Junior's Craft Fur Minnow great for fresh- and saltwater fish

Junior's Craft Fur Minnow is easy to tie and very effective on fresh- and saltwater fish.

Every once in a while, I stumble upon an idea so simple that I wonder why I didn't think of it?

Joe Mahler, a fly-fishing guru in Fort Myers, Fla., turned me onto a fly created by Junior Burke of Indiana. It's a classic takeoff on the Clouser Deep Minnow created by Bob Clouser of Pennsylvania. 

The original Clouser is tied with bucktail.

Peacock bass are suckers for Craft Fur Minnows!

Burke's minnow is tied with select craft fur that's readily available in most fly shops. In my hometown of Sarasota, I purchase craft fur at The Compound (4063 Clark Rd., http://www.compoundboardshop.com/). The Compound arguably has the best selection of fly-tying materials in this area. (Note: The Compound will be moving into its new building in Sarasota in late February.) You can call The Compound at 941-923-0430.

Back to Burke's amazing minnow!

The fly is easy to tie. I'd estimate I can crank one out every couple of minutes. So, as you might imagine, I have a good supply.

The fly was originally designed for smallmouth bass in Indiana. Burke advises to fish it on a sinktip line with a fluorocarbon leader.

The fly paid big dividends for John Weimer.

It's his "go-to fly."

Mahler, a good friend of Burke's, advises letting the fly sink, then use short, sharp strips with long pauses.

While Mahler uses the fly to fool largemouth bass, I've found it's an incredible fly for peacock bass. Over our  last four trips, we've totaled 125 peacock bass  to 5 1/2 pounds. In addition, we've caught largemouth bass, monster Mayan cichlid and oscar.

While driving home from a peacock bass trip in south Florida, I began to think about using Junior's Craft Fur Minnow in salt water.

Why not?

If I tied it on a saltwater hook, there's no reason it shouldn't work.

Tying a few on No. 2 Mustad  S71SNP-DT hooks, I set out to find out how marine species liked the fly.

I can't say I was surprised. They loved it!

For freshwater fishing, I tie my Craft Fur Minnows on a No. 6 White River 004 that I get at Bass Pro Shops. Most any strong freshwater hook will work.

Tying the Craft Fur Minnow is simple.

Hook: No. 2 Mustad S71SNP-DT (salt water); No 6 White River 004 (fresh water)

Thread: White flat wax nylon

Eyes: Bead chain (your choice of size and color; I like black)

Body: White extra select craft fur

Flash: 2-3 strands pearl Krystal Flash

Beard: I like red, but Mahler prefers pink. Your choice!

First trip out in the salt with the Craft Fur Minnow was remarkable. I tied a few on No. 4 hooks so that I could use them on my 5-weight TFO BVK rod. I caught several trout from 20 to 24 inches before the wind came up. When that happened, I switched to a 7-weight TFO BVK. I caught trout up to 28 inches.

Next trip, I took John Weimer of the Mangrove Coast Fly Fishers in Sarasota. We had another good day. In fact, Weimer beat his personal best trout seven times! His largest trout went an impressive 27 inches. He also added a 5-pound bluefish.

The shallow-water pattern ended, so I opted for a TFO BVK 6 weight with an intermediate sinktip lne the next outing. I caught trout to 26 inches. In one spot, I caught 15 from 16 to 22 inches.

The fish of the day, however, was a 5-pound blue that I caught when I cast into a school of breaking jack crevalle. I hooked a jack on my first cast, but lost it after a few seconds. The fly was immediately eaten by a healthy blue!

On another trip, I caught several trout from 20 to 26 inches and a 28-inch redfish.

I have no doubt the fly will appeal to a variety of saltwater fish. I believe the fly is easy for the fish to see and ever-so-sexy in the water, with the craft fur forever pulsating to entice predators.

Junior Burke may have designed his fly for smallmouth bass, but I'm not sure he realized the wide appeal of this easy-to-tie fish-catcher!

There are flies that catch fish and flies that catch anglers

I am convinced that flies are created to hook more anglers than fish. There are flies that catch fish and flies that catch anglers.

I was browsing through a book on bonefish patterns and there are some really neat flies. There also are some real jokes. How some of them made it into the book is beyond me.

And what else gets me is that someone tweaks an established pattern a little bit and then puts his or her name on it.

The late George Rose of Rotonda was one of my early fly-tying mentors. He told me in his New Hampshire accent, "Steve, there are no new patterns. There all variations on the same theme."

I still believe that.

One of saltwater's truly great flies in the Clouser Minnow, a simple pattern developed by Pennsylvanian Bob Clouser. The fly will take everything from bonefish to carp. All it consists of is an upper and lower clump of bucktail, a little flash and lead eyes. Four steps and you're done.

But there are some numbnuts out there who add a little ice chenille for a body and add their name to the fly.

I created a fly that I named the Myakka Minnow. You can Google it and learn how to tie it. It's a great pattern for panfish and other freshwater species. The beauty of the fly is that it can be tied on any size hook to be used for any minnow-eating species you desire. The fly appeals to everything from bluegill to tarpon.

I posted the fly's recipe on a website, along with photos and the tying procedure. It mostly drew raves, but one disgruntled forum member blasted me for copying someone else's fly and adding my name to it.

I responded that I had never seen a fly like it, but certainly it was possible that there would be another out there. I asked if he would post a link to the site where he had seen it.

A couple of days later, he did. I clicked on the link and it took me to another site. There on my screen I saw my fly. It was on another forum where I had posted the Myakka Minnow photo and recipe.

Guilty! I copied my own fly.

The Myakka Minnow has caught literally thousands of fish. It's a dynamite pattern for oscar and Mayan cichlid in The Everglades.

About a year ago, a fly angler from North Carolina emailed me and wanted to know if I would sell him a few Myakka Minnows. I replied that I would. I said that the flies cost $3.50 each and the minimum order is a dozen.

He said that he was heading down to The Everglades and had read that the Myakka Minnow was THE fly.

About a week later, I mailed the flies to him. I asked that he let me know how he did.

I got an email from him six months later. He told me that they put their boat in at a canal along Alligator Alley and didn't do so well. So, they loaded the boat on the trailer and drove to another canal. They spent a fishless first hour.

"That's when I tied on a Myakka Minnow," he said. "And that's when I started catching fish.

"Your Myakka Minnow saved the day!"

While the Myakka Minnow is somewhat famous, it's not a contest winner. You have to understand that flies that catch fish and flies that win contests usually are two different animals. I entered the Myakka Minnow and another pattern that I created, my Wide-Eye Snook Fly, in a contest last year. The MM didn't place. The Wide-Eye Snook Fly, a pattern that hadn't ever caught a fish at the time, placed third in the nation.

Go figure!

But like I said at the beginning, there are flies that catch fish and flies that catch anglers.

I'm glad the Myakka Minnow catches fish.