Jigging Smelt Flies
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Freshwater Fishing
Forum Name: Fly Tying
Forum Description: Swap tips and techniques for Fresh and Saltwater fly patterns
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=115888
Printed Date: 30 Jan 2026 at 10:39pm
Topic: Jigging Smelt Flies
Posted By: Rainbow
Subject: Jigging Smelt Flies
Date Posted: 12 Feb 2016 at 9:38pm
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One has to have a lot of confidence in a fly to tie 30+of Herb's Smelt. Rainbow  |
Replies:
Posted By: Uncle
Date Posted: 12 Feb 2016 at 9:49pm
| Nice...for Taupo Herb? |
Posted By: Rainbow
Date Posted: 14 Feb 2016 at 2:27pm
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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. 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 |
Posted By: Rainbow
Date Posted: 06 Apr 2016 at 4:29pm
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Ready to go in a couple of weeks. Rainbow   |
Posted By: Redfinger
Date Posted: 06 Apr 2016 at 4:51pm
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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. Your flies certainly look the goods - where you planning on going?
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Posted By: Uncle
Date Posted: 06 Apr 2016 at 5:06pm
I'm glad I'm not a trout  |
Rainbow wrote:Posted By: Rainbow
Date Posted: 06 Apr 2016 at 8:51pm
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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. I am testing the wing movement and shape in a large glass of water instead of just wetting it, which does not tell you what really happens under water.
Unfortunately I have to have more surgery on my left knee on the 26th of this month so hope to get in a Roto trip before then. Rainbow |
Posted By: Rainbow
Date Posted: 06 Apr 2016 at 9:06pm
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One other thing I am testing at the moment and will follow up on the lake is whether or not a tiny loop knot is worth using opposite a closed one such as a clinch knot. I find 8,10lbs Fluorocarbon tipper is quite stiff and does deaden fly movement. A loop knot would certainly increase fly micro movement beyond the actual jigging action but could also lead to more tangles. We shall see. Has anybody tried using a loop knot on a jigging set?
Rainbow
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Posted By: Redfinger
Date Posted: 08 Apr 2016 at 3:05pm
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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 must have tried it? Josh?
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Posted By: Uncle
Date Posted: 08 Apr 2016 at 3:16pm
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I tie mine on with a uni-knot & pinch it up between finger & thumb, leaving a minute loop that does two things. 1. allows movement 2. indicates what fly was hit in the event of a missed strike.
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Posted By: Redfinger
Date Posted: 08 Apr 2016 at 3:27pm
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Uncle - no busts offs with that knot? I like the theory - smart rainbow - the way you have tied and glued the smelt flies - would that almost eliminate tail wrap?
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Posted By: Rainbow
Date Posted: 08 Apr 2016 at 7:58pm
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I used to use the uni knot that way. Need to pull it up quite tight with a toothpick to secure the loop. As I said it is worth having an open mind. I started gluing the tiny feather wings on my grey ghost variants because I had trouble securing the wing in the usual way on these tiny hooks. With a pearl glass bead for a head there in not much shank left on these small hooks to tie the wing down with tinsel or even thin nylon. After the double wing has been secured at the head I lay down a bed of glue along the top of the body and then pull/hold the wing in place while exposing it to the UV torch. In 10 sec the glue sets and holds the embedded fibres from the underside of the wing while leaving the rest of the fibres free. I have also done that with the SLF wings for a better profile in the water. Booked accommodation for three days fishing starting on the 19th. Will introduce my old tuna hunting mate to trout jigging. Rainbow Brent filmed these whales on one of our tuna trips out wide Mine is kayak with the white sail He will bring his Gopro and hopefully get some good footage of trout. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RIhUGkVRV0
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Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2016 at 11:02pm
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Greetings Rainbow, I enjoyed your article on your jigging experience in NZ Fishing News. I know from previous articles that you appreciate a bit of do-it-yourself approach, so you might be interested to know I had reasonable success jigging at Tarawera in a very low-tech way. I was rowing in an old tin dinghy borrowed from the bach i was staying at around New Year, with a light Ugly Stik snapper spin rod and a reel with mono (not braid, unfortunately) on it. I didn't have any kind of fish finder, as you can guess, and just made my way out to an area i'd been told was about 18-20m deep (just inside some yellow markers) and paddled gently into the wind to more or less stay in the one area. I had the rod resting across the stern, with my foot on it. The rig was two smelt flies on the fluoro trace and a 2oz sinker. The bobbing chop was enough to give the flies some movement, and I just waited for the rod tip to buckle over before grabbing the rod. I got some nice fish - the best, about 6.5lb of chunky, hard fighting rainbow just on dusk. I had good success on little Pat Swift epoxy Jack Sprats, though I'm told the Rotorua strain of smelt tends to be larger and darker than Taupo's. An olive Woolly Bugger also took fish. I love the look of your Herb's Smelt with the chartreuse tint and wonder if you'd be willing to share the recipe for us home tiers? It looks like you use synthetic wing material in two different shades, but there are a few different ones and they have very different actions/stiffness. So it would be good to know what you use - given your dislike of needless spending, it might well be from an old fleece hat or something?? :) |
Posted By: Redfinger
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2016 at 10:39am
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6.5lb is a damn good fish for Tarawera - well done. Awesome work with that set up! The Pat swift Jack Spratt is very consistent and worked for me today
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Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2016 at 11:08am
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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. My heart was in my mouth when I made a couple of poor attempts at netting with the long trace and dropper causing a bit of grief.
The other fish were more in the 3lb range, but still good fun. I worked out a way of rowing with little strokes to basically keep the mono vertical off the rod tip. The bottom about 200m off shore seemed to be dead level, so depth changes weren't a problem as long as I kept in the general area. I couldn't just drift as the wind was too strong without a drogue. Though I've done a lot of fly fishing for trout in rivers and lake edges, I'd never jigged before - so I was surprised when the fish zoomed up to the surface after being hooked (like a kahawai), rather than fight down deep. Your name is very familiar from the saltwater 'Out with the 12s' reports when I think you were based at Fish City on the shore. Have you moved south to trout territory? |
Posted By: Redfinger
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2016 at 11:32am
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No - still at Fish City Albany mate. There is something about trout jigging that I really like - hunting and finding them on the sounder - having a sounder absolutely essential normally - unlike you! then finding what fly to present, what technique works on the day etc. I like what you said about keeping overhead of the flies with little oar movements - something in that too. Nice to get away from the big smoke for sure too. When the lake closes will have a few trips to Turangi , use the boat for the Delta, and will be fishing the rivers too. tarawera used to be the big fish lake years ago - they seem to be averaging about 3lb now but I have not fished it this season. Saying that Rotoiti yesterday all the fish were that size too.
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Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2016 at 3:20pm
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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. When I lived in Hamilton I used to drive to the Tongariro or Otamangakau for the day - 2 hours 15 exactly to Turangi, pre bypass. Well worth it, particularly in the shorter winter days. But folks in Australia and the US think nothing of driving 5 hours or more, we've got it lucky. Have you had a crack at jigging Okataina? I love the look and feel of that lake. I have only had one great result there, though - fly fishing at night from the main beach in winter. I got smacked by a series of identical 7lbers while the rest of the picket fence were quiet. Funny how comments from other guys right down the beach carry across the water on a still night. "Geez, that xxxxx is on again!". I haven't jigged there, though. Graeme Sinclair on Gone Fishin' seems to do an annual episode on jigging at Okataina, sometimes with Pat Swift. They never seem to be on fire, but have nailed some quality fish on the episodes I've seen. I would definitely have liked to have had a fish finder, but I wasn't totally fishing blind. I thought I'd read that the thermocline was about 20m at that time of year, and when a guy two baches down told me it was about that depth at the yellow buoy line I thought I'd give it a crack. Thankfully, 20m wasn't deep enough for the mono to be too much of a factor v braid. |
Posted By: Rainbow
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2016 at 3:34pm
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Greetings to you too The Tamure Kid. I used Synthetic Living Fiber Hanks, which I had to get from the US as no one in NZ stocks it anymore. The company is FishUS. http://www.fishusa.com/product/SLF-Hanks" rel="nofollow - http://www.fishusa.com/product/SLF-Hanks The thread is chartreuse globug yarn and the body is Mylar pearl. On some I used a small glass bead as the head and painted the eyes on that On others I covered the head with UV epoxy All flies were tied on BM D10 hooks. You could incorporate some flash strips along each side to imitate the sliver flank of the real mature smelt. Try out new combinations you never know when you hit on a winner. Cheers Rainbow
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Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2016 at 4:40pm
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Thanks so much for taking the time to respond, Rainbow (Herb). That info will be a great help and I'll enjoy tying the Herb's Smelt. I'm pretty sure I have some SLF hanks in my stash of tying materials picked up over many years. And a variety of various different coloured threads etc. If not, I'll take a look at that link. It's amazing how brands come and go - particularly synthetic dubbing and fibre. Such a huge market in the US and UK, and lots of competition, I guess. I panicked a few years ago when I found out the dubbing for a caddis I tie for the Tongariro had gone out of production (the Ernest Schwiebert signature series Scintilla dubbing). One colour of the range of about 80 shades was the perfect match (when wet) for the dominant free living caddis in that river (as described in John Parson's classic Flytiers Art). I once found dozens in the gut of a brownie which had taken my grub in the old Breakaway. So I trawled the internet and bought up any stock of that colour I could find, and now have a supply to last my lifetime!
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Posted By: Redfinger
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2016 at 6:08pm
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Thanks Rainbow for the flies - i tried yesterday but most likely due to user error couldnt land a fish on one. Saying that any of the lumo flies that worked so well on my last trip all drew a blank as well. I know your flies will work another day and really appreciate your samples. yES Lake Okataina is on my list - should have tried there yesterday. Starting to think I have to have a Minkota as well to hold above the fish when breeze stuffs up the drift. Those special caddis flies sound good too - I fished the TT first time last year (up the river I mean). At a flow rate up a bit at .5 we did ok in one pool in particular - every fish we caught was fresh. I have heard it is very very hard when clear and low. Where are you based?
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Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2016 at 9:32pm
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Hi Redfinger I'm based in SE Auckland. I have a young family now and don't get to do the fly fishing I did when I was younger. I mostly fish for snapper in the western part of the Tamaki Strait, and am experimenting with soft baits after years of bait fishing. The whole process of soft baiting reminds me of fly fishing a lot - from trying to find the killer lure colour, through to trying to get a casting drift which is similar to nymphing a big pool on the Tongariro. I'm enjoying reading some of the fresh water forums/reports for the first time. I agree with Herb's comment in another thread I just read that there is a real enjoyment in tying your own flies. I started doing that when i was a teenager, selling them to a fishing shop which used to be in downtown Auckland, near what is now Britomart. I devoured lots of books and particularly American magazines for fly patterns and little secrets I could try to get an advantage on the river, where it's pretty competitive angling in the peak runs. It's great to be able to follow other fishos up a pool like the Judges or Hydro and pick up fish where others have drawn a blank - due to, I'd like to think, having done my homework. On the weekend, i'll try to take a daylight photo of the caddis grub and post it here. |