SPINELESS
MINNOW
BY GUEST CONTRIBUTOR SAM LOOPER
The Spineless Minnow was designed to target
White Bass and Hybrid Bass in my local waters in Middle
Tennessee. I grew up fishing a Rebel Crawfish for “redeye”
in East TN and I wanted to design a small fly to imitate the
wiggle action from the Rebel lure. About the same time, I
was tying a lot of Blane Chocklett’s T-Bone for Musky and
I wanted to tie a smaller version for smallmouth bass. In
the first step, when shaping the tubing for the T-Bone and
after I had attached the material to the hook, I could see
the back half of a small minnow. I immediately found a
Flymen 22 mm shank and created the dome shape for the
head, and the Spineless Minnow was born. It took a few
more months of development and dialing in all the right
materials to ensure the fly swam true and didn’t spin or
roll. I’ve personally caught several warm water species
including Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Bluegill,
Crappie, Rock Bass (redeye), White Bass, Hybrid Bass,
Hognose Sucker, Blue Catfish, and the list goes on…