A Modern Version of "The Mink" with a story

A Modern Version of "The Mink" with a story

The Creation of "The Mink"


          It was around 1981 when a friend took me with him to a small creek called Andån which would be The Mallard Creek in english. As I recall he caught a nice brook trout but I didn't get anything. That summer he moved to the south of Sweden for a while and I had the creek for myself experimenting with all sorts of flies. The trout was very willing to rise but it was hard to set the hook. It is a truly nice creek that just makes you ponder over just about everything. But I had to do something so I could not just fool the trout to take the fly but also facilitate the ability to set the hook. OK, a new pattern was on the way. At dusk there were a lot of white moths flying around so I decided to make the wing white. That was a really lucky stroke because I think that the white wing is a main trigger that makes the trout take this fly. The problem with setting the hook was still an issue. So I tied up the hackle which gave the fly a very nice footprint. This was before the era of genetic hackle so the only good option was the most common color at that time; brown (or red game). Since my father was a tailor I had access to wonderful patches of mink since he sometimes shortened expensive fur coats and some pieces were left. Now I'm not talking about scrap pieces of mink but pieces of carefully selected perfect fur for coats. So I made the body of mink fur dubbed on the thread. After a while I started to use a dubbing loop hard spun and tight like a rope. That made the fly almost indestructible. 

          So with a handful of these flies I went alone to Andån. The trout was easily spooked so the best approach (if at all possible) would be to try to reach them from the blind spot behind them. The fly showed off to be a really hit. I caught trout like never before close to my home. I even remember that a trout, in a very nice small pool downstream a bridge, jump a couple of feet up in the air and taking the fly on the way down. I could hardly believe my eyes and sometimes I fished when it was pitch dark and just set the hook when I heard a trout take the fly. That was really a summer to remember. It was a hot and dry summer so it was quite easy to figure out were the trout had their feeding places in the creek. So that was the way "The Mink" was created and it has proven it's catching abilities all over Sweden since then. But that's another story. Soon I will tell the story about the fly on the picture above that has earned it's spot in my "Wheatley Hall of Fame Fly Box".


Have fun tying and fishing tiny flies,
M.O.