Sexy Shad Baby Fat Minnow
Cheech - January, 2023
H
ave you ever had one of those days where you know you are fishing in the right place, the fish are active, the weather is perfect, but the fish just don't seem to like your fly pattern? If you have ever fished a lake where you can sight fish to cruisers you get to see the whole thing unfold. Cast out, fish appears out of nowhere and follows your fly, then he turns away. You strip your fly and he comes right back and follows even closer this time but still turns away... Yeah. Stillwater trout can be real jerks sometimes. Because they basically just swim and eat, they can afford to be more selective than river fish - mostly because they aren't burning calories in currents just to survive. I could go on and one about this, but long story short, I wanted to create a fly that they wouldn't be able to give the ol' "looky Lou" anymore. The Low Fat Minnow was born, and has been a very successful fly for us over the last 4 years or so. It has caught everything from Green Sunfish in Utah to Tarpon in Mexico. After a recent trip to chase big cutthroat, I noticed lots of really small baitfish that would school up right over the weed beds near shore. After that trip I began working on a much smaller and simpler Low Fat Minnow, and after a few revisions the Baby Fat Minnow was born. Instead of explaining how they worked, I'll just let you watch a video of our second trip using them...
Because Bruiser Blend Jr. comes in a bunch of different colors, you can tie pretty much any color combinations you can dream of.
This color is a very popular color in the bass fishing world so I decided to steal it and bring it to life in the fly fishing world. It’s a great color because it’s kind of an attractor, but realistic enough to still look like a real minnow.
Here's the tutorial. Happy tying!
~ Cheech
