Fishing Smelt Flies ?

On Apr 6, 8:05*am, "Robert11" wrote:
Hi,

Have never fished streamers much, but am thinking of getting a bunch of
flies
imitating Smelts for some fishing on the Quabbin and Wachusett in a few
weeks.

The streamer flies I do have, that supposedly imitate Smelt's, are
non-floaters, and I have always fished them deep.

Think it is worthwhile to try and find some floating Smelt flies, or are
Smelt imitations mostly
fished non-surface, or deep ?

If so, any suggested patterns for "floaters" ?

How would they be fished; just a dead drift, or... ?

Thanks,
Bob

There are plenty of floating smelt patterns -- just google "floating
smelt". They're fished like a dry fly.

On Tue, 7 Apr 2009 15:43:27 -0700 (PDT), redietz wrote:

On Apr 6, 8:05*am, "Robert11" wrote:
Hi,

Have never fished streamers much, but am thinking of getting a bunch of
flies
imitating Smelts for some fishing on the Quabbin and Wachusett in a few
weeks.

The streamer flies I do have, that supposedly imitate Smelt's, are
non-floaters, and I have always fished them deep.

Think it is worthwhile to try and find some floating Smelt flies, or are
Smelt imitations mostly
fished non-surface, or deep ?

If so, any suggested patterns for "floaters" ?

How would they be fished; just a dead drift, or... ?

Thanks,
Bob

There are plenty of floating smelt patterns -- just google "floating
smelt". They're fished like a dry fly.

I did just that. What I found on all of the top 3-4 hits was a "fly" that
looked like a Rapala "built" rather than tyed with a single hook. IMO, this is
bordering, if not right smack on, yet another chapter in the "fly fishing for
people who really don't want to fly fish" story, but hey, YMMV...

TC,
R

On Apr 7, 6:43*pm, redietz wrote:
On Apr 6, 8:05*am, "Robert11" wrote:



Hi,

Have never fished streamers much, but am thinking of getting a bunch of
flies
imitating Smelts for some fishing on the Quabbin and Wachusett in a few
weeks.

The streamer flies I do have, that supposedly imitate Smelt's, are
non-floaters, and I have always fished them deep.

Think it is worthwhile to try and find some floating Smelt flies, or are
Smelt imitations mostly
fished non-surface, or deep ?

If so, any suggested patterns for "floaters" ?

How would they be fished; just a dead drift, or... ?

Thanks,
Bob

There are plenty of floating smelt patterns -- just google "floating
smelt". *They're fished like a dry fly.

The "patterns" described were developed for a particular circumstance,
i.e. smelt caught in the discharge of generators. Predatory fish like
trout and salmon wait in the outflow and grab the helpless fish as
they float by. These are not streamers, and would in no way apply to
the type of fishing the OP wants to try.

On Apr 8, 11:41*am, george9219 wrote:
On Apr 7, 6:43*pm, redietz wrote:



On Apr 6, 8:05*am, "Robert11" wrote:

Hi,

Have never fished streamers much, but am thinking of getting a bunch of
flies
imitating Smelts for some fishing on the Quabbin and Wachusett in a few
weeks.

The streamer flies I do have, that supposedly imitate Smelt's, are
non-floaters, and I have always fished them deep.

Think it is worthwhile to try and find some floating Smelt flies, or are
Smelt imitations mostly
fished non-surface, or deep ?

If so, any suggested patterns for "floaters" ?

How would they be fished; just a dead drift, or... ?

Thanks,
Bob

There are plenty of floating smelt patterns -- just google "floating
smelt". *They're fished like a dry fly.

The "patterns" described were developed for a particular circumstance,
i.e. smelt caught in the discharge of generators. Predatory fish like
trout and salmon wait in the outflow and grab the helpless fish as
they float by. These are not streamers, and would in no way apply to
the type of fishing the OP wants to try.

I was more thinking of flies like this the one pictured in this
thread:

http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/thread?id=837960

which is a streamer, and I've seen it used as a smelt pattern.

I agree that a floating smelt is only useful under special
circumstances.

On Apr 8, 11:41*am, george9219 wrote:
On Apr 7, 6:43*pm, redietz wrote:



On Apr 6, 8:05*am, "Robert11" wrote:

Hi,

Have never fished streamers much, but am thinking of getting a bunch of
flies
imitating Smelts for some fishing on the Quabbin and Wachusett in a few
weeks.

The streamer flies I do have, that supposedly imitate Smelt's, are
non-floaters, and I have always fished them deep.

Think it is worthwhile to try and find some floating Smelt flies, or are
Smelt imitations mostly
fished non-surface, or deep ?

If so, any suggested patterns for "floaters" ?

How would they be fished; just a dead drift, or... ?

Thanks,
Bob

There are plenty of floating smelt patterns -- just google "floating
smelt". *They're fished like a dry fly.

The "patterns" described were developed for a particular circumstance,
i.e. smelt caught in the discharge of generators. Predatory fish like
trout and salmon wait in the outflow and grab the helpless fish as
they float by. These are not streamers, and would in no way apply to
the type of fishing the OP wants to try.

I was more thinking of patterns like the one shown in this thread:

http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/thread?id=837960

which is a streamer, and I've seen similar used as smelt. I agree the
dead smelt
has limited use.