Tying the Letumgo Minnow (tube fly) by Raymond Tucker Tying Difficulty Rating - Medium Materials (in the order of construction): HMH Plastic Tubing (Small, 3/32” OD) or hollow Q-tip handle.  Cut to 1½” long. Junction tubing (roughly ½” long) Thread – Danville’s 6/0 (White) Keel - Lead Wire (.030” diameter) Body  - Wool “Craft Trim” Yarn – Single ply yarn (Natural, Tan or Light Brown) Rib – UTC Holographic Tinsel (Size Medium, Silver or Gold) Sally Hanson’s “Hard as Nails” nail polish (Clear) Gills   - Wool Craft Trim Yarn – (Single ply yarn – Red) Wing - Marabou Blood Quill (Shad Gray, or Golden Brown) Flash - Tied in over the wing – (Pearl Flashabou,  Mirage, Olive or DNA Fiber) 3D Stick on Eyes (Gold, 1/8” diameter) Sharpie Marker (black, brown or marigold) 5 Minute Devcon Crystal Clear Epoxy Mix (syringe dispenser) Hook – (Mustad C67S / Size 6) or (Daiichi X510 / Size 6) Tail – Two feathers from an Indian Hen Saddle coated with head cement and trimmed into the shape of a tailfin.  Marabou can be used for additional action. Tying Instructions: You do not require a not tube fly mount to tie these flies.  You can simply cut off the barb and eye of a heavy streamer hook and use it as a support for the tube and junction tubing.  I also recommend rubbing the hook with wax to make it easy to slide the tubes off the hook after tying. CAUTION – For safety, be sure to file or sand the ends to remove any sharp edges.  Push the 1-½” long tube into the junction tubing and slide the tube onto your tube fly jig (see photo below).  The tubing will be held in place during tying by the junction tubing extending into the bend of the hook. Alternate method for those who own a tube fly jig:  The tubing should be mounted on the mandrel with the junction tubing facing the tube jig.  The junction tubing is clamped in the small round circle at the end of the jig (see photo below).  The circular ring holds the junction tubing firmly in place and prevents the tube from rotating during the tying process. Mount your thread and run it down the length of the tube and back to the front of the body.  This will give a good foundation to keep materials in place later. Next, tie in a single piece of 0.030” diameter lead wire (roughly 1” long).  The lead wire will act as a keel.  After the lead is tied in place, twist the tube 180° so the lead is facing down.  The lead keel should be located at the bottom of the fly.  The keel is intended to ensure that the minnow always rides correctly in the water and also helps give the body a slightly deeper profile (the finished fly has an oval cross section like a real minnow). OPTION - If you want the minnow to dive head-first, fold the lead wire in half and tie it in the front half of the minnow.  Concentrating the weight in the front half of the fly will give the minnow a greater tendency to dip and dive during the retrieve. Tie in a single strand of the craft yarn on the top of the tube.  The yarn used in this fly came as a three ply yarn.  Untwist the yarn and you will be able to split it down into the separate strands of yarn.  The fly will be lighter and have a better profile if you only use a single ply. Tie in the yarn at the front edge of the lead and then run the thread all the way back to the leading edge of the junction tubing.  Tying the yarn in this way will help keep the body uniform over the entire length of the tube. (Notice in the photo below, that the lead keel is now on the bottom of the tube fly.)   Tie in the holographic tinsel for the rib. Coat the tube with a layer of Sally Hansen’s “Hard as Nails” finger nail polish and then run the thread and yarn to the front of the body.  The nail polish will soak into the yarn and help prevent the lead for discoloring the body in the future.  The polish helps displace the air in the yarn minimize bubbles in the epoxy later.  Stop the tying thread roughly ¼” from the end of the lead keel.  Tie off and clip off the excess yarn. Tie in a single strand of red wool yarn and form the gills.  Make sure that you leave room at the front of the tube for the head. Wrap the rib forward to the head and tie off.  Trim the fuzz off the body using your scissors (excessive fuzz makes applying the epoxy difficult).  Tie in the marabou wing and flash/tinsel over the back of the fly and whip finish the head of the fly.  The marabou should extend roughly ¾ inch past the end of the junction tubing. Slide a bullet head tool (a plastic ring with a flexible rubber gasket in the middle) over the fly to hold the marabou and tinsel down over the back of the fly.  Add stick on eyes. The next photo is a top down view of the fly showing the placement of the tinsel and the eyes.  Color the top of the thread with a Sharpie marker to make the top of the head dark.  You can also add spots of color to the body at this time with markers or paint. Mix epoxy and coat the fly using your bodkin.  Be careful not to use too much epoxy since you will get poor results (slumps, drips, lumps, etc).  Rotate the fly to ensure full coverage of the fly.  After the epoxy has fully cured, you will come back and give the fly a second coat of epoxy to give the body a nice smooth finish. Here is how the flies look after the first coat of epoxy.  They are fishable at this point, but do not look as pretty without the second coat of epoxy. Making the Tail-Hook: Select two feathers from an Indian hen saddle and strip off the fuzz.  Then coat the bottom of one of the feathers (the dull side) with head cement and then stick it to the second feather (the good sides should be facing out).  Once the head cement dries, trim the feathers into the shape of a tail fin and attach it to the hook of your choice.  The photos below show a Mustad model C67S egg hook (size 6).   Daiichi model X510 also makes an excellent tube fly hook. Here is what the finished tail hooks look like: One of the neat features about tube flies is the versatility they offer.  The tier can mix and match the materials tied on the hook to alter the look and behavior of the fly.  For instance, you can tie on two colors of short marabou to form a tail with additional motion.  I use a light color on the bottom and a darker color on the top to better blend in with the rest of the fly.  You could also play around with other types of tailing material to tailor the fly to suit your needs. The finished flies (some have fin-tail hooks and some have marabou-tail hooks): Additional Information About Working With Epoxy: I recently bought some 5 minute Loctite epoxy and when I got it home and started using it I noticed that one part of the mix had a slightly yellow haze to it. When I mixed up a batch, I found that the resulting flies also had a slightly hazy look to it (it was not crystal clear like other epoxies I've used). Fortunately, I was able to find another 5 minute epoxy made by a company called Devcon that comes out crystal clear. Each of the two liquid components is crystal clear and the resulting epoxy mixture remains nice and clear (just don't handle the fly until the epoxy has had time to set). When you are buying an epoxy dispenser, just be careful to look at the fluid in each side of the dispenser. Make sure they are both clear and you should get good results. If you can not see the fluids in the dispenser, don't buy it. Helpful Epoxy Mixing Tip - When you are buying your epoxy, I recommend that you also pick up a pad of the large size 3M Post-It notes. I mix my epoxy on Post-It notes with my bodkin and then wipe off the excess onto the clean part of the sheet. Once you are done using the epoxy, you just peel off that sheet and discard it... If this is your first time working with epoxy, I suggest that you only do one fly at a time until you master your technique. That way, if you have problems, you will only loose a single fly and can learn from the experience. I messed up quite a few before I was really happy with the results. I have found that I get my best results when I apply two separate coats of epoxy. When I first started out, I was trying to only use a single thicker coating of epoxy, but I often had sags, drips and lumps in the fly. Keep in mind that the epoxy will behave like thick syrup when you first put it on the fly. The fly needs to be rotated to keep the epoxy from all sagging to the lowest side of the hook. I normally will apply the first coat of epoxy and rotate the hook to inspect the overall coverage. Once I am happy with the coverage, I will stop rotating the fly and actually allow the epoxy to sag to the bottom. I then remove the excess epoxy with the point of my bodkin and then begin rotating the fly again until the epoxy begins to set (usually only another minute or two).  This tends to give me good coverage without any sags or bumps.  If you start to see sticky ribbons of epoxy when you remove your bodkin from the fly, it is time to stop touching it. I set the freshly coated fly aside for a couple hours (or overnight) to ensure the epoxy fully cures. You will be tempted to touch the surface after a couple minutes, but fight the urge. The surface will still be tacky for 30 minutes. If you touch the surface before it is fully cured you will have a blemish/fingerprint in the surface.  Repeat the process with a second coat of epoxy to get a perfectly smooth glassy surface. It can be time consuming, but the fly will be very durable. KEY POINTS: -          Prepare ahead (set up your fly, vice, epoxy, bodkin and mixing surface). -          Keep a clean rag handy to wipe off any epoxy that you get on your hands/tools. -          Use two thin coats of epoxy instead of one thick coat. -          Allow the first coat to sag and remove the excess before it sets up. -          Rotate the fly to prevent sags. -          Do NOT touch surface until you are sure it is cured and hardened.   SAFETY TIP: -          Epoxy can irritate your skin and eyes if you get it on them. Be sure to wash your hands after using this stuff to keep it out of your eyes (painful irritant...believe me...)     Hatches Magazine Subscription Price: $6.95 for each issue The Premiere issue is ready for shipping & the Fall 2008 issue will be available September 1st. Hatches Magazine Subscription Price: $6.95 for each issue The Premiere issue is ready for shipping & the Fall 2008 issue will be available September 1st.