Minnow streamer barbless

THE MINNOW STREAMER BL BRINGS THE BITE

A streamer suggests the fish an easy and worthy prey and is therefore often the fly of choice to be successful on the water on days without any noticeable fish activity or to finally be able to lure the big one out of its cover. Even otherwise very shy and cautious fish can rarely resist such a nutritious morsel. However, in order to actually trick even the most lethargic fish into biting, your streamer must have three crucial characteristics:

• It must look as deceptively real as possible.
• It must behave as lively and attractively as possible in the water to attract attention but without spooking the fish.
• It must be offered and moved in the water as seductively as possible, so that the fish can't help but attack your streamer.

Obviously, we can't take the last of these three points off your hands, but in order to meet the other two characteristics in the best possible way, the MINNOW STREAMER BL was designed by professional and experienced fly tiers, extensively tested and constantly optimised. With this streamer, all this know-how is now also available to you, bundled in a perfect imitation of a prey fish.

WHAT MAKES THE MINNOW STREAMER BL SO SPECIAL?

The MINNOW STREAMER BL is not just another streamer on the market. Its outstanding features and qualities can be specifically defined by three characteristics that clearly distinguish it from other models.

Every MINNOW STREAMER BL:

• is made from a unique blend of innovative fly-tying materials
• is individually hand-painted
• is entirely hand tied in Italy

FLY-TYING MATERIAL

The body of the streamer is not made of a ready to go standard fly-tying material but consists of a blend of different innovative tying materials, which are mixed by hand by the fly tier. Thus, the fly tier’s experience is essential to bring out all the advantages of the individual material components in the best possible way by using the right quantities of every single material and at the same time to harmonise them with each other. The material composition is also individually adapted for the different model variants of the MINNOW STREAMER BL. Thus, each streamer variant differs not only in terms of shape but also in terms of material, thus playing to its respective strengths.

A whole range of different aspects have to be taken into account that can make the difference between success and failure on the water. The silhouette of the streamer, for example, should not only be as lifelike as possible when it is in the fly box, but first of all should excel when it is moved in the water. At the same time, however, the fly-tying material used must be soft enough that it plays attractively in the water even if the streamer is just slowly retrieved. It is above all this pulsating movement of the material when it is jerked that gives the streamer its lively action and perfectly imitates a panicked fleeing prey fish. However, the slightly translucent transparency also contributes to the attractiveness, creating very attractive shimmering and reflections due to the different materials that have been used. Even if invisible, at least to humans, the UV-active components in the material mix give the MINNOW STREAMER BL a decisive advantage in difficult light conditions. Because it is under the shelter of twilight that the otherwise very wary big fish dare to come out of hiding to cover their energy needs. And in this comparatively short time window, hunting must be worthwhile for those big ones. When a supposed little fish then flashes into their field of vision, this triggers at least one of the two stimuli for attacking your streamer. One is the prey reflex, but many territorial fish also attack a perceived intruder, as they do not tolerate other fish in their vicinity.

HAND PAINTED

For a perfect imitation, the colour pattern is at least as important as the appropriate choice of tying material. The MINNOW STREAMER BL are all completely hand painted. To achieve a perfect result and the best coverage, the colours are applied to the fly-tying material in several layers and allowed to dry in between. As far as the patterns are concerned, our professional fly tiers are inspired by real fish species, such as the classic perch design with its dark back and characteristic dark cross bands and yellow-green flanks. But also on various white fish, or on juvenile trout, whereby these latter patterns also feature the typical vertical parr stripes of the young trout. This realistic colouring could not be achieved only by combining different tying materials in a streamer alone. The painting of the entire body of each individual MINNOW STREAMER BL is correspondingly elaborate and time-consuming.

Here we would like to point out that the colours applied to the MINNOW STREAMER BL are specially adapted for use on the fly-tying materials and are very durable. However, especially at the beginning, it may happen that a little colour remains on your fingers. This is not a qualitative defect, but excess colour that cannot be absorbed by the material.

HANDMADE IN ITALY

Every single MINNOW STREAMER BL is completely tied in Italy, from the first yarn winding to the final inspection, by professional fly tiers. This not only makes the entire production process very easy to follow and transparent, but also guarantees outstanding and consistently high quality in manufacturing. We can therefore ensure the exclusive use of the best components and tying materials as well as consistently clean workmanship when tying the streamers, precisely gluing the eyes and high detailing in painting the MINNOW STREAMER BL. The fact that the development and optimisation of the streamers has benefited decisively from the decades of experience of our professional fly tiers is something we do not need to go into here.

Especially with such a product it is important for us to be able to offer uncompromising quality and we can ensure this with a completely "hand crafted in Italy". Therefore, the price of these streamers is quickly put into perspective. The individual combination of different tying materials to a mixture with unique characteristics, the complete painting by hand as well as the complete tying process in Italy by highly qualified fly tiers is not an end in itself, but only serves to be able to offer you the best and catchiest streamer. Whether at the end of a long day on the water it was cheaper to drag a cheap streamer through the water like a wet sack and having a few fish that at the most just followed the streamer without bite, is something everyone has to answer for themselves. In any case, we are firmly convinced that the MINNOW STREAMER BL is worth every penny.

THE MODEL RANGE

We offer you the MINNOW STREAMER BL in different model variants, whereby the individual variants differ in construction, as they have been optimised for different presentations or areas of application. In addition - as already mentioned - the quantity of the individual material components used also changes for the optimum material mix for every streamer model.

In order to fish with a perfectly working streamer from the first cast, we recommend that you dip the streamer into the water beforehand so that the tying materials gets wet, and the streamer gets its lifelike silhouette.

WEIGHTED HP MINNOW STREAMER

The clou of the WEIGHTED HP MINNOW STREAMER is the positioning of the tungsten bead. At first glance you will not even notice there is a bead, because it is not in the usual position near the eye of the hook but slightly shifted towards the hook tip. This leaves space in front of the bead to attach tying material and gives the streamer an even more natural look and an absolute lifelike silhouette. The real advantage of this special positioning of the weights is that the streamer is much more balanced and realistically positioned in the water. It doesn't matter if you fish it fast or slow, take short or long pauses while retrieving, this streamer keeps its horizontal position when it sinks to the bottom and does not tip over top-heavy, so that the behaviour and movements of a real swimming fish is imitated almost perfectly. This makes the WEIGHTED HP MINNOW STREAMER primarily suitable to be offered with a constant movement combined with variable retrieve at any depth in the water column.

JIG HP MINNOW STREAMER

The JIG HP MINNOW STREAMER, on the other hand, is tied on a classic jig hook pointing upwards. This minimises annoying hang-ups and make this streamer suitable for fishing close to the bottom, where the weight-induced forward tilt imitates a small fish picking food from the bottom. Due to the larger and therefore heavier tungsten bead on the same streamer sizes compared to the Weighted HP Minnow Streamer you are able to fish the JIG HP MINNOW STREAMER a little deeper. However, the eyes used in this streamer are deliberately chosen to be smaller so as not to unnecessarily shorten the gap between the hook tip and the jig bead, which could compromise the hook-up ratio. This streamer can be fished very well in still water near promising structures but is also very successful in running water. Especially in cold water, which is very common at the beginning of the season, it is very suitable for meticulously tapping the immediate area next to larger stones and other promising covers and luring the still sluggish predators out of their ambush.

HP WEIGHTED MINNOW TINY

The HP WEIGHTED MINNOW TINY was primarily developed for a very special and unique application. It is very similar in design to the Weighted HP Minnow Streamer with a tungsten bead set back in the body for a more balanced position in the water. However, due to its smaller size, this tiny streamer is tied to a size #16 hook. Of course, with this little streamer, which is only around 2.5 to 3 centimetres in size, you can catch nice trout and other fish. However, this very realistic small streamer is first and foremost designed for targeting large grayling.

What may seem surprising at first is only logical on closer inspection, because nature is more than wasteful when it comes to fish reproduction. Trout and grayling, for example, produce thousands of eggs per kilogram of body weight. Evolution ensures that out of the many fish larvae that hatch, only the best of the best survive. Most of the rest are eaten. Not only by supposedly predatory fish. The tasty and energy-rich morsels are also highly prized by many other fish when they appear in abundance and are accordingly easy to catch. The grayling is no poor eater when it comes to mass appearance of fry, because its mouth is big enough for a fish fry and this behaviour is more than comprehensible, because a single hatchling provides as much energy as dozens of insect larvae.

Graylings get caught from time to time with traditional spin fishing lures. The fact that this does not happen more often is due on the one hand to the size of the lures used and on the other hand to the fact that large graylings are rarely fished selectively with such lures. This is why grayling is considered a classic fish for fly fishing. But if you want to fly-fish especially for big grayling, with the HP WEIGHTED MINNOW TINY a real special streamer is now available. Where allowed, you can also use two or more of these small streamers to create an imitation of a small school of hatchlings.