I’ve been playing with a few concept patterns lately.
The thread a while back that mentioned uses for parachute cord caught my attention so I bought a package to play around with. I like the ‘scale effect’ of the cording, and it accepts markers well so you can easily color it to make just about any minnow pattern you’d want.
These are small…the cord I bought is small diameter…I’ll have to try to find some larger cord and try some of these in a bigger size. For those that may want to play along, here’s the ‘recipe’ I used:
Hook: 4X long down eye size 8
Thread: Clear .005 mono sewing thread
Weight: .020 lead wire three layers tied ‘acordian style’ on top of the shank. This is to give definition to the body and keep the hook point riding upwards.
Tail: Maribou…you can clip it for a more realistic look, or leave it long for more action. Obviously, any full tailing or flash material will work as well.
Body: White parachute cord…I tie it in at the tail first, then tie off and cut the thread…reattach the thread behind the eye then stretch the cord and tie it down.
Coloring: Any permanent ‘magic’ markers to suit.
Eyes: Stick on 'prismatic eyes.
Finish: DecoArt Triple Thick Brillian Brush-on Gloss Glaze (craft shop item in the acrylic paints section). This is a thick bodied water based acrylic gloss that can replace epoxy in some uses. I like that it sets quickly and doesn’t yellow. I put it on thick and place it in a fly turner, but two ‘thinner’ coats will give the same results without any sags and without the need for a turner. You can recoat this stuff in about ten minutes. You can always use epoxy too.
I tied up a single version after that post from a couple weeks ago… colored it up as a shad pattern.
Yours turned out better than mine did. I think my cord may be a size bigger. I coated mine with a thin brushing of Sally Hansens for durability, but I like the look of the stuff you used. I don’t have a drying wheel, so the 2 thin coats sounds easy enough.
When I say ‘acordian style’ what I mean is layering the lead in a zig-zag pattern on top of itself…to do this tie a length of lead to the top of the hook shank with the end of the lead about 2-3 eye widths behind the eye…bind it down tightly with thread, keeping the lead directly on top of the shank…wrap the thread to above the hook barb. Now, fold the lead wire FORWARD, and bind it down again, keeping this layer of lead on top of the previous layer…stop a bit short of the end of the lead, and fold it BACK again, wrapping to back to just above the hook point this time, again keeping this layer diretly on top of the previous layer…trim it here. What you end up with are three ‘layers’ of lead directly on top of each other…this puts all the wieght above the hook shank, which is what you want. Harder to describe than to do.
Dave,
I’ve tried a shad pattern using that pearl body braid with the aluminum tape under it (see picture below)…same type of weighting under the tape.
Warmfishernc,
I think wht I ended up with is 1/8 inch cord. I’d love to find some of this stuff in 1/4, 3/8 and maybe even 1/2 for larger patterns…
Flybugpa,
You could easily color one of these to match a shiner…I’ve not seen one in a while, but with a picture it shouldn’t be too hard.
Nice looking flies. I tie and fish minnow patterns a LOT for bass and crappie, especially in the summer and fall. I tie a similar pattern to the ones you showed but I slip a rattle into the mylar tubing. I’m really not sure if the rattle makes any difference in the take rate, but it creates a nice “full” body on the top of the hook and provides just enough weight to make the fly ride hook point up. I’ve not tried the epoxy substitute yet, but I’ll keep an eye out for it and give it a try.
Buddy, I’m wondering if you found any larger cord? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen larger true parachute cord …with the removable core. Like you I’d like some larger.
I picked some up at Wal-Mart that was 3/8 " with the cord in …and after removal and a little stretching it was 1/4"…looks like the standard size to me.
Where did you get yours?
Anyone know where to find the previous thread that referenced parachute cord?
You can get a really clean head on this type of minnow by tying the head inside out. At least that’s how I do it (I use mylar piping and tied a similar pattern a couple years back for a fly swap Parnelli ran).
Tie on your thread a couple eye-widths back from the hook’s eye. Slip the piping over the eye and stop where you tied in the thread.
Bring the thread up onto the piping (which should be sticking out beyond the eye, parallel to the hook’s shank). Tie right up against the eye then add some half hitches (or whip finish by hand), snip your thread, and add a drop of head cement.
Yes, the piping is in the way a bit of wrapping the thread but it’s not that big of a problem.
Now, push the cord so it turns inside out and unrolls around the shank of the hook as it’s pushed towards the hook’s bend. Tie down over the barb and fray the remaining cord to make a flashy tail.
If it won’t “unroll” or push properly then slide a pencil, pen, etc inside the piping tube and it will unroll very nicely. That keeps the sides from collapsing as you try to start making it turn inside out.
You can color the mylar piping before tying it on and the color shows fine when you turn it inside out (I was pleasantly surprised to discover that).
A bit of SoftTex, head cement, epoxy, etc will help hold the shape.
I think I added a bit of marabou at the tail to give more than just the bit of flash from the mylar piping.
Mylar piping is available in several diameters and some are pre-colored. I found the smallest size worked best for what I wanted but highly recommend experimenting a bit.