Alewin Minnow

Had a request to post a tutoral on an alewin pattern that I like to tie. Being as the alewin minnows are small, I like to tie them on a size 8 Mustad 3906 nymph hook or equiv. I like to call it Brandon's Ale after a fine young fellow who loves to fish for steel. Hope this helps.

1. Materials:
 

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2. Put a bare hook in the vice and using a hot glue gun with the glue stick color of your choice, make a small dab of glue on top of the hook. The reason I like to do it this way is because it tapers the "egg sack and slightly wraps it around the hook. Make sure to leave a slight "tail" at the end for tying in. When complete, quickly remove the hook, hold it in water for a second or two and remove the created "egg sack" off the hook. You can make a bunch of these if your tying more than one of these flies.
 

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3. Strip off a small amount of aftershaft fibers from a lightly colored saddle hackle for the tail. Tie these in. You can use marabou but I think these fibers give more movement. Just my thoughts though.
 

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4. Tie in approx. 12 strands of green (or whatever color you'd like) Krystal Flash material to be used for the back of the minnow.
 

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5. Cut a piece of pearlescent micro tubing, slide it over the hook eye and down to the point where you tied in the flash material. Carefully tie this end in. Whip finish this off by using a long reach whip finish tool.
 

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6. Restart thread at the hook eye and tie in the front of the tubing.

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7. Pull over the flash material and tie this in.
 

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8. Tie in the "egg sack" you made with the hot glue gun. Whip finish and cut thread off.
 

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9. Put a small dab of crazy glue on either side of the thread base at the eye and attach 3D Hologram eyes on either side of the thread base. I like to use super glue here even though they are self sticking. It holds them in place better.
 

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10. Using a two part epoxy, coat the "eye" area with this mix, covering the eyes and head. Be careful not to get any in the hook eye and make sure you put a small amount under the "egg sac" Also put a small dab at the tail where you first tied in the tubing, covering the thread wraps. I find that a toothpick works great for applying the epoxy. Periodically rotate the fly as the epoxy dries. Use a five minute epoxy for this. Let dry.
 
Here's the finished alewin minnow - i.e. "Brandon's Ale" :
 

Yes it is!!! I was fortunate enough to have steely34 send me a few to try out last year. I was more than happy to fish em for him and see if the fish would hit em. They work just fine. here were a couple I caught on this wonderful fly

I thank you again for giving me the alewin minnow to fish. One hit on a swing and another grabbed it on a dead drift. I havent tried stripping it in deep calm water yet but Im sure they will be killer.

Nice step by step, will have to tie a few