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Originated by Butch Murphy for use in the Potomac River. Butch is a guide with Mark Kovach Fishing Services on the upper Potomac near Harper's Ferry, WV.

The Butch Minnow is a bulky sinking fly. Optimum sizes for us are about a 2 on up to salt-water (trout and stripers) and musky versions on 4/0 long-shank hooks. We often tie the smallie version on a size 1 Tiemco 800 saltwater hook or the 8089 #10 or #10S. The fly is very effective on smallmouth bass. It is an excellent imitation of an immature smallmouth and may also be taken as a mad-tom. Generally though we believe that the fly's success is due to a large, eye-catching profile and the fly's path through the water.

The Butch Minnow works best when you intend to release the fish you catch.

This fly is effective in typical smallmouth colors. In stained or high water or low-light conditions we usually begin with blue or purple. Olive and grey are also good, and a deep russet or orange/tan pattern has worked well in the past. Since we usually have clear water, our standards are white and chartreuse, occasionally tied with a contrasting color in the head area.

You can stack the hair to create mottled, striped, or even back-to-belly contrasts as in the Umpqua Swimming Baitfish. The fly runs inverted, like a Clouser, so any toning of the fly should be like a Clouser with the lighter belly colors up.

The wing or aft portion is a standard streamer or dahlberg mix of whatever you like: rabbit, krystal flash or other synthetics, marabou, polafibre, bucktail. Outside of the wing is several hackles, often of contrasting colors or solids with grizzlies. Length is also up to you and local preference, though I advise fishing larger flies in the larger rivers of the East such as the James, the Potomac, and the Susquehanna. You may get fewer hits but you will take more quality fish.

The head is the key feature of the fly. It is deer hair spun over lead eyes and trimmed to a rounded, conical wedge. Leave enough to show a large profile in the water.

MATERIALS:

1. Set your tail, tying the materials on the rear third or so of the hook and wrapping or trimming the butt ends of the material smoothly down to give a smooth spinning base. Hit it with cement so it won't rotate on the hook shank when you tighten down on the deer hair. You may want to use a palmered hackle or a tuft of marabou or arctic fox as a transition to fill in between the end of the tail and beginning of the spun hair body.
2. Tie on and glue lead eyes on the top of the shank at a point about one-third of the shank back from the eye. Use the dumbbell-style lead eyes (for maximum sink). The width of the eyes is important; the width of the deer-hair head is dictated by the width of the eyes, and the head of the fly should be roughly square in cross-section. Non-toxic alloy eyes (such as those carried by Orvis) tend to be too wide, creating a wider, flatter head. The brass or steel eyes aren't wide enough. The standard Clouser painted lead eyes are just right, and they are heaviest.
3. Spin hair from the wing forward to the eyes. Spin the first clumps untrimmed, with a fair amount of tips facing aft to complete the profile of the baitfish and make a good transition from wing materials, as always. Trim the tips aggressively; you are going to cut it back shorter than a dahlberg anyway. Pack it with your fingers as best you can, or use a tweezer-type packer.
4. Tie in a clump of hair inside the top and bottom of the eyes. This clump will not spin, and will be tightly formed by the dumbbell shape of the eyes. Much of it will be forced forward toward the hook eye, and it will pack tightly with the “head clump” later. Take pains to fill in the area aft of and around the eyes--they're the places most likely to get thin.
5. Spin and pack to the front of the hook as you would with any hairbug. Mix a contrasting head color at this point. Pack tightly; you may notice that the eyes pack back along with the hair (at least a bit). This is good; it tightens up the grouping of the hair behind the eye. Whip finish.
6. Some like to take the fly out of the vise to trim it. With scissors, rough the shape. The basic shape of the head from the eyes to the hook eye is conical. Modify that shape to reflect different baitfish profiles. Use a double-edged flexible razor blade. You may trim all hair away or leave a skirt around the beginning of the tail.

NOTES: "This fly has proved excellent in all but the highest water conditions, although an accurate trim is necessary for fast water performance. Vary the size of the eyes for varied performance. In dirty water, nymph it down and across. Fish big ones for big fish. Good luck!"