Thunder Creek Minnow

Keith Fulsher is a fly fisherman living in Eastchester, New York. Early on he tied flies for the renown Angler’s Cove in Manhattan. There he came into contact with Lew Oatman, another tier who contributed greatly to streamer design, and with Alex Rogan a descendant of the Scottish Rogans who were established tiers and deeply involved in Atlantic salmon fly design.

In 1962 he started to experiment with constructing streamers that would more exact imitate bait fish. Unsatisfied with the bulky and gaudy streamers then available he set about creating a sparse and streamlined minnow imitation. He was particularly concerned with the size of the head and the eyes. He didn’t feel that thread heads with painted eyes or jungle cock eyes appropriately represented the large head of a minnow.

The style he settled upon had been employed earlier, the reversed bucktail. This style involved tying bucktail onto the hook shank behind the eye so that the tips projected forward of the hook eye. The bucktail butts were then secured to the shank and wrapped to the eye. The free ends were bent back over the shank and secured so that they now projected beyond the hook bend. This reversed bucktail style results in a substantial head and allows for large sized eyes.

The reversed style was not new. His style evolved from wet flies he had seen as a young angler. These had feather wings tied with the tip projecting forward beyond the eye. The stem was then bent back over the shank and secured again. Here the intent was to promote a secure attachment. In fact this style goes back even further. Mary Orvis Marbury includes several reversed head flies in “Favorite Flies and Their Histories”. An early practitioner of this style was Carrie Stevens who used this design for saltwater flies. Fulsher’s real innovation and contribution was the creation of a series of imitative flies that matched the form and coloration of local baitfish. He tested these patterns initially on Thunder Creek in northern Wisconsin, a low flow, tannic, small stream which is interrupted by beaver ponds.

Materials

• Hook - Streamer size 4-6
• Mylar Tubing
• Bucktail - white and green
• Pearl Crystal Flash
• Thread - red Uni Big Fly
• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails

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1. Select something for a body, I'm using some gold mylar tubing.

2. Strip the core from the tubing, slide it over the hook eye and tie it down at the hook eye end. You can use your bodkin to fray out the hook end for some extra flash.

3. Tie in 6-8 strands of pearl Crystal Flash.

4. On the top side of the hook tie in some dark bucktail with the tips pointing forward. You'll want some long bucktail to match the hook size. A general rule of thumb should be twice the hook length but longer is OK. Tie in a some white bucktail with the tips pointing forward. Bring the thread wraps back about 1/3 of the hook length from the eye.

5. With your bodkin separate the dark bucktail and fold it back over the hook as pictured. Secure it with 2 or 3 thread wraps.

6. If you have a rotary vise flip the hook over, otherwise you'll have to work upside down. Bend the white bucktail back as pictured and secure with 2 or 3 thread wraps.

7. Whip finish and cut off the thread.

8. Give the head 2 or more coats of head cement or Sally Hansen Hard as nails. I prefer the Sally. Let this dry well.

9. Once the Sally is dry you should have a nice clear head on the fly.

10. Using your disposable hardwood bodkin apply a reasonable sized dot of white paint as the eye.

11. Again with the other end of the bodkin make a pupil with black paint over the white. Throw the bodkin in the garbage.

12. The finished Thunder Creek Minnow. Experiment with different colors of bucktail for the top and bottom.

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