beads and SPINNERS are our best bets. That’s right, spinners. You say spinners are not traditional and haven’t been around very long. We could say the same thing about graphite rods, large arbor reels, PVC Rio Clouser fly lines, Fluorocarbon leaders, Epoxy head patterns...and so on. The traditional approach of fly fishing is an extremely long rod (13-17 foot long) with only a tiptop guide, no reel, a fly line of braided silk tied to the butt of your rod, a cat-gut leader, and the proper attire might be that worn by a nun. Now, how many of you are “Traditionalists”? I am sorry but I will not let the imaginary boundary of Traditionalism limit my approach to fly fishing. Everyone wants to abound in this sport but at the same time we let Traditionalists place restrictions on our tactics, methods, and ideas. Fly fishermen often refer to Fox Statler as “out-of-the-box”. The truth is that I never got in the proverbial “box”. I always assumed that fly fishing was a sport that allowed imagination, creation, adaptation, investigation, dedication, education, revelation… and so many more “ations” and had no limits. This is why I am asked to present seminars, tie flies, build rods, demonstrate casting, guide fishermen, and so many other things. I have not let the Traditionalists restrict or pollute my approach to fly fishing. In fact, my greatest joy is to catch more fish than a Traditionalist in the same water and piss him/her off while doing it. Indicator fly fishing is mentioned in “The Compleat Angler” but it is not traditional. Let me get off my “soap box” and back to spinners.

The first spinner for fly fishing, that I know of personally, was created about 1890 by Hildebrandt. He hammered it out of a dime for his fly rod. The idea was so successful that the company, Hildebrandt Spinners, was created and is still in existence today. Pistol Pete’s flies are quite popular out west and quite successful. These patterns incorporate a small propeller just behind the eye of the hook. Most of the patterns resemble a Wooly Bugger or 56’er. I can remember trying to create Spinner’d Flies thirty years ago. The problem was the beads. Beads with the same size of opening on each end could not be forced around the hook-bend. The beads of today solved that problem and Spinner’d Flies are a reality. Even better than the beads are the large bass tapered fly lines available. Lines like my Rio Clouser can cast a key chain and spinner’d flies are handled just as easily as a large popping bug.

A nice steelhead caught on a Spinner'd Minner by Derrick Filkins of
FlyMasters Fly Shop in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Do Spinner’d Minners catch fish?

Well, do moles walk fun? Yes they catch fish--lots of fish! Trout, Walleye, Musky, Sunfish, and Bass so far, but no catfish yet—however, I am hopeful. How about an 8 pound Brown Trout, a dozen nice Walleye, several Rainbow Trout, tons of the better Sunfish, and loads of Smallmouth. This has been my experience so far on my last four outings. You interested yet? Well then, how about winning a Musky tournament, does that peak your interest?

Another nice steelhead caught on a Spinner'd Minner.

Spinner’d Minners are easy to tie with a little knowledge of the basics about making spinners.

Use a small wire hook. The smaller the wire the better the spinner will spin. An Eagle Claw Aberdeen #214 bronze, or #214-F gold, or#301 gold hooks, size #1-#4; or Daiichi #1750 hook, size #4 are my best so far. You can buy the Eagle Claw hooks at bait shops, department stores and grocery stores pretty cheap--about $5 per hundred. If you want to use a heavier wire hook I would suggest boring out the hole of the in-line spinner blade a little larger. The spinner blade must be floppy on the hook shank so that it spins freely when being retrieved.

Use a #1 sized In-line Spinner Blades (as of yet I haven’t found In-line spinner blades in smaller sizes). In-line spinner blades are lighter and spin better at slower retrieval speeds than other types of blades. Most clevis-n-blade setups (French, Colorado, Indiana, and Willow Leaf blades) require a faster retrieval rate to make them spin effectively. However they do work great in very fast water but work the fly fisherman to death in slow water.

Use a 5/32^nd or 3/16^th bead behind the In-line Blade. The bead is required to let the spinner spin. Both sizes of the suggested beads work equally well, however, bead sizes smaller and larger hamper a #1 sized In-line blade. I have found that bead size and spinner blade size are dependent upon each other.

You can wrap Bodi-braid (a body product by Spirit River, Inc.) or another similar material and fill the hook-shank behind the bead. The heavier bead and blade combinations can break a thread wrapped head of the fly loose from the hook shank even if super glued. By placing a body wrap on the hook-shank of the pattern, you stop the blade and bead from forcing the entire pattern down the hook-shank.

Suggested blade colors. Silver plated blades and bead (not Nickel) is best in clear or blue water and water that is cold to the fish. 24 karat Gold plated blade and bead is best in green water and water that is comfortable to the fish. Tarnished and Coffee colored blades and beads are best in water that is warm to the fish. Black and Chartreuse combinations are best in muddy water. And finally, Silver blade and bead with a black, white and silver body and tail is best for all low light shade conditions, windy choppy water days, and in choppy riffles. This final suggested pattern is being called the "Policeman" because silver, black, and white are cop colors

Spirit River materials such as: Hanked Lite-Brite, Holographic Mylar Motion, Metallic Mylar Motion, Mylar Mirror Flash, Spectra Mylar Motion, and Crystal Splash for the tail, back and belly of your patterns are the greatest materials that I have tested so far.

Be creative. I am imitating the dominant minnows in my rivers and am having great success. Try these patterns: use a 24k gold blade, a 5/32^nd gold bead, black thread, a gold flashy tail material, a gold body wrap on the hook shank, a bright yellow belly, and a brown-olive or black-olive back. This pattern which is called "#4", along with the "Policeman" pattern, are killers in the Spring River and the South Fork of the Spring River. They work exceptionally well for trout and Steelhead (as you can see). If I was limited to only two patterns for any kind of fishing; my first choice would be the Policeman and my second would be "#4". They have proven themselves in fresh and salt water and from southern Argentina to northern Canada.

Building Spinner'd Minners with size #2, #3, and even #4 in-line blades to catch larger fish and bigger species is also possible. Select a ring-eyed hook at least a 3X long or longer. Make sure that the blade is floppy and loose on the hook shank. If it isn't, bore out the hole in the blade. Place a layer of thread wrap on a large portion of the hook shank and superglue it down before building the rest of the Spinner'd Minner. The extra weight and force of the in-line spinner blade can break the pattern from the hook shank and force the pattern down into the bend of the hook. I built some #2's and #3's for a friend's son who was going saltwater fishing in the gulf. He caught 90lb. Cobia on a #2 Policeman pattern. Now he is hooked on them.

Here is a picture of some of the patterns that I am using. This selection of Spinner’d Minners ranges from clear, green, and muddy waters to light through dark backgrounds, and in sun or shade. These patterns are all about 3 to 4 inches in length and cast easily with my 9’ 6”, 7 weight bass rod on a Rio Clouser line. I am using a braided leader with about three foot of 0x tippet then a #12 barrel swivel or a small ball bearing swivel, then about 2 foot of 2x tippet. The swivel is needed to keep the leader from twisting. A note: the beads in front of the In-line blade are not needed to make the spinner blade spin; only a bead behind the blade is needed. I added the beads or cone in front of the spinner blade either to add color and/or weight to the pattern.

This is a Smallmouth Bass and the Spinner’d Minner that took him. I caught this Smallie on the first cast to his lair which was also the third cast of the day. It was Saturday, July 31 at noon and 90 degrees plus. I did not take the time to measure this fish because it was so hot, but the tote lid in the picture is 33 inches across and the Spinner’d Minner is 4 inches long. Needless to say the old rascal fought like a bulldog.