A Few Minitube Flies Dressed on 10mm Needle Tubes
Illustrated below is a small selection of Minitubes dressed very simply on 10mm stainless steel needle tubes with a diameter of 1.5mm. The silver body of the tubes has been left undressed to create the simplest of flies, intended for salmon in low clear water or for sea trout in the early part of the night.
In times of low clear water on rivers shrunken by summer drought, the smallest of flies is sometimes needed to tempt a take from a salmon or sea trout. The very smallest flies are probably best dressed on small hooks, either single, double or treble down to perhaps as small as size 16, sizes we might normally associate with trout fishing flies. But we might also dress relatively tiny flies on short tubes of various materials. These include plastic, aluminium and stainless steel Needle Tubes. Heavier tubes such as tungsten or copper might also be considered, although they are perhaps less useful in the low flows of summer, when we are more often fishing our flies near the surface. The use of a tube fly allows the selection of different sizes and types of hook to match quarry and fishing conditions and facilitates the replacement of a damaged hook, something not possible if the fly is dressed on a single, double or treble hook.
Tying Minitubes on Needle Tubes
The short 10mm needle tubes are well suited to the tying of minitubes, allowing a slim, sparsely dressed fly to be easily created for fishing in low clear water. At its simplest, the minitube may be dressed with nothing more than a sparse bunch of stoat or squirrel hair, while coloured materials, e.g. hair or hackle fibres, may be mixed in a variety of styles. The minitubes might then be armed with single, double or treble hooks, barbed or barbless, according to preference, fishing circumstance and regulation. A few examples of mini or micro tube flies are shown below by way of illustration.
Minitube Fly Gallery
click on images to enlarge
Minitubes for Icelandic Salmon
A few more minitubes are shown below, suitable for the low clear water often found on our summer salmon rivers. They were tied with Icelandic salmon in mind.
