One has to have a lot of confidence in a fly to tie 30+of Herb's Smelt.

Hi Uncle   I had both knees replaced 6 month ago and still find it painful to bend my left knee beyond 90degrees, which makes it impossible to climb over even small boulders for river fishing.

We had a holiday at Kuratau in Jan and I tried jigging from the kayak for the first time.    Not my favourite way of catching trout but under the circumstance it is better than sitting at home.

I had read enough about the practice and once I tied on the above flies I caught fish wherever I tried, landing more than a hundred in less than 4 days .     However, only 1:15 would have been worth killing.   (Tied them on Black Magic D10 hooks but these may not be strong enough for bigger trout)   I still got the silicone smelt flies you sent me but keep them as samples of fly tying perfection rather than getting them munted by trout.      

The above flies did the job at Taupo and by all accounts catch fish at Rotoiti.    I gave a few to my neighbours who fished with them off Gisborne Point and caught most of their fish on those flies.

I also sent AP some to try out and am awaiting his report.      Currently I am nutted on Albacore from the kayak and trout fishing has taken a back seat.     Off to the Coro on Tuesday for 10 days of snapper bashing.     May have a go at Roto lakes later in the year.        If you like a sample of these flies I would like to return the favour.

Cheers

Herb

Nice, those brown ones in top picture perfect two tone  match for colour of Rotiti smelt. Yet most of the ones ive been catching are on quite small grey ghost /jack spratt patterns.

The two tone brown ones are bully imitations which I put on the bottom of the three fly rig.  They seem to get hit on the bottom or when the trout holding depth touches a drop-off.   On the other side of the box are smelt patterns, including grey ghost variants all tied on BM D10 hooks.    I now glue the wing down with UV activated Loon head cement instead of tying them down with tinsel.    For that I do not strip the underside of the feathers.    The extra fibres bed down nicely in the glue and hold the wing down quite securely.   The great thing about this method is that it is fast and the wing always sits dead straight.    We will see how this stands up to being mauled by trout.    However, when you are tying your own flies they don't have to last. Different story when you shelling out over $20 bucks for a set of three. 

Yes- jury still out as I still seemed to catch as many (or few!) on the fly next to it tied conventionally. You would think it was a no brainer really but not always the case.

Uncle - no busts offs with that knot? I like the theory - smart

Greetings Rainbow,

Thanks Redfinger. It pulled a lot of string, so I knew it was a good fish. I gather Tarawera is in a bit of a doldrums in terms of fish size, which is a shame given its history.

Aha, got it. That's a hell mission, good on you. At least you don't have to worry about cleaning up smelly bait or Gulp softbaits, and washing the boat and gear except maybe for aquatic weeds etc.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond, Rainbow (Herb).