Chapter 6

Fresh-Water Spin Bugs #2

A third kind of popping spin bug is shown in Fig. 23. For this one you use the same size wooden body as the popping bug shown in Fig. 19. How­ever, instead of attaching a free-swinging treble hook you add a single hook to the underside of the body. A regular shank hook about size No. 2/0 can be used. To attach this hook, first drill a shallow hole underneath the body, about half inch from the tail end.

This hole should be large enough to take the round eye of the hook. The next step is to slit a narrow groove in the wood, running from the hole to the end of the body. This will accommodate the hook shank. See Fig. 24. Now wind some bucktail on the hook shank, about a half inch from the eye of the hook, then force the hook eye and shank into the hole and slot. After this, get a small screw and screw it through the hook eye. This will hold the hook firmly in place. See Fig. 25. Then get some plastic wood and fill up the hole and slit to conform to the round body shape of the bug. To complete the bug, wrap on two bucktail or feather wings on the top or sides of the bug body. The tying thread can be wound completely around the body. Then dab some clear cement on the winding and paint over this winding when the cement dries, so that it doesn't show.

Such single hook spin bugs can easily be made weedless by adding a wire hook guard made from fine stainless steel or piano wire. Use a nail or thick wire to form the eye of the guard, as shown in Fig. 26. When making the single hook spin bug, this wire is slipped on the small screw first, then the hook. In other words, the same screw holds both the wire guard and the hook in place.

The next spin bug is a silent type which has a pointed nose instead of a cupped or slanted head. This type of bug resembles a minnow or some other kind of small fish more than it does a bug. It swims through the water creat­ing a ripple like a minnow cleaving the surface of a stream or lake.

Figure 26. Adding a wire hook guard to make a spin bug weedless. Silent type spin bug. Figure 27.

The con­struction and dimensions of this lure are shown in Fig. 27. The wood body should be about 1 1/2in. long and 3/4 in. in diameter. The quick way to make this bug is to fasten a screw eye in the nose and another one at the tail, for free-swinging treble hook or a single hook. The treble will hook more fish, but the single hook will snag less in the weeds. To give this bug a minnow appearance the hook should be wrapped with four or six rooster hackle feathers, long enough and wide enough to cover the treble (or single) hook. When tying these feathers on the hook, wrap a few turns of the thread under them to make them splay out. In other words, try to make the hackles slant out away from the hook. This will give them a "breathing" action in the water. If you want to, tie in another hackle feather near the hook eye, then wind it around the hook to form a collar of hackle.

To make a stronger bug of this type, run a wire through the wood body from nose to tail and form eyes at each end to take the line and the hook. And, instead of using hackle feathers, tie some long bucktail hairs around the hook shank.

A somewhat heavier and larger type of spin bug can be made, as shown in Fig. 28. This is also a minnow type of lure since it is shaped more like a small fish than an insect. However, if you want to do so, it can be dressed up with wings or other hair or feathers on the body, to resemble a very large bug. The way it stands with a streamlined body and only a few feathers on the hook makes it an excellent casting lure when used with a spinning out­fit. The body can be about 2V2 in. long and % in. in diameter at the thickest part in the center. It tapers to a rounded nose and tail on both ends. .

Minnow type spin bug. Figure 28. Figure 29. Frog type spin bug.

Small screw eyes can be used at the nose, under the belly and at the tail to hold the two treble hooks. The rear treble hook can be wound with short buck-tail hair.

Spin bugs can also be made to imitate small frogs, which are a favorite food of black bass, pickerel, and pike. You can easily make such a bug as shown in Fig. 29. The wood body should be 1 3/4 in. long and about 7/8in. wide; in depth it can be about 5/8in. thick.

The head is cut out, as shown in the side-view drawing in Fig. 29. To make this lure you need a regular-length shank hook with a hump such as those used for tying cork bass bugs. First, wrap the hook shank with fine fly tying thread, and then cut a slot in the belly of the wood body to accommodate the hook. Make sure that you cut a groove deep enough to take the hump of the hook. The next step is to put some clear quick-drying cement both on the wrapped hook shank and inside the slot of the wood body.

You can use a thin knife blade to push this ce­ment into the slot. Force the hook shank into the slot of the wood body and fix it in its permanent position. When the cement dries, fill the slot with plastic wood. To finish off this bug, drill holes near the head to add a couple of short pinches of bucktail hair to simulate legs, and then drill two more holes near the tail and insert two longer pinches of bucktail to simulate legs.

The spin bugs described above are made from wood and have enough weight to cast with a light spinning or casting outfit. You can also make them from cork, but you'll have to add some lead to provide enough weight for casting. For this you will need some sheet lead and lead wire. If you have trouble getting sheet lead you can always get some lead sinkers and pound them flat with a hammer. Lead wire can be obtained from some of the mail-order supply houses.

Before we go into the methods of loading a cork bug with lead we will describe the basic construction of such a bug. You can obtain cork cylinders or cork bass bug bodies, already shaped and sanded smooth, from the mail-order houses and fly-tying suppliers. They come in various lengths and thick­nesses, but for best results use the largest sizes.

To make a cork bug you'll need long shank double-hump hooks, as shown in Fig. 30. Sizes 1/0 and 2/0 are best for spin bugs. The hook shank is then wrapped with fine fly-tying thread along the section which will be buried in the cork body. This wrapping provides a better gripping surface than the smooth metal of the bare hook.

The next step is to cut a slot along the bottom of the cork lengthwise, to take the hook. This can be done with a single-edge razor blade, or you can use a small saw such as a hacksaw. This slot should be just deep enough to bury the hook shank in the body. See Fig. 31. Another method often used is to cut out a triangular wedge along the bottom, as shown in Fig. 31. Which­ever method you use, coat the wrapped hook shank with clear, waterproof cement and, if you have a slot in your cork body, also force some cement into it. Some anglers prefer to use a waterproof marine glue such as the plastic resin type instead of the clear cement. Both are good, although the plastic resin glue is somewhat stronger and more permanent.

After the hook shank has been covered with cement and you have worked some of the cement into the cork body, force the hook into the slot. Then wrap the cork body fairly tightly with some cord to press the slot together while the cement dries.

If you cut a triangular wedge out of your cork body, coat your hook shank with cement or glue and push it in place, into the cork body. Then add more cement or glue to the area which has been cut out and also to the wedge itself. Put the triangular wedge back in place and tie some cord around the cork body to hold it in place while drying.

To add lead weight to a cork spin bug, use a cork body shaped like a bottle stopper. In other words, don't round off the tail part but leave it flat like a cork bottle stopper. Then cut a round piece from a sheet of lead to fit neatly at the tail end of the cork body. If you are using a single hook on your spin bug, cut a small slot in the lead so that the weight can be slipped over the hook. Then drill a hole in the center of the round lead weight to accommodate a small screw. Now coat both the tail end of the cork body and the lead weight with cement and screw the lead piece in place on the cork.  See Fig. 32.

If you are making a spin bug with a treble hook instead of a single hook, you go through the same steps. Of course, you do not need a slot in the lead weight now—only a small hole in the center of the round lead. You slip this lead onto the wire used in the "through-the-body" construction of this type of spin bug, then form a wire eye at the tail to take the hook. You can also cement or glue the lead weight onto the cork body, but the wire eye will keep it in position.

When making a spin bug with a pointed or rounded tail, wait until the lure is finished with feathers or hair.  Then get some of the lead wire and wind it around the hook shank next to the cork body, or wind the lead wire around the cork body itself. See Fig. 33. In any of these operations, always make sure you do not add too much lead weight. Otherwise, the cork body will sit too low in the water or will be cocked at the wrong angle.

To finish off the cork spin bugs, add hackle feathers at the tail and wings on the body, as described for the wood type spin bugs above. In painting any of the wood or cork body spin bugs use enamels or lac­quers. If you want to, dip the body three or four times in the color.

Or, if you have an airbrush, spray the bugs. A quick way to paint them is to use the fast-drying "dope" used by model airplane builders. This comes in many colors and you can add one coat after another in a short time. Wood will re­quire only two or three coats, but cork is more porous and rougher and may take more coats. You can use any color combinations you want on bugs, but the most effective ones are usually black body and wings, brown body and wings, or yellow body and wings. A bug with white body and white tail or wings is easily seen and is as good as any. When making the silent minnow-type bug, use silver or gold paint on the sides of the body.

The frog-type can have a white or yellow belly and green back with black spots. You can also give spin bugs a fuzzy or hair finish on the body. This is done by first painting the bug the color you want, then giving it a coat of clear cement or celluloid enamel.

Then, while it is still wet, sprinkle with bits of hair, wool or floss. These materials, of course, have to be prepared in ad­vance by cutting or chopping up the hair, wool, or fur finely. Still another finish on spin bugs can be obtained by using flitters. These are small metallic chips of gold or silver which can be scattered on the wet coat of cement or clear celluloid enamel of the bug body. They are given a coat of clear lacquer afterwards, to prevent the metallic chips from tarnishing. Although many bugs made professionally have glass eyes, these are not really necessary. It is much quicker and less expensive to paint on the eyes or dab them on, as described and shown in Chapter 2.

You can also obtain decal eyes from some of the fly-tying and mail-order houses and attach these quickly.

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