Swinging streamers on trout Spey gear is one of my favourite ways to catch trout, and the Swing Minnow is by far my most effective design for this purpose. Tied in two sizes and several colours, it imitates a wide range of New Zealand baitfish, like bullies, torrent fish, smelt, baby trout and galaxiids - adult whitebait or inanga. Apart from a great profile this durable pattern has incredible action in flowing water.

The Swing Minnow in two sizes and three effective colour combinations

The Swing Minnow didn’t just land in my lap, it evolved over several seasons, like many of my go-to designs.

When I entered the world of Trout Spey I used a large version of a pattern I called the Strip Bully, a modified strip leech.

I soon found that rainbow and sea trout sometimes took a #6 Strip Bully short when fished on the swing. The Strip Bully also swam on its side when swung through faster water.

My first attempt at addressing these two issues was to lash the rear of the rabbit strip on a Strip Bully to to a trailer hook, a la Sculpzilla. I used 49 strand coated wire to attached the hook to the shank because braid, although more flexible, supposedly resulted in the zonker strip flipping forward and the hook snagging around the tippet or front of the fly.

Although the Sculpzilla version certainly caught fish, it had two drawbacks: 1) the wing did not wiggle as realistically as the wing on the original Strip Bully; and 2) after considerable effort constructing an articulated fly, its life was over once the hook point was beyond sharpening - which sometimes took only a few encounters with the river bottom.

I next tried an Intruder-style version with the hook on a wire loop and the rabbit strip attached to the shank by the front end, so the entire wing could swing freely.

When swung through currents of flowing water the materials came together (coalesced) to create a wiggling baitfish with an action that fish loved.

The disadvantages of this design were that it took effort to construct and there’s a limit to how short it can be tied while keeping the wire loop long enough to change hooks. Most New Zealand baitfish are small - shorter than 2.5 inches.

The final step in the evolution of my ultimate New Zealand Trout Spey streamer, the Swing Minnow, was tying it on a tube.

Evolution of the Swing Minnow: top row Strip Bully, second row Sculpzilla style, third row Intruder Style and fourth row the tube version

The advantages of the Swing Minnow are: 1) I can tie it shorter than the Intruder version, 2) it’s quicker and easier to tie, 3) hooks are easy to replace, and 4) the cone, which replaces the bead, is placed on the tube at the end of the tie, so it can be used to control the collar and also shape the profile. Cones also create strong vortices that animate the rabbit fur, producing great action.

Talking of cones, I like Frodin standard tungsten cones for this design because:
1. They are relatively light for their size and just the right weight to balance the fly.
2. Being wider than standard cones they produce a better profile and also great vortex
3. They have a deeper concave portion than standard tungsten cones, so they slide further over the material and do a better job of shaping the collar.

Hareline medium brass cones have a similar profile and make a good substitute. I find standard tungsten cones are too narrow and too heavy.

Size and Colour

I tie the Swing Minnow in two sizes: large and small.

The large Swing Minnow, tied with a rabbit strip wing, is 2-2.5 inches long, and is the fly I usually start with on larger rivers.

The small version, tied with a micro pine squirrel wing, is only 1.5 inches long and works exceptionally well on smaller streams and on larger rivers when the water is low and clear.

I mostly fish the large Swing Minnow in two colour combinations: natural grizzly and olive.

The natural version with a black nickel cone is absolutely deadly when the water is clear, whether conditions are sunny or overcast. It very likely imitates smelt, baby trout and inanga, and the addition of a red throat and UV flash made a big difference to its effectiveness.

An olive wing and a gold cone is another consistently effective colour combination. Fish are sometimes choosy about colour when it comes to streamers, and having an alternative, to the natural grizzly version, for clear water conditions is a good idea. The Olive version has also proven effective when the water has a bit of colour , and I have had more success at night with the olive than with a plain black version. On the Tongariro in winter, a hot orange cone can be deadly, otherwise I tend to stick with gold.

Rabbit strips come in a range of shades of olive. The shade I find best is olive variant, which is sometimes hard to find. My favourite rabbit strips for the Swing Minnow are Olive Variant Black Barred rabbit strips by Hareline.

Six pound Summer Tongariro taken on an olive and gold Swing Minnow

The olive and gold Swing Minnow has been more effective than a black version at night, especially for brown trout

Two other colour combinations of the Swing Minnow I carry in my fly box are: 1) a natural chinchilla wing and gold cone, which works well on sea trout in estuaries, and 2) a black frosted olive wing with olive hackle and black nickel cone, which is good in discoloured water. The black frosted olive version with a hot orange cone has done well on the Tongariro in winter.

A fresh winter Tongariro rainbow taken on an olive/black Swing Minnow with orange cone

When it comes to the small Swing Bully I stick to natural colours, usually natural and olive, as I mostly use it in clear conditions to imitate little baitfish, like small smelt and bullies, native galaxiids, baby trout and mullet.

Fishing the Swing Minnow

I use 1X Fluorocarbon for large and 3X for small Swing Minnows.

The Swing Minnow fishes well when on the swing or when stripped across or upstream.

To prevent tail wrap and ensure the hook releases, trim the rear end of the tube so that the leather of the zonker strip extends to the start of the hook bend when only the eye of the hook is within the tube.

I fish the small Swing Minnow with 3X Fluorocarbon on a SA Sonar leader or a #5 or #6 Rio Replacement tip, both in S3 or S6. The combination of a light fly weight and a tapered tip produces excellent presentation on a light (150 - 210 grain) Skagit or a medium (230 to 325 grain) compact Scandi head.

I like to use a 9 ft 5wt with an 11 ft 150 grain Skagit head and 9-10 ft tip for small to medium streams, and a 4wt double hander with a 22-24 ft Scandi head for larger water.

I fish the large Swing Minnow on Skagit heads of 180 to 375 grains and sink tips consisting of 8-10 ft of T-8 or T-11, with 1X Fluorocarbon tippet. The Swing Minnow is deadly on the Tongariro in winter when fished on an intermediate head with 10 ft of T-11. In summer on the Tongariro, I fish it on a floating Skagit head and 3D MOW tips of appropriate sink rate, either during the day when the water is up and coloured or at night when targeting brown trout.

A tube-fly lesson that cost me a lot of trout was that the hook needs to release from the tube when the fish makes its first run. If this doesn’t happen I end up with an ultra-long-shank hook with enough leverage to work itself out of the fish’s mouth during the battle. To ensure the hook releases consistently, only the eye should be positioned within the Frodin junction tube. A tube fly that releases from the hook also suffers less tooth damage.

I prefer flat hooks for this pattern, as hooks with a strong offset tend to cause it to spin.

If you do hook the bottom, check the hook point remains sharp and also that the hook bend remains directly below the rabbit strip, this will assist with keeling the fly, instead of twisted to the side and causing the fly to spin.

Tying Recipes:

Large Swing Bully

Natural

Tube: XS clear Frodin tubing 1.5cm long
Junction Tube: Medium clear or fluro white Frodin tubing 1.5cm long
Thread: Red Veevus 6/0
Flash: About six strands of UV Minnow Belly and two strands pearl Flashabou.
Wing: Natural grizzly rabbit 3cm long
Throat: Pinch of red marabou.
Collar: Red Lazer dubb
Hackle: 5-7 turns of natural grizzly Chickabou with barbs 2-2.5cm long (may need two feathers)
Cone: Small black nickel Frodin tungsten cone
Hook: #4 Kuhmo J-Trout (Tube)

Note: The chinchilla version, which is a great choice for estuaries, is tied with a chinchilla wing and gold cone - the rest of the recipe remains unchanged, although I sometimes replace the red marabou throat with a tiny pinch of red Ice Dub.

Olive

Tube: XS clear Frodin tubing 1.5cm long
Junction Tube: Medium clear or fluro white Frodin tubing 1.5cm long
Thread: Red Veevus 6/0
Flash: Two strands of olive pearl Flashabou.
Wing: Olive variant rabbit strip 3cm long
Throat: Pinch of red marabou.
Collar: Red Lazer dubb
Hackle: 5-7 turns of olive or sculpin olive grizzly Chickabou with barbs 2-2.5cm long (two feathers may be required if they are small)
Cone: Small gold or orange Frodin tungsten cone
Hook: #4 Kuhmo J-Trout (Tube)

Olive and Black

Tube: XS clear Frodin tubing 1.5cm long
Junction Tube: Medium clear or fluro white Frodin tubing 1.5cm long
Thread: Red Veevus 6/0
Flash: Two strands of olive pearl Flashabou.
Wing: Black frosted olive rabbit rabbit strip 3cm long
Throat: Pinch of red marabou.
Collar: Red Lazer dubb
Hackle: 5-7 turns of olive grizzly Chickabou with barbs 2-2.5cm long (two feathers may be required)
Cone: Small black nickel or fluro orange Frodin tungsten cone
Hook: #4 Kuhmo J-Trout (Tube)

Small Swing Minnow

Natural

Tube: XS clear Frodin tubing 2cm long
Thread: Red Veevus 6/0
Flash: About four strands of UV Minnow Belly and two strands pearl Polar Flash
Wing: Natural grizzly pine squirrel, 1.5-2mm wide and 2.5cm long
Throat: Small pinch of red marabou.
Collar: Red Lazer dubb
Hackle: 4 turns of natural grizzly Chickabou with barbs 1.5-2cm long.
Cone: Micro black nickel Frodin tungsten cone
Hook: #8 Kuhmo J-Trout (Tube)
Note: No junction tube is required for the small Swing Minnow because the #8 hook fits directly into the XS tubing

Olive/sculpin olive

Tube: XS clear Frodin tubing 2cm long
Thread: Red Veevus 6/0
Flash: About four strands of UV Minnow Belly and two strands pearl Polar Flash
Wing: Olive or sculpin olive pine squirrel zonker strip, 1.5-2mm wide and 2.5cm long
Throat: Small pinch of red marabou.
Collar: Red Lazer dubb
Hackle: 4 turns of olive or sculpin olive grizzly Chickabou with barbs 1.5-2cm long.
Cone: Micro black nickel Frodin tungsten cone
Hook: #8 Kuhmo J-Trout (Tube)

Note: No junction tube is required for the small Swing Minnow because the #8 hook fits directly into the XS tubing

+   Jelly Crimp Nymph

+   Hot Foam Hopper

+   Hare's Mask Darter

+   Silicone Wing Cicada - Designing the Fly

+   Silicone Wing Cicada - Tying Steps

+   Gurgle Pop Minnow

+   Cutting your own Foam Cylinder

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