Mickey Finn variations

[Fredmo]

I recently was looking at tying some flies with some of the bucktail that i've acquired over the past months. I was looking at a Mickey Finn, but that seems to require red and yellow bucktail. Are other color combinations used with success, as in making other colors and still catch fish? Interested in input from anyone who has some experience in this area.

[Mark K]

The black nosed dace is similar and I did tie and fish one. Used it in ponds and caught gills and crappies with it. The ponds I fish are really good for that so I can't really say that it's more effective than anything else.

If you are panfishing, I would not get all wound up about colors. Use what you have.

There are lots of tutorials on You Tube.

[Mike G]

The horizontal lines of the fly imitate similar lines on baitfish making the general design very effective like the black nosed dace Mark mentioned.

 

That being said, in the day, the Mickey Finn was all we needed for smallmouths in the Boundary Waters. I imagine that red and white would also be effective. But you might not have those colors. What colors do you have?

[Rob G]

I have used natural deer hair on top with some black forming the distinctive lateral line and the natural white hair for the underbelly, along with black thread in order to imitate the black nose dace before. I had limited success on Smallies before but truthfully I didn't give it a great try and I should tie up some more for this coming season.

[John Loebach]

Those classic streamers will catch smallies but they work best with an active retrieve. Plus they are durable & easy to tie - that doesn't keep them out of trees or stuck in deep water rocks. Maybe I should try no bend plus no barb to correct for that.

[Fredmo]

Those classic streamers will catch smallies but they work best with an active retrieve. Plus they are durable & easy to tie - that doesn't keep them out of trees or stuck in deep water rocks. Maybe I should try no bend plus no barb to correct for that.

So, you are suggesting making them and just leave out the hook?

[John Loebach]

Shank yes - the part that holds the fish out. I need to work on getting them to hold on for it to work.

[Tom L]

I used to tie them with different variations also. You don't need to adhere to the classic recipe. For the body, you can use silver Tinsel, gold Tinsel, pearl Tinsel, red Flashabou, green Flashabou, or Wapsi Sparkle Braid. For the wing, any combinations of these will work: white/white, white/chart, white/purple, white/brown, white/chart/olive, yellow/yellow, yellow/orange/purple, tan/tan. For the thread, you don't deed to limit yourself to only black. You can substitute the black thread with chart, pink, or red. This will give you a hot-spot on the fly. For better movement when swinging, try substituting Buck-tail with Marabou or Craft-fur.

 

Be creative. You will come up with all sort of combinations. Certain combinations will work better in certain waters. Have fun tying...