Some salmon smolts and a few clousers

[Fish Guru]

I've heard some rumors of fish eating some of the millions of salmon smolts that are around so I tied these up. Going to give them a swim this afternoon to see how it goes. The top one with eyes uses bobcat fur for the belly fur, soft but streamlined and kind of in between marabou and soft bucktail. Not my best work, but threw them together pretty fast and I think they will get it done.

[FISHEYE]

Those really look great but I suggest making them a lot more sparse. I fish salmon fry a lot in the spring for big rainbows. Not too many smolt patterns. Fry are very small and some of our smolt can be 5 or 6 inches long. The key to fry patterns is to make them very, very sparse. Full flies do not work too well for me. Also, at least in the rivers I fish here, fry move at night from about 10 pm until about 3 am. I almost never catch a fish on a fry fished during the day. In fact, I don't even try anymore.

[Fish Guru]

Those really look great but I suggest making them a lot more sparse. I fish salmon fry a lot in the spring for big rainbows. Not too many smolt patterns. Fry are very small and some of our smolt can be 5 or 6 inches long. The key to fry patterns is to make them very, very sparse. Full flies do not work too well for me. Also, at least in the rivers I fish here, fry move at night from about 10 pm until about 3 am. I almost never catch a fish on a fry fished during the day. In fact, I don't even try anymore.

Thanks for the feedback, I will work on some that are more sparse. I have seen fish actively feeding on the fry in our river as of late, so I think I may have a shot at getting a grab or two. Forgot to mention these fry are offspring of hatchery fish that spawned in river, so they are probably not as crafty as the pure wild fry that you guys have up there, hence the moving about at all hours of the day.

[Darian]

Good looking flies. In larger sizes they might be great Bass/Striper flies. Take 'em down to the Delta and give a try....