Think about the infamous ‘spinnerbait’ and ‘tail-spin’ lures and how effective they are in the heathen world, then imagine a fly with similar features or action…As a professional fishing guide (many years ago now), I watched American bass dudes nail trophy tigerfish (>20 lb) on tiny tail-spins in central Africa, in total disbelief. The memories of exceptional tigerfishing from that trip stuck to me and made me think about how one could add that tiny little spinner blade to a fly.

Call me a traitor, but I was in fact a bait and lure guy long before I started throwing a fly rod, so why not toil with this heathen concept and create a little spinner ‘flure’? I have since seen many fly guys incorporate a spinner blade into flies on Instagram (the great César Tardío a good example) and especially as a tail in baitfish flies (and I’ve also more recently seen a ‘tail’ spinner blade fixed to the bend of the hook by some fly tyers – I tried this too, tying the blade to the bend of the hook and unfortunately the blade didn’t spin at all). After one or two trips to the local bass dam in Paarl, I found a recipe that keeled perfectly and gave me the right action to mimic a perfect little fly fishing spinnerbait…

Brief recipe and tying instructions: I used Semperfli Nano Silk 20D Professional white 24/0 to create a relatively durable loop in the weed guard, 40 lb Maxima fluorocarbon (as weed guard and spinner blade ‘shaft’), UNI-Thread 72D 8/0 W Fl. Orange for the fly itself, large olive sculpin heads and Ahrex SA254 Salt Jig #1 hooks (which I purchased at StreamX)

Semperfli Nano Silk 20D Professional white 24/0 is very thin, very strong and almost translucent to create the near-perfect loop in the weed guard, which is ultimately used to attach the spinner blade split ring to;

I found that 40 lb Maxima fluorocarbon tippet material was sufficient for keeping the tiny spinner blade in place while it was churning under water (I flattened about 3 mm of the end of the fluorocarbon with pliers before tying it back onto the main line with the Nano Silk to create the small loop – apply some Sally Hansen ‘Hard as Nails’ hardener to secure the thread initially);

Tie the 40 lb fluorocarbon in as a weed guard on an Ahrex SA254 Salt Jig #1 hook;

Use a drop of superglue to secure the large, olive sculpin head in place, before fixing it permanently in position with epoxy;

I used 3 mm holographic eyes for the large sculpin heads, which I initially stuck on with superglue and then fixed permanently with a layer of Solarez Thin-Hard formula (UV resin) over the top – eyes and Solarez also available at StreamX;

For this specific fly I used barred, chartreuse rabbit fur (zonker strip) as the tail, about 6/7 cm long (entire fly will be about 10 cm long);

Tie in a stripped chartreuse zonker strip as the undertail, so that it runs past the bend of the hook – this will be glued to the ‘top’ tail of the fly with Genkem contact glue at the end (a very valuable tip from Edward Truter to prevent the top zonker tail from fouling ‘every-so-often’ in the bend of the hook when casting);

Tie in a piece of cross-cut zonker (colour of your choice) and then wrap the thread forward, towards the sculpin head;

Create a relatively even body with the thread and cover it with Sally Hansen ‘Hard as Nails, just before…

Wrapping the cross-cut zonker over the wet varnish towards the sculpin head (the wet varnish will lock the wrapped zonker strip in place, making the fly more durable);

Pick a contrasting colour (or even a matching colour) for the collar of the fly and tie in and wrap just behind the sculpin head to finish the body of the fly;

Here is the finished ‘body’ after tying off the thread and securing the thread knot with some more Sally Hansen ‘Hard as Nails’;

I purchased these tiny, hammered, Colorado spinner blades from Big Catch in Cape Town;

Attach the blade to the weed guard loop and secure the thread of the loop further with Solarez Thin-Hard formula (UV resin), then glue the zonker undertail to the top tail with Genkem, and voilà;

The little Blade Runner is complete!

PS – this flure fishes well on 15 lb fluorocarbon tippet and a 9 wt rod, the perfect outfit for big bass, zander and European perch (hell, maybe even a giant Clanwilliam yellowfish!?); go mad…