Blue Smolt

HOOK: Dai Mustad 79580, size 2-6 THREAD: White BODY: Silver mylar tinsel RIBBING: Blue Flashabou UNDERWING: Blue Flashabou WING: Bronze mallard flank THROAT: Red Flashabou, trimmed short

Uses

Imitates a salmon or steelhead smolt. Smolts travel downriver in their migration to saltwater. Along the way, they are often eaten by smallmouth bass and other predators.

 
This pattern also imitates chub, shiners, whitefish, and baby trout. It is useful in trout waters in late summer and early fall.

 
See the article Baitfish for Smallmouth . . . and Trout

How to Fish

Use a count-down-and-retrieve presentation with a slow-sinking tip line. Vary the speed of the retrieve. Good places to present the fly are current seam and near structure, such as boulders.

Tying Instructions

1. Debarb hook, place in vice, start thread

 
2. Tie in tinsel and Flashabou ribbing

 
3. Wrap tinsel body

 
4. Counterwrap Flashabou ribbing

 
5. Tie in underwing

 
6. Tie in bronze mallard overwing

 
7. Tie in some strands of white Polar-Aire. Let it straggle around the fly.

 
8. Tie in red Flashabou or Krystalflash for throat.

 
9. Build small head, whipfinish, and trim.