Very nice fly sgoodroe, and further proves a fly needs not be fancy to be effective!
I'm going to tie some up soon when the snow starts flying.

I think what makes this pattern so effective is the weight. I use 10 winds of .035" lead wire (tungsten for those places that don't like lead) under the body. It sinks like a stone on fresh water, but drifts nice and slow to the bottom in the salt. On my bigger/tarpon version I used green or blue flashabou an place of peacock herl.

To me at least I love this pattern, and yeah there is a lot of similarity with the wooly bugger. On my end of things at least this has been the only streamer I've fished in the last 2 years.....it works that good. Try it, tell me what you think.

Aside from the marabou and chenille the Fury Minnow actually has little in common with the Wooly Bugger. But you're right both patterns catch fish like crazy and can be fished similarly. The difference comes down to how the flies behave and look in the water. I starting tying this pattern back in the early '90's for flats fishing and it never has stopped impressing me how adaptable it is.

Sounds like an incredibly versatile pattern !!

Pecos

whistler patterns always work, and your pattern looks like a great killifish
I too tie my salt whistler patterns without wing, size 6 4x-long

there's a pair of hen saddles beneath the marabou, helping this fly to push a little more water
Simplifying this fly by tying it smaller on a size 8 1x salt hook, smaller bead, shrimp-color chenille, and a short white tail, and they are killer under the dock lights at night

but in freshwater, a wing lets you change the fly to better imitate different baitfish families
wing on top, cyprinid and poecilid

I've brought up clouds of minnows on a cats whisker before, and both image and action, couldn't tell the fly from the naturals.
Tied on stainless, they still make a pretty good mullet in the salt.

Wing on bottom - slide the chain bead back to 1/3 on the shank - and an extra head wrap, makes a perfect sculpin - I named this fly north fork whistler for the blennies in the San Gabriel.

of course, blennies live in the salt.

changing the shape on a Tiemco 200R gives it a stinger hook for short white bass strikes


the very first fly pattern I learned to tie (Charlie Cypert's minnow for white bass - tied and sold by Billy Trimble way back in the Austin Angler) tied on stainless, makes a perfect generic food shrimp crab thingie in the salt, especially if you put the chain bead at the other end of the shank (it sinks more like a crustacean).

This is a simple pattern, chain bead, chenile wrap, braided mylar tubing folded over the hook eye, finish wrap at the tail, and comb out the mylar.

without the chenille wrap (with or without chain bead at back), flatten the mylar tubing in epoxy between wax paper, and you have a spoon.
Nothing acts more like a swimming crab than a spoon.