One of the more awesome things you can see at the beginning of the season in Alaska is a smolt bust. During early summer, large schools of salmon smooth begin their migration down the river to the ocean. It will be obvious when the smolt bust starts, as you’ll see the Arctic Terns doing flybys and dive-bombing into the water, attempting to fill up with a mouth full of salmon smolt.
Dead drift, swing, twitch, strip, the Neil Creek Slider Fly Pattern designed by Mark Hieronymus or Juneau, Alaska is a great pattern to catch Alaskan Rainbow Trout during the smolt bust.
Designer: Mark Hieronymus
Tie, Instructions, and Photos by Mike Brown of Mossy’s Fly Shop in Anchorage, Alaska. IG: @mossysflyshop
Material List:
- Shank: Aqua Flies 33mm Round Eye
- Stinger Material: 30lb Fireline
- Body Material: Veevus Large Pearl Tinsel
- Throat: Red Ice Wing
- Belly Wing: White EP Fibers
- Flash: Flashabou Micro Lateral Scale
- Top Wing: Olive Farrar’s Blend
- Popper Head: Rainy’s Mini Me’s White Medium
- Hook: Firehole 714 Sz 4
- Thread: Veevus 140 White
Step 1. Place your shank in the vice and start your thread about ¼” back of the hook eye. Attach your stinger material and adjust the length of it to 3” from hook to end. Secure down and return to the base of the loop.
Step 2. Tie in your tinsel, and wrap your thread forward to a hook an eye width away from where you started the thread. Wrap your tinsel, using touching or just overlapping wraps, to your bobbin. Tie off and trim excess tinsel.
Step 3. Rotate your vice upside down. Using a decent clump of ice wing, tie in as a throat. Do not trim till the end. You want the throat to cover over the body and into the belly some.
Step 4. Rotate your vice back over. Using a sparse amount of EP Fibers, tie in and trim excess You want this belly wing to be a little longer than where the hook will be.
Step 5. Using a few strands of your flash, tie in on top of the white belly wing. Make them the same length as the EP.
Step 6. Using a sparse amount of your Farrar’s Blend, tie in the top wing on top of the belly and flash. Make the same length. Trim off excess and secure well. Cover the rest of the shank with a couple of layers of thread and whip finish.
Step 7. Apply zap-a-gap or super glue to the ¼” area of thread. Push your popper head over the hook eye and onto the shank. It is a good idea to open the hole in the foam a little extra. Do not push too hard and smear the glue onto your body materials. Let it set for a few minutes.
Step 8. Now trim your throat material and wings. Tapper the throat so that it extends just past the hook shank. Trim the wings and flash with a slight taper. Cut off the excess hook shank and install your hook.
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