More Ice Flies

  So...winter has finally had a positive effect here in Southern Ontario, (other than keeping me indoors and at the tying bench), the local pot-hole lakes and smaller reservoirs are now covered  with enough ice to start taking the first careful steps toward vertical jigging.

  I have much more ice fishing tackle than is necessary as I'm a bit of a "tackle junkie", always having to buy the newest thing. The one positive point on this is the fact that every thing I might want to use can fit into one pocket of my flotation suit.

  This year I vowed to stay away from those gaudy retail trinkets and make my own using the tying bench and, more importantly, my imagination. So here are my latest.

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!