The Whittingham Minnow 2

  I sat back the other day, pleased with myself, after posting on The Whittingham Minnow. I'd found an obscure pattern which suited my fishing style, tied a few color combinations, added my own personal twist to the pattern and showed it off to the world. Only after the fact did it occur to me that, perhaps, I didn't give the pattern or you, the reader, more respect by further exploring the possibilities of what  could be done with it.

  Returning to the bench yesterday, I decided to follow the original recipe closer by using bead chain for the eyes and tying on a #10 longshank hook instead of the #6, however, instead of using the Diamond Braid for the body |I used Diamond Wing Fiber. Here's what I came up with.

  I was fairly happy with the results with the exception of the bead chain eyes. I'd used them often enough in the past but rarely fully painted. The process of painting them after the tie was time consuming and messy. Before lights out last night I took a 4" section of chain and dipped it several times in the nail polish bottle and hung to dry overnight.

  This afternoon everything was ready for round 2. I replaced the bucktail back/tail with Diamond Wing Fiber and the body dubbed with Ice Dubbing.

  These appear a lot more buggy than the original intended profile, but I know one thing for sure... next spring the crappies won't know what hit them!