Back in the mid 1990s–before web-based discussion forums existed–text format usenet groups like rec.outdoors.fishing.fly where the only fishing chatter game in town. I published a link to a photo of a diver I made back then, on rec.outdoors.fishing.fly. Someone immediately complained it wasn’t a fly. That it should be called “the Skinny Minny” and it would make it impossible for fly fishermen to distinguish themselves from “spin fishermen.”
Still makes me smile when ever I think about it. Here’s the Skinny Minny. You can cast it up on the bank and pull it back. It dives and wiggles like crazy. Largely weedless too. Most of the time it jumps right over a root or a branch without snagging. Fish like’em too. One interesting thing about wigglers is the refusal scenario. Fish will often zoom out to inspect a diver. Refuse. And then go back to their hiding place. And then come out again. Sometimes 2,3 or 4 times in a row. And then boom. You’ve got him. Woolly Buggers don’t often elicit that kind of compound response. In fact they never do.
body: ultra-light weight closed-cell EVA foam
tail: flashabou or what ever
hook keeper: green plastic something-or-other. Could be almost anything.
diving bill: cut from a Costco tomato container, sanded up and glued on with CA glue
eyes: any stick on eye, surrounded by UV or CA glue
The hook is not permanently attached. It’s just a snelled hopper hook that threads through a bead (choose your weight) and then through a hole in the diving bill, made with a bodkin needle. The lower down on the bill you thread the tippet the deeper the flure dives, but the tighter the wobble. The higher up on the bill you thread the tippet the less it dives, but the wider it wobbles. A bigger bead is one way to fish a wide radius, slow-motion wobbler at depth.
FOAM NOTE: I use ultra-light weight 2lbs per cubic foot EVA foam. I bought it years ago for making boat seat cushions. Unfortunately I know of no retail source. It was a wholesale only item. The best you can do at fly shops is 4lbs per cubic foot Evazote. Evazote is also EVA foam (ethylene vinyl acetate). But it isn’t quite as buoyant as my boat seat cushion material. The combination of a buoyant rear-end mated to a weighted front-end is what makes it work. Without buoyancy at the rear and weight at the front the flure would spin around in a 360 degree circle, rather than oscillating rhythmically from side to side.
Diving Bill NOTE: I’ve been making wigglers for a long time. Fly Fisherman ran a “Flies or Lures?” article (written by John Geirach) back in the mid 1980s that included some of my patterns. But for all these years there has been one design flaw I could never overcome: diving bill flies tend to be wind resistant and hard to cast. I used to make diving bills with wide, pear shaped bills (somewhat like a Rapala) where the leading edge of the diving bill was the widest part of the bill. The evolving Skinny Minny (above) has a narrow and front-pointed diving bill. It makes a big difference. The flure still dives and wiggles like crazy. It’s still a bit wind resistant. But nothing like it used to be. The narrow and sharply-pointed diving bill makes a huge difference. The pointed diving bill makes the Skinny Minny a legitimate fly. Or Flure I guess. Now you can cast it. And make no mistake. They do catch fish–in ways no straight-shank streamer ever does. I love’em. Little ones on the spring creek. Big ones on the river.
