After seeing Steve’s Myakka Minnow here, I recognized a few applications for it and tied up a bunch.
This summer I used it a lot on Lake Vallecito in Colorado, primarily as a smallmouth fly.
Worked great on smallies, but I also caught brown trout, rainbows, and northern pike with it.
My best luck with came when using it four to ten feet down under a float (strike indicator) and letting the waves and wind provide the action for the fly.
I have tried it in a number of colors besides the original gold/chartruese. Pearl/white has been a consistent producer for me, as has silver with a black tail.
It’s nice to find a productive fly that’s easy to tie, durable, and fun to fish with. Great pattern.
Thanks for the kind comments, Buddy. And I’m glad the fly worked well for you. That’s a few more species I can add to the list that have been caught on the fly.
When I’m fishing The Evergaldes, I use an all black Myakka Minnow. One day while paddling along the shoreline, I noticed an abundance of small black minnows. Tied some up and the next time down, we caught the heck out of fish.
Several years back, when the world was flat and Brookies were the size of White Sharks I was reading a book called Matching the Hatch. I was also reading a classic by Bates on Steamers and Bucktails. The idea was there, between the two, but it wasn’t until I retired and went back to school where as part of my research was involved with an acid polluted creek that I started collecting pictures of minnows and other “small fry.” Thankfully today you can find a great representation on Ohios’ DNR Fishes site. Not sure of the link but google that and you’ll find it. Minnows, Darters, Stonerollers, Sticklebacks, Sculpins, Chubs, Shiners, as well as baby game and panfish, and more can be imitated and if your imitation is close the dividends are superb. Just as with insects, color and shape are important but where most miss out is the size. Small streamers are deadly and I’m betting that if you take that fly on tour around the US, it will take native fish most anywhere as it’s a good generic imitation of many of the above mentioned small fry. Several ideas that have paid off for me are a color selection of Muddlers, Spuddlers, etc, same goes for Matukas, Deceivers and Clousers, to name a few. When the minnows are small, a Big Bead head works wonders as does maribou to imitate fins top, bottom and tail. I use a varierty of body materials such as silver and gold tinsel, braid, Estaz, floss, Chenille and more to get the desired lateral line, or scaly look to the streamer. Another nice touch, esp with maribou is to suspend it under a strike indicator and lets waves and small movements do the work. This is especially hot on Crappie and Warmouth and at times Smallmouth.
Recently I decided to tie one of Steve’s Myakka Minnows to try out. I wanted to it match baby bass and as I didn’t have body braid in the correct colors I used olive bucktail for the top and white bucktail for the bottom. Otherwise I followed directions.
This last weekend I tried it out and am happy to report it worked great on bluegills.
Thanks Steve for a great pattern!
I didn’t have any bodybraid either and tied some using different colored sparkle yarns as well as something that came closer to matching the Bodybraid and the fly worked great on bluegills, crappies and LMB. I like the bucktail idea.
Just a quick tip for those wanting ‘body braid’ but who don’t have a fly shop close that stocks it (or you just want to save some money).
WalMart, most of the craft stores like Michaels, JoAnnes, or Hobby Lobby, etc., sell a hollow mylar braid that, as far as I can tell, is identical to the gold or silver ‘body braid’ sold at the fly shops.
It’s found in the craft section where they sell that ‘plastic canvas’ (looks like a plastic grid…they weave yarns and stuff into it to make decorative things). Some of what I have is called ‘craft cord’ and is made by a company called ‘Needloft’, but there are other brands sold in different stores. A 10 yard ‘skein’ of the stuff sells for around a dollar. In addition to gold and silver, you can get other some other useful colors like pearl, black, metallics in several colors, and some two tone stuff.
It will all work for an epoxy covered pattern like the Myakka Minnow, so you can use your imagination.
Just FYI guys. I have seen Buddy’s flies, hoppers and poppers. Outstanding stuff. He is a master craftsman…at fly tying, rod building, poppers and on top of that has been a professional glass sculpter artist for 35 years. The man…and his work are amazing.
Soooo, the point is you can trust what he says. It is always from experience and believe me he knows his stuff. You can take what he says to the bank friends.
If and when you see a post by Buddy Sanders…you should definitely open it and read it.
Buddy, I think what you’re describing is a cord and not flat. Therefore, it builds up the body way too much. Bodi-Braid is flat and not a cord. You can easily build a “minnow-like” body.
What I’ve found is a hollow braided stuff…some of it comes ‘flat’ on cards, some of it comes with a ‘core’ in a skein. The ‘skein packed’ stuff requires the removal of the core. With the core removed, it lays flat on the hook, and works perfectly to build up a nice body.
What I’ve found is a hollow braided stuff…some of it comes ‘flat’ on cards, some of it comes with a ‘core’ in a skein. The ‘skein packed’ stuff requires the removal of the core. With the core removed, it lays flat on the hook, and works perfectly to build up a nice body.
I just want to tell you guys that if you decided to try a bucktail body on a Myakka minnow to make sure there is enough gap between the lower body and the hook point. I made one without enough gap and it doesn’t hook fish worth a darn. Otherwise bucktail works ok, not as good as body braid or one of it’s substitutes, but still ok.
I used some of the minnows ,I tied from Steve’s pattern last week on the
Little Schuylkill here . Knocked the socks off a few bass and a nice 16" hold over brown.
Body was pearl braid.
