Bent minnow fly?

[Windknot]

I've caught hundreds of bream on bent minnow lures. It has been one of my go to lures during the warmer months. Not only are they very effective, to my mind, nothing beats catching bream on the surface.

I love my fly fishing too. If you think catching bream on lures is a challenge and you like a challenge then give fly fishing for them a go.

After doing extensive research on the subject, I haven't been able to find a fly that even comes close to duplicating the action of a bent minnow lure, so I decided to try to come up with my own design.

It has been an ongoing project. I make and test a certain design, only to think of something that will make it work or look a little better.

Anyway, this is my latest attempt. It works pretty well, but it has just a fraction too much buoyancy.

[BloodWorm]

Now that is one out of the box.

Nice thinking, hopefully you can pin a few once things warm up.

[nagz]

This is great

I tried a similar idea using a bunch of solarez thick hard but I couldn’t maintain the bend

[Windknot]

Thanks for the kind comments. Every one I tie is just a little better than the previous one. It's an evolutionary process.

To get the bend, I started of with a long shanked size 1 hook, which I bent in the vice. The bend was in line with the gape of the hook. I tied the tail on, which was cut from a piece of flat silicon and then I tied the 2 assist hooks and the red silicon legs. I then tied the fly in much the same manner as a surf candy fly. I wanted the fly to be much wider than thick, so I built up the layers horizontally only, from each side of the hook shank. The flotation is some 6mm foam that was cut to shape and glued on with super glue. Lastly, I cut the size 1 hook at the start of the bend, as it didn't want it interfering with the assist hooks.

I have tried the fly out. It spins when casting, so I fitted a tiny snap swivel onto my leader which prevented line twist. It rights itself on the water every time. With a sharp retrieve it dives down, but it's too buoyant and it pops right back up again. My next one will have less foam.