Martyn White | Wednesday, 6 May 2026
A simple job this week. The mylar floating minnow. It's a popular pattern here in Japan, especially a version called the Iwai minnow.
They're a decent topwater option for loads of species in fresh & saltwater, here they're mostly used for seabass, and invasive black bass. They'll work dead sticked or retrieved, if you tie them right they will dive a little with a bit of wiggle similar to the old rapala original. This might put some people off because of arbitrary lines in the sand about what constitutes a fly, I've got no time for that.
The main weakness of the fly is that it's not very tough. You can give it a coating, but it has to soft to prevent the fly becoming rigid. I'm not super sure that it makes much difference, but I only use them for bass and their scratchy plates ruin the mylar pretty quickly either way. Possibly if you're targeting something with teeth a top coat will help. The most durable option is to use E-Z body with the nylon reinforcement in the braid, but this makes a stiff fly which isn't the best for hook ups. Flexi chord is similar but slightly softer, so a bit less robust. Both of these options also reduce the amount of flash in the fly quite markedly. I still prefer traditional mylar tubing.
A lot of people here like to tie the Iwai version, but I don’t. The extra steps add nothing in terms of effectiveness; they also look weird and increase tying time considerably. In my opinion this is definitely a style of fly that wants kept quick and simple. Luckily, if you tie a “guide fly” instead, they only take a couple of minutes to tie so you don’t need to feel bad if they are done after only a few fish. I’ll give you both patterns, and you can make your mind up:
Iwai minnow
Hook: TMC 8089 stinger
Thread: White
Body: Foam packing rod inserted into mylar tubing
Tail: TMC melty hair inserted into the back of the mylar before tying off
Throat: Red melty hair or EP fiber
Eyes: Dumbbell of glass beads on mono
Floating mylar minnow
Hook: Saltwater hook of your choice I like it about 35-45% the body length.
Thread: White
Body: Foam packing rod inserted into mylar tubing
Tail: Ends of the mylar tubing left un-trimmed after the back is tied off.
You’ll want to taper the foam, cut the front at about a 45 degree angle from the bottom, then taper the tail end down along the back third or so.
Match the foam to the size of the mylar- it’s easy to push it into a wider tube but the tie off will be messy and bumpy which makes them less durable. The POD flies were tied with 8mm packing rod and large mylar which I had to expand slightly to slide over the full width foam.
Don’t pre-cut the mylar, just take the cotton core out of the whole length and slide the foam in tail first until there’s a good 15mm of mylar extending beyond the front. Then cut 15mm or so beyond the tail. After doing this for however many I’m making, because I’ve removed the core, I always touch the ends of the mylar with super glue to stop it fraying before I put it back in the bag
Both patterns can be coloured with markers and coated with something like Softex or thinned urethane if you want. You could also spend a second putting a tape eye on the plain version if you really want to but a couple of dabs with a pen is more than enough.