www.cjtu.org

September 2022

General Meeting

Tuesday, September 13th, 2022

In Praise of Brook Trout

Come join us at 8pm for the world premiere of Wendell "Ozzie" Ozefovich's new video "In Praise of Brook Trout - My 20 Years Filming Wild Brook Trout”. CJTU's own renown underwater videographer will take the audience into headwater streams filming wild brookies from fry just a month or so old-- their behaviors, feeding, fighting and up to the final spawn.

This will be an in-person meeting at the American Legion Hall, 137 New Market Road in Dunellen, New Jersey.

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

Meeting starts at 8:00 PM - Non Members are always welcome!

News & Events

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Fly of the Month

Silver Minkie

Tied by Bill Ninke

We all like to catch big fish. And we know that big fish eat little fish. So we fish streamer flies that imitate little fish. But there has been a trend in recent years to fish ever bigger streamers to catch ever bigger fish. This trend has been driven by the large streamers of Kelly Galloup for trout in our brawling western rivers, by the Game Changer of Blane Chocklett for trout, bass, pike and muskies everywhere, and the Beast of Bob Popovic for salt water species on the Atlantic Coast. But there is still a place for small streamers and this month’s pattern is one of the more productive ones.

The pattern is the Silver Minkie. It most likely originated in the UK. A lot of public accessible fishing is the UK is in the large reservoirs of the Midlands. In the Spring, many species of baitfish spawn and by this time of year the fry that have hatched are now about two inches long and patrol the shallows and shore in large schools. So throwing a small streamer near these schools has proved to be an effective strategy.

The Minkie is really just a small version of a Zonker pattern which has been fished in the US for many years. A narrow strip from a tanned mink hide is used as a wing instead of a strip from a tanned rabbit skin. Mink has shorter fur fibers than rabbit so smaller patterns can be tied. Wapsi supplies mink zonkers to fly shops in many colors so they are easily obtainable

If you search on the Minkie pattern, you’ll find a number of different approaches to coloring, eyes and weighting. I like the choices made by Midlands guide Steve Cullen. The grayish tone from the white mink zonker and grizzly hackle matches many of our local baitfish. The bead chain eyes cause the fly to ride just sub-surface where an attack by predators from below is natural. The pearl Ice Dub provides the belly sparkle of many baitfish. And the red wire rib gives a hint of color from gills or injury.

While this pattern originated from reservoir fishing in the UK, it also works very well in rivers and ponds here and there. It’s just a nice generic baitfish. But we do have a large reservoir in our area, Spruce Run. So if you have a boat, take this pattern along on a trip there. Pound the shores or disturbances from baitfish schools. You’ll have a good chance at a hybrid striped bass, largemouth, smallmouth or pike that will reveal the color of you backing.

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